High Sierra Topix

I returned last night from a three night trip in Little Lakes Valley to Gem Lakes. The snow begins about 10,800 feet a little beyond the last side trail to Chickenfoot Lake. From that point, most of the trail up to Morgan Pass remained snow covered. Around Gem Lakes there was still lots of snow. The third lake still had ice.

There must have been a lot of people camped at Chickenfoot from the large number of day hikers coming up to Gem. There were at least five other parties camped around Gem, especially congregating on the non-snow covered campsites on the cliffs between the second and third lakes. I was camped at the south end of the second lake beside a large snow bank that ran down to the lakeshore.

Just another data point...

I was in Sabrina Basin on fri/sat and encountered snow on the trail starting at 10,700. I heard there were "icebergs" in Moonlight Lake but turned around and descended before I got there due to my hiking partner encountering symptoms of AMS.

Dave, thank you for your kind words and analysis on the photo. Coming from you, it means a lot to me since I admire your work so much.

You're right about the cloud underlit situation. A minute later, the orange-red was gone. Dade comes out too bright or too granite-gray on the subsequent photos I took that morning. (Still being a film person in my consciousness, I try to get it right once instead of firing away and hoping one manages to get what I want.) I thought about using a graduated ND filter and decided not to. Like you, I got really tired of the photos over-using one and so I've tried to avoid using one and work harder at getting the exposure right. The Leica M262 and Summicron 35 mm lens have wonderful dynamic range. The only post-processing I did was using Lightroom to better bring out the light on the trees. I didn't take the time to take out the spots/mosquitoes to post it here since it was a post dealing with conditions. I never use HDR - I don't like it since to me it makes things look unnatural. The original DNG file is 20,858 KB.

Agreed on the image of Dade and Abott...amazing light and well captured! I pray for light like that and have been skunked recently.

BTW, what were the skeeters like in LLV?

Jon Walker

Thanks riverwalker.

Since I was there over a week ago, I doubt the conditions are the same. At that time, they were about a 3. Deet worked for keeping them from biting.

Inyo NF:

Here are some photos from last weekend of the the pass from Minaret Lake to Iceberg Lake courtesy of Samuel Loy. He reports at least 10 ft. of snow on the pass and that Cecile and Iceberg Lake still mostly frozen. The pass from Cecile Lake to Iceberg Lake is dangerous and slippery and requires crampons and ice axe and knowledge on how to use them.

As a reminder, much of this area does not have a trail and requires orienteering. Thanks Samuel.

July 24-29. Pine Creek Trailhead loop. Note that in every location it was easy to find snow-free and dry campsites.

7/24 - below Pine Lake- no snow (but one snow patch to cross at Pine Lake, which I did 7/25)

7/25- Steelhead Lake via Pine Creek Pass, French Lake: Pine Creek Pass pretty clear except the top 200 feet. Still, amazingly free of snow. The snow is solid- no post-holes. In fact it gets hard enough at night to need traction devices, but the top inch or so softens with about an hour sunlight. French Lake 1/3 frozen, lots of snow on the south shore. Steelhead Lake 1/2 frozen. The lake actually totally re-freezes at night if calm and melts in an hour or so of sun. Went down to L Lake to fish- still spotting snow, but mostly thawed.

7/26 Royce Lakes. Parallel long low-angle snow on the plateau. Lower two lakes totally thawed, but still have huge snowbanks along the shores with 4-8 foot high cut-offs that occasionally calf off. Pass between Merriam and Royce is snow to the top on the north side, with a cornice, unstable and very unsafe. The upper two lakes are nearly totally frozen, thick with snow on top of the ice. The lake between Lk11656 and 11725 is mostly frozen, with a small outlet area open. Then entire east side of the lakes have snow covered slopes. Amazingly, the camping area on the southeast shore of Lake 11725 has dry sandy camp spots. I used crampons to traverse from Lake 11656 to the pass between Pt 12470 and Pt 12563. The saddle is snow free. Northeast side of this class 1 pass is a snowfield, but you can go on open rock slabs and the lower snow is low enough angle. It gets early AM sun and by 11AM was easily plunge-stepped. Snow-cups are moderate, typically less than mid-calf deep. Crampons or micro-spikes are not absolutely necessary, but allow you to travel on snow any time of the day and you can more easily stay on the top of the sun-cups. It just speeds up travel and gives you more flexibility.

7/27 Granite Park. The trail is mostly snow-free to the "swamp" at 11,600. There are some patches that make finding the trail hard. The swamp and the snow above did not appeal to me, so I went above the snowfields and traversed the ridge between Granite Park and Chalfant Lakes. Upper lakes (the two big ones on the way to Italy Pass and the round one southwest of the "swamp" are all totally frozen.

7/28 Chalfant Lakes. All lakes are open, but have some snowbanks along the shores. The drop directly from Granite Park all have steep snow. In fact the north side of the ridge has steep snowfields until you reach 11,350 feet elevation. I traversed the ridge until 11,350 and dropped through snow-free forest north-northwest to the outlet of second highest large lake.

7/29 Returned off-trail down the outlet creek. The entire gully is snow-filled except one small rock stringer at top that allows you to get to the northeast side. You can cross on rocks at the bottom of the slope to get to the southwest side to intersect the trail above Honeymoon Lake.

The snow becomes very hard or frozen at night. About 1-2 hours of sunlight softens the surface enough to imprint about 1-2 inches. You do not absolutely need crampons or micro-spikes, but they allow you flexibility to travel at any time. Even with these, you are restricted to lower angle slopes. You really need full-on mountaineering crampons and ice axe to do the steep passes. All of the north-facing passes out of Granite Park look unsafe now. I used the class 1 pass that drops towards Golden Lake, and it is OK. I was surprised that the sun-cups are not that deep, indicating the melt is still in its early stages.

Thank you for a very thorough update and good travel advice. Harlen.

Hi LMBSGV, How was the Rock Creek crossing on the way to Gem Lake? I'm planning on heading up to this area this Thursday, Aug. 3. Thanks!