Weather Warning!

[teejay]

I fished Arrowhead Lake on the Duck Pass trail above Mammoth Lakes on Thursday evening. After observing the same snow flurry on Thursday morning from the comfort of a cabin, I packed my heavy fleece jacket as well as a windbreaker for the jaunt up to Arrowhead -even though the weather seemed to be improving –and I’m glad I did.
With the extra elevation and wind-chill at the lake, my hands were so cold that I could hardly tie a knot. Needless to say, the fishing was lousy.
On returning to the truck, the temperature at the trailhead was 41. On the bright side:
No mosquitoes.

[hawkfeather]

We went in on August 1, not knowing anything was headed our way. On the evening of the 3rd, we were in Blackcap Basin, with the wind rising. (We've got a Tarptent, and although it's proved stable in high winds, it flaps and makes a racket--annoying in the middle of the night.) We spent the next 2 days dayhiking and exploring in various directions, while the temperature gradually dropped. Each day we'd watch the clouds moving in, all going in a northeasterly direction at great speed, and wonder if they'd eventually back up enough for us to get rain. We never did get any, but looking off in the direction of the Silver Divide(?), it always looked like that area was getting something by midafternoon. The wind came up again, big time, on our last night in the basin, and on the 6th we started hiking out as planned, still clueless (apart from what we could observe) as to what was actually going on. That night at Halfmoon Lake it got very cold and condensation froze on on our bags. As somebody else I think observed, thank god for beanies. Best thing ever invented. It was bitterly cold the next morning when we got up (at least, it felt so!) although it was clear, and we kept our options open as we headed farther "out". Then the wind started again, and I'd swear that it felt colder at midday than it had at 7 am. At that point, clouds were moving in again, and they were coming in low. (They were hitting the ridgetops just east of Wishon Reservoir, that's how low.) We met a couple of young guys hiking in who said they'd heard it had snowed in Tuolumne. By that time, though, we'd already made our own decision: we were out of there! Of course, by the time we reached the trailhead at Wishon, the clouds had gone through, it was clear overhead and reasonably warm. We had a late dinner in Shaver Lake, where the evening was quite chilly and we saw people running around in down jackets. I'd have to say that we had a great time despite the weather, and coming out a day early actually made for an easier drive home the next day.

[JWreno]

We spent 5 days going from Horseshoe Meadows - Whitney - Onion Valley.
It was supposed to be a 6 day trip. August 5th we were at High Mesa lakes
below Forrester. The wind was mighty cold. Our water bottles were 50%
frozen up when we woke next morning. We decided to make for Onion
Valley that day after talking with a work crew who said there was a
forecast for snow. We wore everything we had up to the top of Forester pass.
Things were better when we go done lower but going over Kearsarge pass
at about 5:30PM was tough. We could hardly stand up in the extreme winds.

This trip was certainly the coldest I ever experienced in August. We still
had a blast I was able to take 3 more hikers to the top of Whitney.