Snowshoes in May?

[Sam R]

Hello everyone--

I recently registered and have enjoyed reading others' posts thus far. Thought I'd add one of my own. I'm hoping to get into the high country somewhere this May or June. Phil Arnot, in High Sierra, writes, "The spring snow is hard packed. Snowshoes are generally unnecessary." However, Kim Stanley Robinson, in his own The High Sierra, seems to describe wearing them on all his spring trips up high. I'm curious what others' thoughts are on snowshoes for spring backpacking above treeline. Yea or nay?

Thanks,

Sam

[Lenier]

Depends entirely on how hot it is that day and how hot it has been the preceding few days.

[c9h13no3]

TLDR: Specifically this May, in most of the Sierra, I'd bring them. Learn more about snow before you go.

Snowshoes are floatation. They prevent you from sinking into the snow. If the snow has been through many melt-freeze cycles and is still frozen, or is packed down by wind, you can just walk on it in your boots. If the snow isn't consolidated, you will need them. Questions I ask myself to determine if I should bring floatation: How long since it last snowed? How many melt-freeze cycles has the snow been through? Will I be traveling a lot in the afternoon if the snow has melted? What aspects am I planning to walk on?

The second thought this question evokes is: if you're asking it, you probably don't know a lot about snow travel. In May, avalanche problems still exist, and gear such as an ice axe & crampons should probably also be in your pack. Snow blindness is a thing. Check out the book Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills from your local library and read the chapters on snow travel.

[paul]

Well, there's May, and then there's May. For one thing, evry year is different; for another, early May can be quite different from later in the month. I have been out quite a few times in early May on big and little snow packs, and less often in late May. Generally by that time the snow is quite consolidated but with a big caveat - you only have firm snow to travel on in the morning unless it is shaded and/or north facing. By noon or so, the snow softens up and then you woulld want skis or snowshoes.
But sometimes, conditions are not the usual, and if there are storms later in the spring than usual then you find more deep soft stuff, especially at higher elevations.
All of this means that knowing the conditions ahead of time, unless you have recent first hand reports, is pretty unlikely.

[Wandering Daisy]

I have some MSR mountaineering snowshoes, that are quite narrow and short, so easier to walk in and have traction (basically a crampon bottom plate) that I have used in April and May in Yosemite. They do help when the snow is at that melt-stage that it collapses under your feet in the afternoon. And the traction is really important. I only take them when I will be on enough snow to justify carrying the weight. I would at least take micro-spikes.

If you do not have snow experience, keep to easy terrain, mostly flat.

[Gogd]

I'm hoping to get into the high country somewhere this May or June. Phil Arnot, in High Sierra, writes...

If your knowledge is mostly from reading, I'd say no to a self guided trip above tree line, especially this season. You need more experience. Do you know about digging snow pits and snow pack analysis? May in the Sierra alpine zone can be quite wild, capable of blowing down a tent, among other considerations. So do you know what to do when your tent gets shredded, or better yet how to avoid that situation? And then there is the challenge of judging if a snow bridge is safe for crossing a stream, how to keep dry when everything is wet, how to avoid taking a swim when fetching water, not to mention safely traveling over steep terrain. Etc, etc, etc...

Early (May) and late (October) seasons in the mountains are known as the "shoulder" season. Shoulder season is dangerous because it can throw anything and everything at you in a short period of time. When it does it is no place for greenhorns or the faint of heart. Most well seasoned campers are very wary of hiking during these periods, and avoid straying too far from the trailhead, in case things get crazy. And even then they watch the weather forecasts and avalanche reports closely.

Ed

[Sam R]

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

Lenier: gotcha.

c9h13no3 & Gogd: Sound advice, and I appreciate the concern. I've actually done a fair amount of snow travel, including with ice ax & crampons, and a lot of solo travel off-trail & above treeline--I didn't want to go on about myself but perhaps I should have made that clear--so fear me not, I won't be traipsing merrily off to my snowy grave. My question was more about the idiosyncracies of this particular region. I grew up by the Bay and my first dozen or so backpacking trips were all in Yosemite & Kings Canyon & thereabouts, but I moved away after college and have spent a lot more time in the Cascades and Rockies in recent years. Now I'm back in CA and hoping to get back into the Sierran swing of things (or as much as an often-groggy forty-something father of two can hope to). So I was just wondering if hard, walkable snow was indeed a commonly known Sierran phenomenon--one that you wouldn't see so much where the snow is drier (as in the Rockies) or spring isn't as sunny (as in the Cascades)--or not so much.

Paul: that's helpful. It sounds like the moral (as so often up high, and down low for that matter) is that you can't count on stable conditions--it all depends on the year, the route, the day, and the hour of the day in question.

and Wandering Daisy: that maybe settles it, because I was basically wondering how necessary it would be to lug my rather big snowshoes along if I was unlikely to actually need them much. But it sounds like a pair like you describe would less bothersome to bring along just in case, or just for the afternoon.

Thanks again!

Sam

[Gogd]

.. I was just wondering if hard, walkable snow was indeed a commonly known Sierran phenomenon--one that you wouldn't see so much where the snow is drier (as in the Rockies) or spring isn't as sunny (as in the Cascades)--or not so much.

On about 50% of my snowy May trips at least one day started out with crampons on hard crust, but by early afternoon the snowpack was soft enough to posthole mid thigh in some areas, if not on skis. Going higher means cooler air, so that may be an advantage if temps up there stay below freezing, but if warmer and sunny, the rays will turn the pack into deep mush in some locations. You will still need to climb through warmer air and potential mush to reach the high lands, even if starting out early. It is shoulder season, anything is possible. I'd bring my skis (or snowshoes if you are into that) if the route had sustained stretches of unbroken snow. I find trying to get lazy about the weight not worth even a mile of post holing with a pack.

Ed

[paul]

Also, just as a data point, in 2011 I skied from Huntington Lake on the west side (starting on solid snow at about 7200 feet elevation) to North Lake on the east, May 18-26. Massive snow coverage everywhere. That was a big snow year, but right now we are significantly ahead of it. So it's reasonable to expect that any time in this coming May, anything over 8k will be solid snow unless you go way south. Great year for ski or snowshoe trips!

[Sam R]

Thanks for the extra tips, Ed and Paul. I'm in agreement, better to be prepared. Huntington Lake to North Lake sounds fun!