2025 Backcountry Current Conditions Reports

[maverick]

This is not a place to post trip reports but for members to post current conditions experienced in the backcountry on recent trips. This will give other members considering visiting or traveling through that location a heads-up on difficult sections so they can plan accordingly.

Please do not request information about particular sections of interest you are about to visit; also, do not post anything besides backcountry condition reports. Otherwise, your post will be deleted. Thank you.

Please include your trip's location and dates in the "Subject” tab!



Copy and Paste this outline below and fill out the info.


Route taken:


Elevations:


Difficult section encountered:


Special equipment needed/used:


Possible alternative routes:




Example:

Subject: Roads End>Rae Lakes>East Lake>Longley Pass>Sphinx Lakes 7/4-7/12

Route: Roads End-Upper Paradise Valley-Rae Lakes-Glen Pass-Junction Meadow-Lake Reflection-Longley Pass-Cinder Col-Sphinx Col-Sphinx Lakes-Roads End

Elevations: 5036 - 11926 feet

Difficult sections encountered on this trip:
There is a lot of snow on the northern side of Glen Pass, and it is icy in the morning.
- Bubbs Creek crossing was difficult; I found the best crossing point 400 yards west of the usual low water crossing section.
- Big cornice encountered on Longley Pass, bypassed by climbing a rocky section north of the pass (class 3).

Special equipment needed/used:
- Ice Axe
- Crampons
- Trekking Poles

Possible alternative routes:
- When crossing Bubb's, I noticed a section about 100 yards further west that looked much easier.
- Should have bypassed the cornice on the southern side; the route looked barely class 2.

[commonloon]

Route: Road's End - Copper Creek trail to Grouse Lake (basecamp), day hike to Mungoat Pass then Goat Mtn (attempt) & Munger Peak (summit)

Elevations: 5,000 - 12,000 feet

Difficult sections encountered on this trip:
- Patchy snow starting at about 9400 ft (switchbacks after Upper Tent Meadows) -- this is south facing.
- 100% coverage or near at about 10000 ft (just below where the trail normally tops/levels out).
- Walked on snow until around 9-10 AM (was able to kick steps in my approach shoes), then put on snowshoes. Temperatures were relatively high (overnight lows were high 30s). Snow was pretty soft after 12 PM.
- Lots of elephant traps! Careful attention to where a rock might be buried, etc. was required.
- Encountered mixed conditions scrambling ridge on Goat Mountain, found snow from very hard (refrozen) to cotton candy, turned around after a gendarme that we felt we couldn't navigate around safely (tried a couple of micro routes).

Special equipment needed/used:
- Snowshoes
- Ice Axe (barely used - was good tent stake as it was breezy)
- Crampons (never used)
- Trekking Poles

Notes:
- Bugs were not a problem.
- No problems crossing streams. We did cross 2 snow bridges.

[jimmyjamhikes]

Route taken:

Yosemite Falls up Yosemite Creek to Lukens Lake to Grand Canyon of Tuolumne to Tuolumne Pass down to Lake Merced, up to Lake Washburn, down the Merced and out the Mist Trail. 5/15-21/2025

Elevations:

4,000 to 10,000 feet

Difficult sections encountered:

We were a party of 2. I would not have been comfortable doing this trip solo during the melt because of Register Creek.

Partial snow above 8,000 feet up to Tioga Road. Four miles of continuous snow between saddle above Lukens Lake and down to 7,500 feet on the way towards Morrison Creek.

Morrison Creek crossing swift but only knee deep.

Register Creek crossing swift and exposed and mid-thigh deep (I'm 5' 8" tall and got wet up to my crotch, but that was due to a final step into a much calmer pool on the east side before exiting). This crossing was at the upper limit of my risk tolerance.

Glen Aulin half a mile of frozen water up to knee deep near trail. We were in and out of the water, using nearby logs to hop when we could, with the longest walk in water about 100 feet.

