2022 Backcountry Current Conditions Reports

[maverick]

This is not a place to post trip reports, but a place for members to post current conditions experienced in the backcountry on recent trips.
This will give other members considering visiting, or traveling through that same location a heads up on difficult sections, so they can plan accordingly.

Please, do not request information about particular sections of interest that you are about to visit, also, do not post anything besides a backcountry conditions reports, otherwise your post will be deleted. Thank you.

Please include the location and the dates of your trip in the "Subject” tab!



Copy and Paste this outline below and fill out the info.


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 section encountered on this trip:
- Lost of snow on northern side of Glen Pass icy in the morning hours.
- Bubbs Creek crossing very difficult, found the best crossing point 400 yards west of the usual low water crossing section.
- Big cornice encountered on Longley Pass, which was bypass by climbing 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 notice a section about 100 yards further west that looked much easier.
- Should have bypassed the cornice on the southern side, route looked barely class 2.

[Flamingo]

Subject: Red Lake Peak (Carson Pass), April 9th 2022

Route: Carson Pass Sno-Park Trailhead to Red Lake Peak; I followed the use trail up the southern ridge, rather than the PCT.

Elevations: 8100-10063 feet

Summary: Overall, not much snow for April! The southern face of the peak was almost entirely melted.

Difficult section encountered on this trip:
None. It seemed like June conditions, but in April.

Special equipment needed/used:
None! I fully expected this to be a snowshoe trip, and instead I never used them. I reached the summit in running shoes. I crossed a couple trivial snow patches, but never needed my ice axe.

Possible alternative routes:
The PCT from the Carson Pass Trailhead to the pass still holds more/bigger patches of snow, likely due to its west-facing aspect. Also, if you're headed SOUTH on the PCT from Carson Pass, there remains considerable snow on the northern faces of Elephant's Back, Round Top, etc.

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[c9h13no3]

Trivial snow crossings, snow only continuous on true north facing terrain >7500’ on the 9th of April.

Did the spring biathlon: ski in the morning, climb in the afternoon. Heavenly skied pretty well despite the low tide conditions :-).

[oddtiger]

Route taken:
4.30: Hetch Hetchy -> Bee Hive -> Frog Creek-> Edith
5.1: Edith-> Lake 5728 downstream of Kendrick creek and back
5.2: Edith-> Frog Creek -> Hetch Hetchy

Elevations: 3800-7600


Difficult section encountered: You got to pick between bushwhacking and snow postholing along the Frog creek and the saddle between Frog and Edith. Be careful of those wet granite, very slippery and about 1/3 of the granite are wet. Snow melts fast and I expect there won't be much snow walk by next weekend.


Special equipment needed/used: Crampons used in a couple of sessions on 4.30.

[Silky Smooth]

Banjo, Blackout and I did our annual run up to Cottonwood pass. Two years in a row with snow on the pass and the lower creeks not flowing, only the one at the bottom. It was a windy brisk day but really nice in spots.

[kdemtchouk]

A friend and I took a long loop out of Hetch Hetchy on Friday 5/13: up to Jack Main Canyon, Tilden Lake, then took the PCT to Kerrick Canyon, up to Bear Valley, and down Rancheria Mountain back to Hetch Hetchy. Trip 39 in the Sierra North book.

Snow free up to the top of Jack Main Canyon. Tilden Lake and Bear Valley Lake frozen over. North facing slopes above 8k ft are still snowy, require kicking boot track up steep snow slopes. Snow is soft. Water crossings were mild, cold but slow moving (mostly knee deep, except the crossing Stubblefield Canyon was thigh deep).

Get out there and enjoy!

[Snowtrout]

Route taken: Crown/Rancheria Trailhead to Duck Lake

Elevations: 7500-9100'

Difficult section encountered: Quite a few downed trees the first 1.5 miles. After the Crown turnoff, large patchy snow became the biggest obstacle towards Duck Lake trail. Trail junction to Duck lake, 50% of trail was snow covered but not too difficult to navigate. Heard from others, trail from Rancheria/Duck to Chain lakes was nearly all snow and a chore with lots of postholing.

Special equipment needed/used: None needed but feet will get wet
Possible alternative routes:

[dapperdave]

Route taken: Wolverton - Hump - Tablelands - Pterydactyl Pass - Elizabeth Pass Trail - HST - Kaweah Gap - top of Big Arroyo
Back via HST and "over the hill" to Wolverton.

