[pct-l] Current high sierra condition, of trail and hiker

[ron guay]

I'm jealous.  If us thrus had only waited.  Maybe the 'Flippers' are right?

...although it's nice to be in Etna with a Porter and a Burger and done with
that crazy stuff.

-Blister

AT 2006
JMT 2011
PCT 2011 (...pending)
On Aug 1, 2011 8:49 AM, "Lisa Valenti-Jordan" <valentijordan at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hey all!
>
> Just got back from Reds Meadow - Whitney, thought I'd give my 2 cents:
>
> Summary: I'm not sure you need any of the snow gear anymore, GPS was nice,
> but there were footprints up almost everything, and I'm sure there are
more
> now as each day a few more people went t brave the trail. Ice Axe was
> mostly used for messing around with glissading (sp?) and digging poop
> holes. Khatoola's were nice, but not necessary if you climbed later in the
> day - of course that would lead to more postholing and slippery walking
(the
> drunk walk as I call it). River crossings - all doable, we crossed all but
> mono at the trail, and mono crossing you could see from the trail. In
short
> - IMHO head out there! There IS snow. Alot of it, but it was also doable.
> (not to say it wasn't hard, but heck, why would you go if you didn't want
> something hard?) Detailed descr. below.
>
> Silver Pass - simple, minimal snow when we went over on 7/16, but plenty
of
> suncups
> Silver creek - crossing under the waterfall is awesome, looks scarier than
> it is. No real comment on any of the other crossings, easyish.
> Mono Creek - thigh high and going down, head downstream to cross as
everyone
> tells you. Took a dunker in mono #2 b/c I was trying to rock-hop and show
> off. Water was cold, as was the ride to VVR on the boat!!
> Seldon Pass - almost no snow, went over 7/19
> Bear Creek - waist high, from here on out we crossed everything at the
trail
> and I had little difficulty (5'9" 140lb female, on my own with only pole
> assistance).
> Muir Pass - we heard rumors of 10mi of snow. Closer to 8, 3 on the
northern
> side, 5 on the southern, and some nice glissade tracks on the N. side.
With
> the sierra cement even a newb like me to gilssade can have a hecka good
> time. (7/21)
> Mather Pass - there was a lot of snow on this headed up going SOBO, we
> climbed it early with the kahtoola's and had no problems, though it was
> technical. There was a note at the ranger station that there were big
holes
> under the snow so we rock scrambled. (7/24)
> Pinchot pass - did this the same day as mather, some snow, and this was
the
> hardest route-finding (not super clear footprints), but mostly hard b/c we
> were tired. Not sure I'd do that again. (7/24)
> Kings Canyon R. - Lots of hulabaloo about how this was hard and to walk
1.5
> mi upstream. I crossed at the crossing and it was maybe knee-to thigh high
> med. speed. Crossed at noon.
> Glen Pass - perhaps my favorite, plenty of footprints to follow and a
clear
> path with no false summits. Met awesome folks at Rae Lakes (7/25)
> Forrester - Also pretty simple with footprints, at one point trail goes
> straight up cutting several switchbacks across snow, I missed it at first,
> but the tracks are real clear. (7/26)
> Mt. Whitney - 7 million people, clear tracks, if you head out whitney
portal
> there's a sweet glissade to miss quite a few of the switchbacks, though it
> was melting out fast when I walked out (7/28) so you may not be able to do
> that anymore safely.
>
> Everything was melting fast, so likely even less than when I went, but
with
> new fun and dangers - enjoy JMT folks! I'm off to do the TRT bit I missed
> earlier in the season, going to try to keep up on foot with some friends
on
> mountain bikes - wish me luck :).
>
> Puddlejumper
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