Current WRR conditions request

[Brad Rogers]

I am heading out to do the Wind River High Route (Wilson-Dixon modified) on Saturday.  Does anyone have any recent condition reports?

Bugs – I assume gone by now

Creek Crossings?

Snowfield Conditions – particularly on Alpine Pass?

Road conditions to Green River Lakes and Big Sandy?

Etc?

[Randy Nelson]

Hey Brad,

Not sure how much help this will be. I was over on the Reservation and got back last weekend. Bugs are gone and streams were low. But you know how quickly things can change there. Have fun!

[BlackHatGuy]

Hi Brad,

I was in the Winds ~ Aug. 22-28 or 29 (don’t remember exactly which day we hiked out).

Road: We drove in to Green River Lakes and out Big Sandy. No issues. Roads were fine, not overly potholed, a bit washboardy (is that a word?) on parts coming out of Big Sandy, but not bad (we were in a Dodge Caravan, I believe).

Creek crossings: Nothing bad. The CDT likes to go right through creeks, so we had to ford a couple of them, but nothing that got up to our knees (a bit above mid-calf on one).

Bugs: Not bad at all. We had a few in a couple of places, but most of our hiking seemed bug-free.

Snowfield: Sorry I can’t be of much help here. We went over Knapsack Col, which had a bit of snow, more on the Titcomb Basin side than the Peak Lake side (we had a short but fun little glissade session coming down the Titcomb Basin side). Later in the trip we camped a few miles from Shadow Lake on what turned out to be our last night there. We were planning on going over Texas and Jackass passes, but sleet/hail/rain/snow started falling on us around 3 am and didn’t stop. I got a weather report on my inReach in the morning, and it called for the possibility of heavy snow with a winter weather advisory – something we weren’t really outfitted for – so we decided to walk in to Big Sandy instead. We had sleet, then rain, falling on us for a good bit of the walk in.

Hope that helps some. Below are a couple of pics of Knapsack Col, from both sides, to give you an idea of what snow was like at that time (our third day of the week-long trip, it had rained pretty hard the night before, so there was a bit of new snow up there, but this was well before the end-of-trip winter weather advisory).

Looking up at the Col.

Looking back from partway up the Col.

Coming down the other side.

Another view of coming down.

[Brad Rogers]

Thanks for the help! That’s a lot more snow than I had on Knapsack Col last time I was there in late August 2012.

[Seth R]

Well, I was at Elkhart Park last Saturday but that’s as close as I got. Took my family to see where I started the previous month.

I did Indian and Alpine passes but my info is a month old. Tons of snow on Knifepoint glacier, up Alpine pass, and down in to Alpine Lakes. I used microspikes and it was sketchy. I lost so much time in Alpine Lakes that I had to abandon my semi-high route. I’m sure that has all changed by now but they did get snowfall last week too. I would call Great Outdoor Shop in Pinedale for the fresh beta.

[Brad Rogers]

Just got back yesterday from the WRHR.  No snow on the west side of Knapsack Col but lots of snow on the east side. Twins Glacier can be crossed without spikes.

Knifepoint Glacier has some sections of blue ice and probably shouldn’t be attempted without spikes

Snowfield on the south side of Alpine Pass is steep and shouldn’t be attempted without an ice ax, though it can be bypassed on the east side on talus.

Alpine Lakes Basin has a couple of sections of snow that I wouldn’t have been comfortable without spikes, but could probably be done- just with a swim if you slip.

Everything else is good.  It is a great route!

[ed hyatt]

A friend did the route over the last week-10 days; reported no problems.

His picture of Alpine Lakes:

 

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