is pioneer basin / mono pass possible for a late may trip?

[Ultrajen]

looks like the lows are in the 30s but i can't tell how much snow is on the ground in the pass or basin. can anyone help? planning a 3 day trip with a friend who is moving to australia late may in little lakes valley or mono pass or maybe sabrina basin. i love all those areas and am ok hiking in light snow.

[SSSdave]

Backcountry ski touring camping enthusiasts go into all parts of the range throughout fair weather periods of winter so it is possible. But you probably meant hiking in without going through miles of snow or reaching a destination just an expanse of bright searing white snow. For that the answer is no. Go to our Conditions sub forum and look at my latest post with links to snow levels and satellite images of such.

[maverick]

Check out this current report, which includes a picture of LLV.
http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... =1&t=18110

[Ultrajen]

Thanks so any suggestions then? North pine creek area my fave to date. Need epic beauty and isolation

[maverick]

Maybe North Fork Big Pine would fit the bill.

[Ultrajen]

i've been there so many times but decided on sabrina basin. fingers x

[overheadx2]

I was just up there and it is beautiful right now. I wouldn’t be afraid to go, but I would definitelyq bring snow shows and micro spikes. I hiked Sabrina in June last year which was a huge snow year and found the creek on the trail several miles in on the west side of the lake impassable for me due to flow and vertical consequence. Mono seemed very doable right now with snow shoes. Since the south facing slope didn’t have a lot of snow. I’m sure up towards Ruby lake is completely snow covered, but the hillside getting there looked pretty clear.

[SSSdave]

Suspect you are thinking about destinations that have alpine lakes that is what most visitors tend to be all about. Each Memorial Day holiday fair numbers of novices expect to backpack into lakes they in the past visited mid summer without understanding how those higher timberline elevations where most of us backpack to are usually still too snow covered. They line up at ranger stations for backpacking permits only to hear that their intended destinations are covered with snow.

What you need to understand is although you my be able to hike through shallow areas of snow on trails where others have already made tracks, that lakes you may be hoping to see may be covered with snow thus not look like lakes at all you may have seen in the past mid summer. Except for Convict Lake, all the natural lakes along the Eastern Sierra tend to be well above 9k elevation that after most winters most are still going to be frozen late May. This spring I would expect the lowest Rock Creek and Hilton Creek lakes will have melted out. That noted, if one is content to visit and camp along stream canyons in the sagebrush zone, there will be much to explore. Park here at these map crosshairs:

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.32762,-118.58290&z=15&t=T

Then hike up the 4wd roads into to the mouth of the Horton Creek canyon and camp right there along the stream. Will be snow free and green with minor numbers of early wildflowers rising. About as beautiful and spectacular as any place in the Sierra and on the holiday probably ignored because...no lakes.
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.32093,-118.63431&z=15&t=T

On the other hand there is a modest list of lakes on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada that are at those lower elevations and that is where most groups intending to backpack on Memorial Day visit. And some of those lakes are quite beautiful, green, and flowery already like Kibbie Lake, Vernon Lake, and Laurel Lakes all at about 6.6k in Yosemite. And there are others especially as one goes further north of Yosemite though some won't be able to be accessed due to still closed access roads. The lake Tahoe region will have many lakes snow free by the coming holiday. The best way to discover these lakes is by doing your homework studying online topographic maps at:

http://mapper.acme.com

Then eventually a person will come across places like:

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.15936,-119.08926&z=15&t=T