by kkeating » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:43 pm
I was up there yesterday and today. Using the main trail, you indeed could get to Round Valley without snowshoes or crampons but only awkwardly: some icy patches, some sinkholes.
After overnighting in Round Valley I took a different route back to the Tram, and you definitely needed snowshoes on that one--lots of postholing otherwise. Everyone I saw passing through Round Valley campground was on snowshoes--some of them were coming from the peak, others were headed to Tamarack Valley.
This morning the air was perfectly still, there were no clouds, and, once the sun hit, it was almost shirtsleeve weather.