High Sierra Topix

Oldranger, you seem to be correct. When I looked at water content instead of snow depth I found that the old 10" was about 6" of water content (it must have been very densely packed.) The new 27" of snow has 6.71" of water content. It is still accumulating some, though.

The only difference it will make to me is whether I go in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd week of June.

kpeter

I was too lazy to actually check. Wow that new snow is wet! I'm surprised the old snow was that wet, too. It must have been really warm. Oh yes Kibbie Ridge is pretty low. At high elevations this time of the year shallow snow depth is generally quite dry as the result of water moving out of the snow pack when the air temperature is colder than the snow. Personally I have mixed feelings about getting more snow. I'd really like to do a mid may trip!

Mike

kpeter- We went last year on Memorial Day when there was LOTS of snow but no mosquitoes. I also did an early season trip to Huckleberry Lake. Personally, I would rather walk on snow than deal with recently melted snow (and all the wetness) and the associated swarms of mosquitoes. I think the worst conditions are snow that is just about melted where the melted spots are swarming with mosquitoes and the remaining snow is unstable and you are continually walking in ankle to calf-deep water and cannot find a dry spot to camp on. You need to embrace your inner child and learn to love snow! Just think, you can build a snowman to guard your tent door.

Wandering Daisy wrote: I think the worst conditions are snow that is just about melted where the melted spots are swarming with mosquitoes and the remaining snow is unstable and you are continually walking in ankle to calf-deep water and cannot find a dry spot to camp on.

You make it sound so wonderful! LOL

Last year's PCT journals have much to say about these conditions! With LOTS of unprintable explicitives! Yosemite seems to have abundance of these conditions! I should have added totally numb feet as an additional premium pleasure. Feels like you are walking on stumps instead of feet and the stinging is so sensational when they finally warm up. Oh, let me remember:

Wading waist deep in freezing water holding my pack above my head wallowing down Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne below Glen Aulin.

Slopping through muck above Little Yosemite Valley, alternating between mud, icy water, horrific mosquitoes and then, up on dry land to encounter a rattlesnake.

In Jack Main Canyon I had the added pleasure of several swift water thigh deep crossings and Tildon Lake was so thick with mosquitoes that I had to climb 600 feet up on the top of a hill to sleep. Next day I kept running into bears, about one per hour and after nearly 13 miles camped on another rock in Tiltil Valley which had competing amounts of mud and mosquitoes.

And Kennedy Canyon- here you get the added benefit of cow piles mixed in with the mud and icy water. Who could ask for more?

Oh, yes, the pleasures of early season backpacking! Cannot wait!

kpeter , I did not have time to read through all of this thread, so I hope I do not dupe anything here. We met on the Kibbie trail last year, and I had gone up Kibbie Ridge a ways that trip. There was snow then on the ridge, but the worst part was that the trail was nearly obliterated by deadfall (fallout from a recent fire), and the trail was very faint in places. I would like to know if they have cleaned up that trail this last year, so if anybody knows.... I would like to try again to get to the Boundary Lakes area (Many Island Lake is one of my all-time favs) with my noob backpacker friend. It is a great area.

Elsewhere I outlined a X-C route Via Kibbie Lake when there is snow on Kibbie Ridge.

I'm not a fan of early season hiking unless one is low enough to be well below the snow line in dry conditions. For many of the reasons WD mentioned and more. For photographers, too much snow of course tends to make landscapes even more contrasty thus more difficult to expose. Also not much color in frames with green vegetation still waking up and wildflowers absent.

In my experience, the mid to upper Cherry, Kendrick, and Falls Creek basins have the worst mosquito conditions in the Southern Sierra during many years and that usually peaks between early June and early July depending on snowpack and weather. The reason is obvious if one looks at that area's topo's. Heavily glaciated by ice cap depths, the landscape has a great many small depressions that fill with snowmelt and breed squeets. Probably the worst area of all is the Cow Meadow Lake, Lertora Lake, Huckleberry Lake zone about mid June.

Given that the still thin despite last week's storm Sierra snowpack is likely to melt off rather quickly, we are taking advantage of the likely lower number of squeeters to take a trip up Kibbie Ridge to the Huckleberry zone. Like a bit later than your trip because there will still be some mosquitoes. Would rather let them do their thing sucking blood from others and get eaten up by damselflies before we go. Besides July will be more a peak for wildflowers. And crossing Cherry Creek will be easier.

The uninteresting 9.5 miles 2100 foot vertical slog from Shingle Springs at 5800 feet to Styx Pass is not something we given our heavy packs will tackle in a single day. Instead reaching the trailhead likely 9pm to 10pm some Friday evening, we will headlamp night hike the first 2.8 milles to 6700 where a bit off trail acres of granite slabs at Snow Canyon overloook Cherry Creek Canyon. A good spot well off trail and away from any trail meandering bears. That will leave us less than 7 miles and 1200 feet to reach the pass zone that has nice photography if one knows what to do.

I've been to Boundary, Little Bear, Spotted Fawn, Flora, and looked down at Edyth from atop Nance Peak, so have done the quite interesting and well recommended tour of those parts. Note if there are a lot of squeeters about, the shores of Little Bear Lake may be about the best place one could sleep butt-nekid in the Sierra without worrying about blood sukkers. The shallow waters are covered with pond grass that have the largest population of the most voracious squeete-eaters, aka damselflies by far I've ever seen. If one is there in the usual late June hatch, dozens will be landing on you and all your gear continually.

In our case on day two, we'll meander slowly the 6 miles or so up Cherry Creek to reach the south side of outlet zone of the Huckleberry basin where two nicely smooth mini domes guard the entrance. Nice place to jump in the creek then lay on stream smooth polish. Just upstream is a veritable rainbow trout farm. Later afternon will climb up atop 8366. Will be out 8 or 9 days. Almost completed the very detailed itinerary and my daily photo route plans. Lots of 4x5 pics and fish. Our other big trip next summer will be a few weekes later into Minnow Creek areas.

Do people here really like Kibbie? what is the draw?

rlown wrote:Do people here really like Kibbie? what is the draw?

It's on the way to lakes that are much nicer?

That's all I got.

rlown wrote:Do people here really like Kibbie? what is the draw?

The draw is that is one of the first areas to be snow free early season, which makes it somewhat popular. The lake is also pretty scenic for a low level lake. It is also the doorway to the Yosemite-EW area and its many lakes (Like the Boundary Lakes area). Yes, at the wrong time (July) it is a mosquito haven.