San J on Wednesday Jan 5

[Ellen]

Howdy All

Sally and I were eager to get back out after the recent snow. Lucky for us, Calicocat Jim broke trail on Tuesday. Even so, it was a slog in new, wet snow. We had to periodically stop and shake it off our MSR Lightning Ascents.

The later start also resulted in higher temperatures -- I got hot quickly. A few times I was tempted to snowshoe naked. At least I'd blend in with the snow due to my blonde hair and fair skin A pine dumped a bunch of fresh snow on me in the Sid Davis Drainage which cooled me off.

We headed up the south side of Miller. I scraped the snow and ice off the sign to get a picture with Sally at the summit. Now she has completed the San J Trifecta -- San Jacinto, Miller and Jean. Dropped off the ridge and headed over to San J. It was gorgeous and quite pleasant on top -- the Pacific Ocean and Salton Sea sparkled in the sunlight. We opted to forgo the hut and had a quick lunch on the summit before heading down. The snow was too soft to gilissade.

As I was quaffing a Sam Adams Winterfest, I realized that I've been up five times in the last seven days. All of these have been in different weather conditions and with different friends. I'm blessed to have such a wonderful mountain and hiking buddies.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[Sally]

It really was a gorgeous day. T-shirt weather! Thanks Ellen, it was great adding Miller to my list of bagged peaks. Sorry there's so many pictures but I was trying to get material for hubby to stitch into panorama shots. Here are the pics, panoramas by Larry: http://picasaweb.google.com/sallymorley ... directlink

[Cy Kaicener]

5 times in seven days reminds me of Sid Davis who climbed SJ on 366 consecutive days and 639 times total
If you are wondering what is the most climbed mountain in America, here is a link
http://angeles.sierraclub.org/hps/archives/hps01469.htm
I climbed my first Skyline with Sid Davis in the mid sixties

[philmoores]

if it doesnt snow then will i need snow shoes next weekend on SJ?

[zippetydude]

Good question philmoores. I was wondering the same thing. I'm thinking if we just follow Ellen's tracks, it probably already looks like a sidewalk! Ellen, you've gone crazy! That's a lotta times up that mountain. Maybe I can try out my new Icebug running shoes - not too much traction, but probably just enough if the trail is well packed.

So, whatcha say? Snowshoes or no?

z

[Ellen]

Howdy All

You will have no problem following the snowshoe track(s) up the Sid Davis Drainage to Tamarack and up the Miller Saddle to the ridge and summit.

On Saturday I saw people in microspikes only, boots only, crampons and snowshoes. I put snowshoes on at the ranger station and took them off there on my return.

Sunday I wore microspikes to about 10 K. I switched to snowshoes when I started post-holing once I went off the track. I headed over to the little forest where the old Tamarack path connects with the main trail. I headed up the saddle and ran into other snowshoe tracks -- it looked like they had came up the main trail from Wellman's. I followed those tracks and summited Jean. Tested out the new cell phone again and called Karin

Then I headed over the ridge (windy with blowing snow) to San Jacinto. The wind on the ridge had created snow waves. I met some of Kathy Wing's group and my Skyline friend Rita and her daughter Jennifer on the summit. Folks wore a variety of snowshoes -- MSRs, Tubbs and Atlas (including rentals) and did not have issues losing their footing on the descent.

On the ridge and on the Miller Saddle, the snowshoe track was a bit icy. I prefer descending in fresh snow -- easier on my joints. Once back in Tamarack, the snow got slushy. I switched to microspikes to come down the Sid Davis drainage.

I think we're potentially moving into the melting and refreezing stage where the main track could be icy early in the day and then soften up a bit.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[zippetydude]

Thanks Ellen.

Hey, you really seem to be on a roll lately - keep it up! I hope to be out that way soon - maybe I'll run into some crazy hikin' fools on the trail.

z