Tram to Mt. San Jucinto peak

[NECAAK]

I am looking for a current trail report for the top of the tram to Mt. San Jucinto Peak. I am in town for a long weekend and was hoping to do the hike this Thursday (3/20). I understand the rigors of high altitude and I have all of the gear I could need. When I planned the trip to Palm Springs a couple months ago, I guess I was hoping for a dry winter, but from some other reports I have seen it looks like there's some significant snow cover. I have spikes, but I am more worried about significant stretches of post-holing. After a couple hundred yards of that, you just aren't having fun anymore. I'd be happy to snowshoe too, if necessary, although I'm not wild about checking my snowshoes with the airlines. Also, what kind of daytime temps should I expect between the tram and peak? Thanks very much for any info you can provide!

[jonSanDiego]

Hey let me know how it goes! My gf and I are training for it, only 2 weeks lol, but we just finished a 5.6 mile 1600 ft elevation change hike on Saturday. this was up to 6500~ ft. (cuyamaca peak trail)

This Saturday day we are planning on hiking the highest peak in San Diego county (Hot Springs Mountain trail) . I was telling her we should do this hike 1.5 times lol. Maybe hike to the top which is 21 ft higher than cuyamaca. Hike down half way and hike back up again for a total of 7 miles.

What do you guys think? Hopefully we won't need spikes but will definitely be picking up some poles for the hikes.

[NECAAK]

Jon - I will be sure to give a trail report when I get back. Without much more feed back re my questions, I'm just going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best! Tim

[jonSanDiego]

Tim,

The weather is looking great for you this thursday! I checked the forecast for next week and it's showing 20-40% chance of rain on thursday. It's looking like I won't get to even attempt the hike.

Either way we'll be getting in a hike this weekend as training in case we get a chance to try.

Jonathan

[Sally]

I did the tram to the Peak yesterday with my daughter. There was no post-holing., so don't bother packing your snowshoes, NECAAK ! Microspikes came in handy but were not necessary. We put them on and took them off a few times. The weather was perfect, maybe a little on the warm side.

[NECAAK]

Thanks for the 411 Sally! I am heading up tomorrow a.m. Looking forward to it!

[bengrunbaum]

Hello Sally. Is that picture from your hike yesterday? That is a surprising amount of snow at the top if it is. There is almost no snow at the long valley camera on the Tram website.

[Sally]

No, Ben, that picture was taken at San Jacinto Peak a few years back during an epic snow year! I WISH it was like that this year. I will try to post pictures from last Tuesday later this AM.

[jonSanDiego]

Thanks for the info sally, do they rent out microspikes at the top? I heard they rent out snow shoes.

weather.com forecast calls for scattered showers 30% next friday when i was planning on this hike, saturday says mostly sunny, hopefully we can reach the peak on saturday.

will microspikes be required the day after rain?

[Sally]

jon, I don't think the Adventure Center rents out Microspikes, but you most likely will not need them unless it gets cold and things ice up.

When they forecast a 30% chance of rain it usually doesn't happen. It is hard to predict a week in advance. If it does precipitate it will hopefully be in the form of snow in the higher elevations.