Good early season Sierra trip?

Justin,

I’m planning to head out from Mammoth on 5/25, hike around the Minarets area, head over the pass by Banner Peak, and then do some kind of loop to the north perhaps following the SHR, then returning via Donohue.   It’s a beautiful area, I’m looking forward to seeing it under snow.   I don’t know if it’s too high for you, mostly 9k-10k’, but the terrain is not too difficult.   The easiest area is probably around Thousand Island, Garnet, Nydiver, Ediza Lakes;  there’s some slightly more challenging terrain around the lakes further south (Iceberg, Cecile, Minaret);  and the far (west) side of the pass has more difficult areas, and of course doing the pass would add a bit more elevation.

I have been around that area, very nice. A bit of a drive though. Do you think the roads to the trail heads up there would be open before June?

I will probably go in from Horseshoe Lake, over Mammoth Pass.    I often just hike in to Red’s that way even when the roads to the valley are open, the bus service is painfully disorganized and slow.

Are you planning on bringing snowshoes? Traction devices or ice axe?

I’m not bringing snowshoes, the snow should be packed down pretty well, I’ll aim to hike from dawn to early afternoon to minimize postholing.   K-10 crampons and an ice axe.

If you want to stay below 9 or 10 thousand feet, I’d recommend the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne loop (over Grants Pass in the south then back up the GCT). It will be spectacular that time of year, and you’ll only have to deal with moderate snow in the higher sections. Nothing goes above 10k feet, and almost everything is below 9. The road should be open by then.

Being as you’re from Santa Rosa, Desolation Wilderness may be perfect for what your asking for. Close by, easy access, and no fording of rivers.

Grand Canyon Tolumne is definitely a consideration, havent been to desolation yet so I need to check that out. How about tehipite valley? I’ve been wanting to do that one for a while.

Ok, I am planning on doing a trip starting about June 1st. Can anyone give me a general idea of snow conditions out there right now? I’ve been backpacking in the Sierra 5 years and other than 2011 those were all drought years. I don’t mind challenging myself but nothing too serious.

Coming from Santa Rosa you might want to consider driving up past Huntington Lake to the Edison and Florence Lake areas. The road puts you pretty deep into great territory.

A few people died on Mt. Baldy this year and there is an article in Backpacker about someone slipping and falling 1000 feet off ice. If you don’t have training you might want to avoid large northern snow-covered slopes.

For the best map of snow condition in the Sierra, check out this interactive map set from the PCT group:

http://www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/maps-and-guidebooks/

If you click on the snow depth feature, you can get a very good and up-to-date sense of the coverage.  Be advised that North faces will have more snow, South faces less.  And the big issue right now is melting snow and roaring rivers and creeks that make crossings dangerous.  Be careful.

(If you’ve been following this map for a while, you know that the most recent storm dropped about 2-6 inches on a lot of places.  That’s why a conditions report from somebody ten days ago isn’t going to help as much as you might think…but there should be less snow on June 1, if things proceed as normal!)

Paul,

any idea how old that snow depth info on the map is? or how often it is updated?

billy

If you are planning to do Tehipite, you should absolutely have people with you. NEVER try that alone. SAR has pulled people out of that area in helicopters every single year. The trails are not maintained from the west end and the switchbacks are ATROCIOUSLY steep and eventually vanish into deep leaves, and the trails from Kings Canyon are going to lead you to Simpson Meadow, where you have to cross the Kings River, and there is no bridge – it will be extremely dangerous early.

Cherry Lake? just outside of Yosemite. Hike up on the ridge; or drop down to cherry creek and explore the canyons.

“the trails from Kings Canyon are going to lead you to Simpson Meadow, where you have to cross the Kings River, and there is no bridge ”

You mean the huge log for crossing the Kings River is gone?

Long time since I was there, but used to be a REALLY big log to cross.

Billy

Used to be a lot of things out there, hard to say after the Rough Fire what’s what. I was hoping that the fire would clean off the switchbacks but the fire seems to have avoided the valley and burnt mostly the forest to the south.

I know that there are crossings — it’s also been done canyoneering from Yucca Flats up the river, but only in summer, not during snow melt.

In any case, there are trail closures, into Monarch and up the Lewis and Hotel trails. Copper is open. It’s now an interesting drive into the canyon, and already very busy with Rae Lakes hopefuls brave enough to attempt Glen Pass without snow gear… I gave some of them a hairy eyeball when we were up in Paradise on a day hike. They usually just turn around…. Granite Pass is going to be pretty solid snow, for some weeks now.

Lori, why should I not do Tehipite Valley without other people? Unless those people knew the trail in. I’ve done hard cross country routes and had trails disappear in front of me before, so it’s not like that would be anything new for me. Not saying I couldn’t get horribly lost but I know what I would be getting into.

Good call on the Florence Lake idea, I would like to explore the evolution canyon area. Only issue I have with that is I hate those 10+ mile approaches through boring lodgepole pine forests.

There is a book called Angels in the Wilderness, by a veteran solo backpacker who broke both her legs falling off a switchback on the way to Tehipite. She was there for days. Fortunately for her, three of the handful of people who attempt that trip every year were coming through and went for help.

In summer it’s a hot place, in spring it’s difficult due to high water levels.

People go down there, can’t cross the creeks to get to the river crossing to go out the other direction, can’t climb back up the horrible switchbacks, and Fresno SAR goes looking for them. The trail vanishes somewhere along the way in the deep leaf litter.

Add to that the likelihood of the trail into that end of the valley being closed — trail closures are in effect due to hazardous dead trees after the Rough Fire, and the Crown valley area was burnt — and the snow over Granite Pass, and it’s a pretty tough destination.

I’ve been in there solo. With a 50lb pack. It was actually easy compared to hiking up the wrong side of Goddard Creek  :)

Or maybe it was the 8 foot tall stinging thistle bushes that I have to wade through that was the hardest part…

But, no… this is not a trip for anyone looking for an easy hike on a maintained trail.

Billy

I would hike in from Wishon Resevoir. I understand how that trail could get people in trouble but I’m an experienced backpacker with some experience completing complicated cross country routes. If there was no trail into the valley I would still attempt to get in there without much worry, as long as we weren’t talking climbing down granite cliffs.

Lori, that’s why I carry a PLB, mostly for an injury. Faster than having a friend hike out or waiting for SAR to find me several days later.

Why would someone not be able to get back up the switchbacks? Exhaustion?

“Why would someone not be able to get back up the switchbacks? ”

I can’t speak for Lori, but ‘the switchbacks’ mostly aren’t there… and/or hard to find

It is overgrown in a lot of places… bushes, trees, leaves… and VERY steep in places. It’s basically a very steep bushwack in lots of sections.

billy

Which route are we talking about? Some members on here hiked in from wishon reservoir a couple years ago and it didn’t look like they had much trouble, just a really steep descent down into the valley.

from wishon reservoir

but many years ago.. so maybe they did some ‘trail’ maintenance since… but I doubt it…

Maybe you could call the park service and see if they maintain it now…

I would go in there solo again… but maybe not early season… the trial the parallels the river crosses several streams coming in from the side and they are likely to be raging this time of year. I did it in August and there were several waders… might be hard or impossible to get across them this time of year…

billy

Though if you did get in there this time of year, I bet the raging waters would be impressive!

billy