2011 BACKCOUNTRY CONDITIONS UPDATES

[Cross Country]

I have to admit that this is not an aesthetic pic but I absolutely love it. Even in art (I taught it), context and content REALLY count. It's nice to be retired and also not have an early game tomorrow morning. I tend to get in the last word here (it's late).

[try]

Would love to see a pic of Lucys, Quentinc. Haven't been there since July 4, 1976.

[tomba]

King's Canyon NP: Rae Lakes Loop / Glen Pass , 2011-10-08 - 2011-10-11

Route: Rae Lakes Loop: Roads End, Paradise Valley, Woods Creek, Rae Lakes, Glen Pass, Bubbs Creek.

Difficult section encountered on this trip:

Route mostly covered with snow on the JMT/PCT section. We met people who turned back at Dollar Lake. Stepping in existing footprints helped us to south end of Rae Lakes. After that we had to step through virgin snow across Glen Pass, all the way to near Bullfrog Lake, where we found footprints. Trail is mostly not visible. In some places one can see an "indentation" in the snow that indicates where the trail is. We had to use GPS with offline topo map application on iPhone to help us find the trail few times. Snow depth close to the pass was routinely above half calf, and sometimes above the knee. An overcast day on 10-10 helped the snow not to become too soft near the pass late morning and early afternoon.

It seems that so much snow at this elevation will take a long time to melt.

Special Equipment Used: Trekking poles.

[East Side Hiker]

Thank you Maverick for your reminders.

[quentinc]

The snow that was so arduous last weekend was almost completely gone from the trail. Too much snow higher up on Mt. Guyot, though, so I turned back 100 feet from the top. Today, it was so beautiful I was hiking in shorts and short sleeve shirt at 11,000+.

[Ska-T]

The snow that was so arduous last weekend was almost completely gone from the trail. ... Today, it was so beautiful I was hiking in shorts and short sleeve shirt at 11,000+.

I realize that your trip was further south, but do you think I will have trouble with snow going over Taboose Pass, Mather Pass, Cirque Pass, Potluck Pass, Knapsack Pass and Bishop Pass on a trip starting this Fri? Thanks for your best guess. (Anyone's comments are welcome.)
-Scott

[quentinc]

Ska-T: I don't know how much my guess will be worth, but I suspect those passes will have retained a lot of snow. I have a friend who went up to Piute Pass last weekend and it still had a fair bit of snow -- and it's lower than the ones you mention. There also was a lot of snow on Mt. Guyot above 12,000 feet, for what that's worth.

On the plus side, the temperatures are supposed to be above average again for this coming weekend. Still, that's a mighty ambitious trip for this late in the season.

[Ska-T]

[quote="quentinc"]... I suspect those passes will have retained a lot of snow.

Thanks for your viewpoint. The north side of Mather is my biggest concern. I think Taboose would be OK as well as Knapsack and Potluck. Cirque and Mather I wonder about, less so Cirque because the steep side faces south. Without snow and without peak bagging, the trip should take me 4 days, so it's not that ambitious. At any rate, I decided not to go this weekend. Maybe next week.

[KathyW]

I'm looking for conditions in the Kearsarge Pass/East Vidette area (starting at the Kearsarge Pass Trail), Horton Lakes/Basin Mountain (Horton Lakes Trail), Treasure Lakes/Mount Gilbert (starting at South Lake). Has anyone been in any of those areas recently? I'm thinking of doing a 3-day trip into one of those areas next weekend if the forecast continues to look good.

[KathyW]

I'm looking for conditions in the Kearsarge Pass/East Vidette area (starting at the Kearsarge Pass Trail), Horton Lakes/Basin Mountain (Horton Lakes Trail), Treasure Lakes/Mount Gilbert (starting at South Lake). Has anyone been in any of those areas recently? I'm thinking of doing a 3-day trip into one of those areas next weekend if the forecast continues to look good.

I went out to Mojave Preserve instead - my old bones just weren't up for a cold long night in the wilderness.

It's time to start planning trips for next spring for me.