Partial snow from Glen Aulin to Tuolumne Meadows.

11 Miles of continuous snow from Tuolumne Meadows over Tuolumne Pass down to 9,000 feet on way to Merced Lake. We hiked above trail on south facing slopes to get out of the snow for about 3 miles between 9,000 and 9,500 feet on Rafferty Creek. A cold front made the snow crispy up to Tuolumne Pass, especially in shade, but it was slushy on the way down.

Special equipment needed/used:

Microspikes. The ranger at the permit office told us we did not need ice axes and he was right!

Possible alternative routes:

At Glen Aulin we realized too late that we might have hiked on the south facing slopes north of the trail to avoid the water, though some sections seemed too steep or bouldery to make that an option.

Notes:

Mosquitoes were 0 almost everywhere except Register Creek (3) and the woods between Merced Lake and Washburn Lake (2).

I will post a full trip report soon.

[oddtiger]

Hetch Hetchy to Edith via upper frog creek; I also reached the waterfall up from Edith. It was spectacular.

Elevation up to 7600ft

Plenty of water and little snow as of 05/19. I fell into the Frog creek from an unstable log bridge. The water was calm so it was not much a danger other than getting wet with my backpack.

No special equipment needed

No mosquito, fishing was good, saw a bobcat within 10ft during the day on the trail.

[oddtiger]

My 10yo and I hiked to Spanish lake from Crown Valley trailhead for one-nighter. Trail was not maintained with tons of downed trees and there were still patches of snow above 7600ft.

Elevation 6600ft to 8600ft

Three water crossings and one would lead wet shoes, but they were all easy.

No mosquito, fishing was good in the morning, found some morel mushroom in the wood!

[Schleppy]

Route:

• Leavitt Meadow
• Up the West Fork of the Walker River and respective lakes
• Emigrant Pass trail
• Emigrant Pass
• High Emigrant Lake
• Big Sam
• Down Kennedy Creek
• Down the Middle Fork of the Stanislaus River
• Kennedy Meadow

Elevations: 6,300 - 10,800 feet

Challenging Weather:

• Very soggy. Lows in the upper 30's. Rain for several hours in the afternoons. Dews came early and persisted through out the nights, so nothing that gets wet dries until daylight sun.
• NOAA forecast painted a much rosier picture.
• Clear mornings. Thunder storms + rain began after 2pm. Big hail storm on Saturday.

Water/run off:

• The West Walker River is running high, but can be crossed at wide sections going to Fremont Lake. Sure footed people may even find good log jams going to Fremont. Best to keep looking for safest opportunities while walking along the river.
• Fast flowing tributaries present a few obstacles, but can be easily navigated if willing to get your feet wet.

Snow:

• Patchy below 8,600'.
• Presenting obstacles @ 9,000'.
• Spikes warranted @ 9,500'. No more trails, just routes. Beware of snow bridges around high altitude meadows.
• Cleared above 10,200'.
  
  Good snow for glissading northern slopes of Big Sam, down to Kennedy creek @9,200'.
  
  High Emigrant Lake was mostly frozen and snow lined. All other lower elevation lakes were open water.

Mosquitos:

• Moderate/heavy on >7,800' lakes and meadows.
  Notably bad:
  • Roosavelt Lake
  • Lane Lake
  • Kennedy Creek at opening of Soda Canyon

Special gear:

• Microspikes were useful, but not essential.
• Ice axe or whippet was important for gissading, and possibly critical for the northern descent from Big Sam. Otherwise not necessary.

Misc notes:

• Kenedy Creek is full of cow pies, but did not see any cows.
• Unpredictable weather in shoulder season. Should have been better prepared for uncomfortable conditions.
• High exposed areas in the afternoon are risky.
• It's melting VERY fast this year. Lots of unstable snow around creeks, wetlands, crevasses, runoffs, lake shores, etc. Some of it cannot hold the weight of a human being.
• It's a wonderful time to see the Sierra waking up