I am originally from SoCal and during the last few years here in Reno I've noticed there are some big differences between winter mountaineering here and in SoCal. For example, it's colder here and the snow is deeper. This means we generally need snowshoes to get almost anywhere here in the Northern Sierra in winter (in SoCal, because of the daily thaw and freeze cycle, and the snow rarely being very deep in any case, you can generally boot it up almost any mountain all winter).
I'm used to using crampons and ice axe up high, but I've been wondering whether they would be necessary on Mt Rose on the summer route. It doesn't seem to be that steep up there.
We find snowshoeing to the waterfall along the Tahoe Rim Trail to be a challenge, due to all the tracks going in every direction and also because when you do find the correct track it's very lumpy and difficult to walk on, so it's slow going. I've been thinking about using the Relay Ridge Road instead, though that adds some distance. Still, might be a lot easier to navigate in winter.
Here's Ingrid breaking trail from Third Creek Pond (at the Relay Ridge Road) to the waterfall, with Mt Rose in the distance:
![Image](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7817/46543931341_63429fdcfe_z.jpg)
Snowshoeing just seems to take so much more time than booting it. I would get up and down Mt Baldy in SoCal in about five hours (four miles and 4,000 feet each way, though the snow only started at about the halfway point). The day I took the photo above we made a loop to the waterfall, hiking up the Relay Ridge Road, then to the waterfall and back via the Tahoe Rim Trail (about six miles, and not very much elevation gain or loss), and that took about five and a half hours just by itself. Getting all the way up to the top of Mt Rose and back seems like it would take all day, a very exhausting day.
Another option we are exploring is simply spending a night: snowshoeing up Relay Ridge Road and setting up camp a little above the meadow, then summiting the next morning.
Anyone got any advice they can share?