Spectacular Day on Sat 12.27.08

[Ranboze]

If there'such a thing as a perfect winter day on San Jacinto, Saturday was it. It was a comfortable 35 degrees and the two day old fresh snow had a bit of a hard pack so snoeshing was perfect. The trail had been broken, but there wasn't a myriad of trails either. The virgin blanket of snow was simply beautiful. The folks I was with were not interested in going to the summit so we planned on going to Wellman Divide, but we followed the one and only track across the Round Valley Meadow which led towards Jean Peak, putting us several hundred yards north of the Divide [obviously I have a lot to learn about this mountain]. We hit our turn around time and didn't get to the Divide. Regardless... just spectacular.

At 4pm, there was a 2-hour wait to get UP the mountain at the lower tram station. Our wait to get down was about 45 minutes.

Pix are here

[NormaR]

robin,
glad you had a spectacular day on San J! every time i am up there in the snow, i find it just magical.
happy new year!
norma

[KathyW]

It is really beautiful up there in the winter - sounds like you had a great day.

[Ranboze]

Thanx Norma and Kathy. Magical... yes, indeed.

[zippetydude]

Cool post and nice pics! I'm with you on the turnaround time - with snowshoeing, the distances take so much longer, it's really a lot more fun if you just go out there and take it all in, without really worrying about making any particular peak, etc. I run out of time on most of my snow adventures way before I run out of trail! Just as often, I run into a patch of ice I can't get around, so I end up wandering back down anyway. Just as magical!

z