Snow Travel for the Inexperienced

[JimJ]

I saw nice glissading tracks yesterday near Kearsarge Pass...straight down, crossing switchbacks, ending with a pile of snow against a small pine...

Was the small pile of snow in the form of, well, let's say a very broken snowman, mouth frozen agape as in a "now silent scream?"

Oh! Ouch!

[quentinc]

I hope it was one of those two guys who glissaded through the boot tracks on the north side of Glen Pass.

[funcrew]

I'm a civilian re: this topic, no interest in snow hiking at all. Even so, a couple years ago, in August, I was going over a small 20-foot wide innocent-looking snow patch on an otherwise dry trail and postholed against a rock, taking most of the skin off the front of my leg and wrenching my back. My paranoia level concerning "minor" snow patches is now much more acute.

[ndwoods]

And now maybe we will actually have some snow! We've got weather in Calif! YEA!

[tomba]

I was going over a small 20-foot wide innocent-looking snow patch on an otherwise dry trail and postholed against a rock, taking most of the skin off the front of my leg and wrenching my back.

When we crossed Glen Pass last year several days after an early October snow storm, I took off the baskets from my trekking poles to be able to poke through the snow all the way to the the rocks underneath. It was quite useful.

Edit: Since this thread is about safety: I don't recommend going in soon after a significant snowfall covers the terrain. We were ready to retreat if things turned too hard, and we approached the class 1 pass from the worse, northern side. Also there didn't seem to be an avalanche risk.