Difficult sections: Snow tongue in gully east of tunnel on HST, hard steep and exposed - would require ice axe and crampons to cross over safely, we didn't have these, but managed an undignified, wet and claustrophobic slither underneath.For reference I'm 5"7" and 145lbs and didn't have too much room to spare.
Lots of snow up to Kaweah gap, was hard on the way up, traction aids would have made life easier, on the way down the snow was a lot softer at the same time and had melted about 6 inches in 24 hours.
Gaps next to Outcrops east of Kaweah Gap showed snow depth of 12-18 inches.
Lots of large downed trees on the lower half of the climb from HST to Panther Gap.

Dave

[Wandering Daisy]

Yosemite Falls trail- North Rim Traverse to Snow Creek bridge- East Buttress of Mt Watkins-Tenaya Lake-Tanaya Creek -Mt Watkins saddle, Snow Creek trial to BP campground. 5/16-5/20

micro-spikes taken but not used.
initially to exit Merced River via Sunrise Lakes and cross trail - turned back unable to find crossing of Tanaya Lake outlet.

Day 1: Tried to find suitable campsite for first night near Eagle Creek-Yosemite Creek confluence, trail in very poor shape, turned back and kept going and camped on Lehimite Creek. Trail between

!

Indian Canyon Cr and Lehimite lots of downed timber. No snow. Went up trail along creek in evening- also had lots of downed timber. Small trickles all along the trail where you can get water. They may not last long.

Day 2: Still water in Arch Creek, both lower on the trail and up higher past Arch Rock. but nothing in-between. Patchy snow, particularly the lower section of trail down W Fork Snow Creek. Last water past the Snow Creek Ranger Station was a seep about 200 feet below (west of) the Mt Watkins saddle. Camped at last trees on E. Buttress of Watkins, about half mile from saddle. Two small snow patches where I camped.

Day3: Quite a bit of snow in timber on the flats between Watkins saddle and Olmstead Point. This trail is in good shape with only a few downed trees. Nearly all the area downstream of Tenaya Lake is a flooded mess. Very difficult travel- like an obstacle course. 1/3 swamp 1/3 snow 1/3 meadows that are now lakes. Skeets just beginning to hatch. Tioga Road closed and officially not allowed to be on it, but construction crew guys said it was OK for me to walk up the road to get past the swamp lowlands when I was "retreating". Where the May Lake trail crosses the road, I got down the embankment and then stayed mostly on slabs, then x-c to Tenaya Creek to camp. Signage up by Tenaya Lake is very confusing. Lots of dirt trucks and cement trucks going up and down Tioga Road. The road noise seriously helped me orient myself!

Day 4: Return to Watkins Saddle, this time camped on saddle near the trail. Walk down to get water is easy.

Day 5: trail back to Snow Creek Bridge and then down to Valley via Mirror Lake. Several small trickles still have a bit of water along the trail switchbacks.

Snow patches were easy to walk on mid-morning to mid-afternoon. A bit icy early AM. More post-holes if on snow late afternoon.

[generalelectrix]

The plan was "hike to Big Lake and mess around in the Cherry Creek drainage" but there was enough water in W. Fork Cherry Creek that we decided a thigh-high ford was just not in the cards for us on this trip. Instead we explored the high ridges and canyons north of Crabtree Trail. On-trail from Crabtree TH to Gem/Jewelry Lakes, then cross-country up to Wire Lakes, the Spring Creek area, ponds NW of Spring Creek, down into the W Fork Cherry Creek canyon, up to Toejam Lake, out to tag Leopold Lake, down the drainages N of Leopold Lake into Tom's Canyon, up to Granite Lake, cross the Y Meadows dam, over the saddle to the Chewing Gum Lake drainage, then out on the Chewing Gum Lake trail to Crabtree.

At the lower elevations: plenty of water in W Fork Cherry Creek below the confluence with Buck Meadow Creek. Our original goal was Big Lake, but this crossing looked dicey enough that we changed our plans on the fly to the above itinerary. At the slower points the water looked at least thigh-high and moving pretty well. W Fork Cherry Creek above the confluence was an easy wade. Buck Meadow Creek was definitely raging; we evaluated crossing just above the confluence and again at the trail crossing S of Gem Lake and decided there was enough flow that we didn't want to risk it. We're inexperienced with early-season fords and generally conservative with objective danger, though, so Your Mileage May Vary.

At the higher elevations: still plenty of snow on north-facing slopes, though it was generally well-consolidated and easy to walk on, especially as it rained a bit overnight. There are also plenty of patches of granite poking through so we were able to avoid too much snow-slogging when trying to move uphill. Meadows are pretty soggy. Temperatures dropped overnight on 5/28 and the snow was a lot more treacherous, and stayed fairly icy into the afternoon.