High Sierra Topix

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.

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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.

It snowed 4” at Kennedy Meadows last night. It melted by the afternoon.

It was cold.

We did some bushwhacking after losing the trail in the snow. You won’t have that problem.

The high country probably won’t look like this in a few days.

The Kennedy Meadows staff were running the sprinklers, watering the snow. That was odd.

One useful detail: Kennedy Lake is on the left edge of the photo.

Route taken: Dodge ridge (Gooseberry xc trailhead) to whitesides meadow & surrounding area and back.

Elevations: 6500 to 9400


Difficult section encountered:
Snow cover on the way in was patchy at the start and solid on north facing slopes from about 7200 fert, solid everywhere from 8000. About six feet of snow at Whitesides before the storm on Saturday the 4th, which dropped a foot to a foot and a half of new snow. On the way out after the storm, about six inches new at the trailhead.


Special equipment needed/used: skis


Possible alternative routes: none

Route taken: South Fork Cottonwood Creek>South Fork Lakes>High Lake>Halfway up Cirque North Face>Cottonwood Lakes in order>Exit Cottonwood Lakes Trail


Elevations: 10000-12000


Difficult section encountered: New Army Pass has a nice cornice and Old Army Pass is covered.


Special equipment needed/used: Carried axes and spikes but did not need them


Possible alternative routes: Winter Pass if trying to get to Langley

Decent snow coverage at trailhead and below the main climbs, I'd say roughly 50% trail 50% snow, maybe a little more on the south Fork Side. Most of everything above 11k is still covered, with some south aspects entirely melted out. Lakes 4 and 5 were actually starting to show some rock whereas 1,2 and 3 were buried. Every lake is still solid, but the outlets were flowing and we got our water via filtering rather than boiling.
Some potential avalanche indicators, mostly in the realm of developing wet loose or wet slab events.

Easy crossing over Frog Creek comparing to last year if you pick the north-east trial to Laurel Lake. Trail is wet but there is no real hazard to both lakes. The snow level seems to be lower than 18-19 even with the new snow from last weekend.

Camped at Fremont lake and Lane Lake for a couple of nights. Water is high but West Walker is crossable. Very few snow patches. Bugs are just starting to show up near Lane lake but not biting. This year snow pack seems to be lower than expected. I'll be visiting family out of the states in June. Hopefully higher elevation will be much accessible when I'm back by July 4th.

Poked around the western side of Desolation Wilderness over Memorial Day weekend: Wrights lake to Maude lake, casual. Had aimed for Red Peak use trail & rockbound pass, but, well, passed on that option.

Route taken: Lyons Creek Trailhead to Wrights Lake, Maude Lake


Elevations: 7000-8200ft?

Special equipment needed/used: Microspikes in the mornings, below freezing o/n


Difficult section encountered:

Access road was still blocked by snow banks near Lyons creek 4 miles out from Wrights lake, decided to park and hike in an extra 4 or 5 miles. Spend most of the first half of the day on helping free a Subaru (successfully, with the help of a truck) and a Ford Explorer (unsuccessfully) who decided to push past that first snow bank, and got thoroughly beached on the second one a mile or so later. Road is probably clear by now, even on our return hike it had improved quite a bit.

Lots of snow and melt water in the shaded forest at 7500ft, and pretty solid mix of snow & granite past the Desolation Wilderness border. Frozen over and icy (Microspikes!) in the morning, slushy in the afternoon, but no mosquitos yet. Wet feet throughout the day, some postholing issues.

Decided to not cross Silver Creek on sketchy snow bridges in the afternoon and went off-trail up on the southern side of the valley. Beautiful hike, looks like Dennis the Marmot had moved down from Maude lake into the lower territories.

5/24 -5/29/2024 Conditions Report for Kennedy Creek, Upper Basins of North Fork Cherry Creek, and Summit Creek to Relief Res.

Route taken: Kennedy Meadows to Emigrant and Grizzly Meadows; over Brown Bear Pass from the SE, and down Summit Creek to Relief Res.


Elevations: 6500' at K.Meadows, to 10,365 on Grizzly Peak. The average elev. for the high basins of N.F. Cherry Cr. were 9,400.'


Difficult section encountered:
Steep (~45 degree) snow slopes for ~600' on the way up the cirque/pass that leads to Lost Lake. In late morning the snow surface was ideal for step-kicking. We saw no evidence of instability, ie., avalanche risk. The western slopes of Grizzly Peak require some careful route-finding to avoid dead end cliffs, especially tricky on the way down from the summit. However, there are many safe ways down. The northeastern slopes of Grizzly Pk. are still mostly steep (~45-50 degree) snowfields.

The open snow surfaces in the high basins of Cherry Cr., and especially on the way down the upper reaches of Summit Creek, from 9500' down to about 8500' consist of extensive sun-cups. These are not deeper than ~7" yet, but growing fast. Lousy walking in the late morning and afternoon.

Special equipment needed/used:
Mountaineering boots, crampons and ice axe for the steep snow slopes. Note! We carried snowshoes, and never needed them once-- never postholed at all!


Possible alternative routes:
Had we not been able to make the direct climb over to Lost Lake, we thought to climb up the less steep slopes of the gully ~0.4 mi. to the east of the "Lost Lake Cirque." It seemed possible to traverse around the ridge west of the gully toward Lost Lake, and then descend slightly (~120') down to Lost Lake. All of this alternative route looked to be on lower angle slopes.

A part of the alternative route described above is shown by the thick red line and arrow.

A friend and I did an overnight from Crabtree Trailhead to Hyatt Lake in Emigrant Wilderness this weekend. We followed the Crabtree Trail to Groundhog Meadow, then hopped on the Bell Meadow Trail to West Fork Cherry Creek, and then the usual use trail to Hyatt Lake past Rosasco Lake.

Conditions were a little challenging: still intermittent snow on most north-facing slopes above 7,000ft, transitioning to solid snow cover above 8k ft. South facing slopes are clear. Hyatt Lake was snow free and the granite bowl between Hyatt and Big lakes was snow free. Lots of water out there. Two crossings are note-worthy. Piute Creek on the Bell Meadow Trail is waist deep (I am 6'4") and slow moving. West Fork Cherry Creek at Bell Meadow Trail is fast moving and scary. We spent an hour finding a series of log crossings where it braids out south of Bell Meadow Trail.

Clouds Rest is pretty much snow-free and a fast walk if approached from the southwest. (From the junction near Half Dome.) If approached from the east/northeast, we didn't see that trail but heard reports that although it's more snow-free than expected, there are also a ton of downed trees, slowing progress significantly.

Half Dome cables have been up for about a week.