snow conditions, tramshoeing, 11/26

[bcrowell]

Be prepared to spend lots of time switching between boots, crampons, and snowshoes. The gully below the Jean/San J saddle is doable with snowshoes, but deep drifts of unconsolidated snow make it very heavy going in places. Jean is doable in snowshoes, but may be time-consuming, and possibly hazardous if you get a snowshoe caught between rocks. There seems to be a good boot-track on the summer trail from about 10000' to the summit, but I can't vouch for the whole thing, because we didn't cover 100% of the summer trail.

[Kathryn61]

We went up yesterday, the 26th and had an awesome time with great friends! Half of the group did Jean in snowshoes and we all did San J and Miller. We spent the day switching from microspikes to snowshoes and back. There was no need for crampons. At times we encountered snow that was light, fluffy powder, at others solid ice, at other times slush and at others dirt! Overall it was a great day up there. For pictures of the conditions yesterday please see:

http://www.meetup.com/Hiking-Coachella- ... s/4649832/

Kathryn

[Sally]

Thanks for the conditions report, bcrowell. Sounds like a real mixed bag!

Great pics, Kathryn!

[bcrowell]

Thanks for the correction, Kathryn. I should have referred to microspikes, not crampons.