High Sierra Topix

With the lack of snow everywhere I decided to go hike up 1 of my favorite local peaks for some recon. We started on Hwy 50 and came up the south side and the trail is basically snow free for 75% of the way up. You don't really hit any snow until up towards the top and out of the trees. As you can see in the photos, lower echo lake is not even frozen and upper echo looks super thin. From the top of Ralston I could pretty much make out the trail (TRT/PCT) up to haypress meadows. I would bet you could easily walk out to Aloha with no real snow issues, maybe I will do that in the next few weeks for some more recon. This was my 1st peak of the year and I am glad it was short haha. It was SUPER windy and cold up top so we hung out for like 3 minutes and got the heck outta dodge. Still a very fun morning

Your photos really show the lack of snow in the Tahoe area....

Sarcasm? Or simply a comment?

A sad observation on my part that Winter never really happened around here!

Ya I feel you. But look at the bright side and just think of how much fishing you'll be getting into without having to wait so long for the lakes to thaw. Plus as you already know, Winter could still show up with some big dumps.

Miracle March!!!

Thanks for the recon trip and photo's.
Echo snow free in Feb.
Some snow in the forecast for today and tomorrow, then on Wed in the Tahoe area, but sunny in the rest of the Sierra thru next weekend.

Thanks for the TR! How was the Ralston trailhead parking lot? Snow-free? Or did you park elsewhere?

Parking completely snow free, the trail up is about 75% snow free. It did just snow maybe 2" max so there might be some snow now. Once you're up out of the trees on that final stretch to the summit then it's all snow but I did not even put any traction on, didn't need to.

I found this at the summit of Ralston in case you were missing it.