C2C Partial Today

[magikwalt]

I went up to 4,000 this morning along with my son and hiking partner Chuck. We got to see Doreen coming down from 5,000 and we all bemoaned the too much snow for a through hike. Boy she makes hiking look easy!

On the way down we chatted with a 20 something year old from somewhere else who had a slight British or New Zealander accent. He was headed for the tram. He had an axe and crampons but seemed to not be liking the heat too much. He was hiking alone, 12:05pm and was taking a break at 2700ft. Sure hope he reaches Long Valley before its dark.

[Cy Kaicener]

I started at 5 am on Skyline today and hiked up to the metal police sign at 1700 feet. On the way down I saw Doreen at the picnic tables and the young New Zealander starting at 7 am. which is too late to beat the heat. I then walked up the tram road where Kathy passed me by car and said Hi. The temperature at Long Valley at 9.30 am was a balmy 48 degrees which is twenty degrees warmer than last Saturday. There was still two feet of great snow at Long Valley. I am sure Kathy would have made the peak in packed down snow which was not icy below Round Valley.

[magikwalt]

Hi Cy,

It can't be the same guy then. We didn't start until 8:15am and I'm sure we didn't hike past him. I guess he could have forgotten something and didn't start at 7:00am.

[guest]

Hey guys,

I snowshoed down 2/3 of the way to Coffmans's Crag on Fri around 1:30, was sinking in 4-8". No footprints, so no one had come up at that time. The snow was good & fairly predictable that time of day, but I DON'T recommend Skyline at his time, (I'm saying this for others who read this, as you locals already know better?!.
You'd have a very strenuous climb from Flat Rock on, the snow makes it even steeper.
Nice temps for sure.

ss

[KathyW]

Those must have been your snowshoe prints I saw at about 3:30 on Friday - it looked only like uphill prints to me but obviously you went down too.

[guest]

Hi Kathy,
Those were probably mine, I purposely tried to enter & exit the top of the trail in not too obvious places, as many people wander over there & just follow prints down. I've run into several people on the top part of Skyline who thought it was part of the Desert Overlook trail, or something.
So of course I told them to just keep hiking down until they see the Starbucks!! lol

The lower areas, say flat rock to Rocky Ridge before the traverse, are probably melting & freezing, not much fun.

ss

[Perry]

I've run into several people on the top part of Skyline who thought it was part of the Desert Overlook trail, or something.

well it's a very steep overlook of the desert. a couple years ago i saw a wading pool just above the traverse, near coffman's. apparently somebody was using it as a sled and left it there. i don't think they could get that up the tram, so maybe the maintenance guys were using it for something and somebody stole it.

[Cy Kaicener]

My friend Quang Than and his partner did Skyline in ten hours last Friday. He said that there was no snow up to Flat Rock and never needed crampons after that. Snow shoes were necessary. He had to work very hard to make it and praised the footprints from Coffmans Crag. One cold night could change all this as conditions can change daily. I E mailed Kathy a copy of his trip report and maybe she will post it. I cant copy and paste.

Cy,
>
> Here is the trip report for last Friday:
>
> We left the museum at 7:30 am. The first part went OK. We were a
> little slow. There was one other hiker but he was out just for a short
> day hike. We did not anyone else all day.
>
> We got to the flat rock without seeing snow. We left it at about 1:15
> pm after taking a nap. About 30 minutes after the flat rock, we had to
> put on snow shoes because of the deep snow. I had to use a lot of
> memory recall to try to figure out where the trail is because it was all
> buried in deep snow. And there was no trail in the snow. We were the
> first to hike that section since the storm the week before.
>
> About half an hour to the col at the end of the hike, we ran into the
> snow shoes tracks of someone who apparently went down to explore the
> first part of the trail. This angel saved us a lot of work as the going
> was hard in deep snow. We used only snow shoes and hiking poles because
> the snow is still soft so no crampons and ice axe were needed. But the
> snow was not too soft; it has consolidated some. So it was relatively
> safe to do the traverse toward the tram station and we did not have to
> swim in the soft snow. But it was very hard work and there were only
> two of us to make trail.
>
> We got to the tram station at 5:30 pm, a 10-hour day, just when it gets
> dark. We had enough so we went down. We did not take pictures beyond
> the flat rock. No winds at all. Very nice conditions.
>
> Please let me know if you have any questions.
> Quang