High Sierra Topix

Ska-T: I don't know how much my guess will be worth, but I suspect those passes will have retained a lot of snow. I have a friend who went up to Piute Pass last weekend and it still had a fair bit of snow -- and it's lower than the ones you mention. There also was a lot of snow on Mt. Guyot above 12,000 feet, for what that's worth.

On the plus side, the temperatures are supposed to be above average again for this coming weekend. Still, that's a mighty ambitious trip for this late in the season.

[quote="quentinc"]... I suspect those passes will have retained a lot of snow.

Thanks for your viewpoint. The north side of Mather is my biggest concern. I think Taboose would be OK as well as Knapsack and Potluck. Cirque and Mather I wonder about, less so Cirque because the steep side faces south. Without snow and without peak bagging, the trip should take me 4 days, so it's not that ambitious. At any rate, I decided not to go this weekend. Maybe next week.

I'm looking for conditions in the Kearsarge Pass/East Vidette area (starting at the Kearsarge Pass Trail), Horton Lakes/Basin Mountain (Horton Lakes Trail), Treasure Lakes/Mount Gilbert (starting at South Lake). Has anyone been in any of those areas recently? I'm thinking of doing a 3-day trip into one of those areas next weekend if the forecast continues to look good.

KathyW wrote:I'm looking for conditions in the Kearsarge Pass/East Vidette area (starting at the Kearsarge Pass Trail), Horton Lakes/Basin Mountain (Horton Lakes Trail), Treasure Lakes/Mount Gilbert (starting at South Lake). Has anyone been in any of those areas recently? I'm thinking of doing a 3-day trip into one of those areas next weekend if the forecast continues to look good.

I went out to Mojave Preserve instead - my old bones just weren't up for a cold long night in the wilderness.

It's time to start planning trips for next spring for me.

From the time I started backpacking regularly I always loved backpacking season -- late April to mid October. Then for almost 10 years I would pine for the BP season and look at maps TOO much. Then I took up skiing for those other 6 months. Thank God - saved my sanity. I could then spend part of every month of the entire year in the Sierra. I love the Sierra. I never like living outdoors day and night in the Sierra from Oct. to April - WAY to cold. I'm no masochist and don't like misery or suffering. There was even a 10 year period when (saint) Diane and I owned a condo in Mammoth. I live in LA but I loved the Sierra. I also participated in other sports year around a lot so LA has always been a great place to live.

BACKCOUNTRY CONDITIONS UPDATES --Cold with more snow on the way.

April to October - those are my months in the Sierra too. My favorite time is Mid-April to Mid-June and then August and September. I did some alpine skiing when I was younger, but that's a long time ago and it was at crowded resorts - I have no desire to ski at a resort ever again, but some day I might get a pair of touring skies and wander around in the backcountry on gentle hills. For now, I just enjoy plodding around in the snow on Southern California's mountains in the winter, where the avalanche danger is so much lower than in the Sierra, or I head for the desert to explore.

Not very far into the backcountry, but I thought that I'd report on the Rock Creek area. The road is still open to the pack station. (The gate to the road around Rock Creek Lake is closed.) Folks are ice skating on Rock Creek Lake. I walked up to Mosquito Flat, then Mack Lake. Just a small amount of snow, in patches, on the road. The trail is OK til past the wilderness sign where on the steeper incline, it is like a solid ice river. Sandy on top of the rise, then it is ice again as the trail descends. This ice will be lurking under the snowfall when it finally comes. Mack Lake was frozen and a bit uneven.

The restrooms at the trailhead are open!