I took the 9 Boy Scouts and 7 adults snow camping at Carson Pass the weekend of March 15, 16 at 865o feet.
There is a snow gauge across from the Meiss Meadow Trailhead that barely showed 8 feet. The snow was rapidly consolidating, shrinking in depth.
We headed west following the XC ski trail that heads to Woods Lake and found some places with drifts that gave us 8 to 10 feet of snow to build caves. I was hoping for a lot more snow given the big storms that have come in between Jan 1 and March 15.
The weather was glorious. Spring snow camping is wonderful. The snow was very carvable which made the cave building go quickly. Get out there while you can. There are many other routes from Carson Pass for snow shoes or skis going North or South. Check out Libkind’s Snowlands.org for maps and routes. CalTopo also now enables you to map slopes and avalanche risks.
https://tours.snowlands.org
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