Snow from tram?

[tekewin]

Hoping to hike from the tram to San Jacinto and maybe Jean Peak on Sunday.

Can anyone comment on the current snow levels and whether snow shoes are a must?

[Grover]

Ditto,
I am planning a backpack trip to Round Valley and I am interested in the snow conditions in the camp sites.

Is there a place to check snow conditions other than just getting current temperatures?

This is my first time on the hill so I appreciate any help on this.

Grover

[tekewin]

It looks like part of the answer is in the Leatherneck Ridge post:

We had lunch on Harvard Peak. The weather was perfect- in the high 50s with a slight breeze. Dagmar said that she was going to start heading back towards the tram and climb Yale Peak along the way. I headed off towards San Jacinto Peak just before 1pm. We planned to meet back at the tram at 4pm. From Harvard Peak, I headed west to a saddle between Harvard and Cornell Peak, then dropped down into Tamarack Valley and onto the Sid Davis Trail. The trail was mostly covered by snow, and I would periodically find and loose it. Eventually I gave up finding the trail and headed for the base of Jean Peak, where the Sid Davis trail joins the main San Jacinto Peak Trail. The snow was soft and I was postholing up to my knees in some areas. The main trail turned out to be free of snow, allowing me to jog up the gradual incline at a steady pace. When I reached Miller Saddle, I broke off from the main trail and decided to take a shortcut on a east ridge of San Jacinto Peak (aka. "Ellen's Shortcut" and "The Winter Route"). I had done this route several times before as a snowshoe hike. This turned out to be a bad decision. The snow was really soft and every step was a knee deep posthole. It took me over 20 minutes to get to San Jacinto Peak from Miller Saddle.

It sounds like the main trail might be snow free or have minimal snow, while anything off trail or a lesser used trail might have knee deep snow. I am planning to bring my snow shoes, but I might not need them except for Jean Peak, which will be a game day decision for me. You can also get some sense of the snow levels from the great pictures.

[WhitneytoJacinto]

Went from Humber Park up Devil's Slide to the Peak yesterday [b](4/04)[/b]. I should have brought my microspikes and hiking poles, although it wasn't a huge problem not having them.
In the shady parts, the trail was covered with snow and we lost the trail several times. We were postholing quite frequently.
In the sunny parts, there's no snow at all and the trail is dry. The weather was perfect, probably in the 50's, perfect for a liner and thin sweatshirt. Saw almost no other hikers but spotted what I think was a mountain lion running away.

[tekewin]

Thanks for the info, WhitneytoJacinto! (except the lion part, yikes)

I'll bring my spikes and leave the snow shoes at home. Also thanks for the weather and temp report. I've been trying to figure out how many layers to bring. 50F sounds downright balmy.

This will be my first time on San Jacinto. I'm pretty excited.

[guest]

Hi,
In case you haven't already done the hike, here's some more info.
I went up from Tram on Thur, but we went up Sid Davis drainage, (approx. 1/2 mile from ranger Sta, instead of going through Round Valley & Wellman's Divide.
No snow to speak of until 9k. Once we hit Tamarack Valley, there was about 50%+ coverage, we we're able to avoid most of it. After leaving Tam Meadow, we hit more, and it was deeper, 6"-1ft. and about 60% coverage.

Folks we met at the peak, mentioned lots of snow from Round Valley to Wellman's, which is usual, as this is north facing & gets little sun.
Once we hit the boulder field, (approaching 10k ft.), we hit the main trail, whic is south facing, it was clear all the way until the last jct. (1/4 mile from peak), where it was patchy but not a problem.
Some areas along the way were hard-packed, some slushy, and, if close to rocks or downed trees, you can post-hole a couple feet.
I'd bring poles (& maybe micro-spikes), which you can probably do without in most places.
Temps were amazing at close to 60 all the way, with a lite breeze, (could be blowing by now though).
Have fun,
ss

[tekewin]

Going sunday, appreciate the update. I'll drop a couple of layers based on your post and link a trip report when I get home.

[tekewin]

I hiked Sunday and the conditions were almost exactly as described by "guest".

Here is my trip report with some pictures. I'll add more to the report later:

http://ironhiker.blogspot.com/2013/04/mt-san-jacinto-and-miller-peak.html

I didn't make it to Jean Peak, the snow discouraged me from making my last goal.

[guest]

Hey Tekewin,

Glad you had a good time, nice TR & photos.
Bad subject, but did you happen to smell the poop on the peak, some yahoo actually did it right up in the boulders, (couldn't even hike 5 mins. down to the dirt & dig a cat-hole, geeez.

Anyway, good job.

ss

[tekewin]

Bad subject, but did you happen to smell the poop on the peak, some yahoo actually did it right up in the boulders, (couldn't even hike 5 mins. down to the dirt & dig a cat-hole, geeez.

Haha, no, I didn't smell or see anything poopy on the summit. I'm glad I didn't even know about it. My memory remains unspoiled.