How long for Skyline to melt off?

[Marknhj]

I can confirm that Steve looked a little shellshocked when we met him walking down the Tram Road!

It was a fun day on the trail. I went up to 5500', thought about continuing onto Flat Rock but remembered what the descent does to my toes. Coming down I ran into Tina and Doug who were en route to the Tram Station (they made it without incident in 8 hours, although Tina sent me a text saying, "it was rough..."), then met Doreen, followed by Cy's group moving steadily uphill at around 4800'. Kathryn joined me coming down. We ran into the guy Cy mentioned, in jeans, sneakers and no gear, but he said he was just going as high as he felt. No mention of going all the way.

We met a young guy at Shade rock who was dressed in all black, had no pack or water and was wearing light sandles. He was looking for a place to launch himself off the mountain on a paraglider! Discovered an advantage of hiking with Kathryn when she produced an extraordinary amount of food from her pack. We sat down and had a Cynthia-like picnic. Ten minutes later Doreen showed up but at first could only see me, with pack off and sitting on a rock. She exclaimed, "Mark, are you ok?". She laughed and made the Cynthia reference when she saw our very civilized picnic...

[Ellen]

Howdy Steve

Congratulations! I can't imagine what I would have looked like at the end of Skyline if YOU looked shell-shocked. Congratulations! Sounds like you took a similar route to the young uber hiker dude that we met at the tram.

Also want to thank Steve and Cathryn for arranging the car shuttle so that Mark, Steve and I could hike Boo Hoff to Sugarloaf last Saturday. I loved the cowboy camp and canyonlands at the end and look forward to doing this hike again.

Lance, Karin, and I did San Gorgonio yesterday. Ugh. The temperature at the summit with the wind chill was -14 degrees. Really. It took us 11 hours roundtrip. I've had enough of snow and am ready for the desert again.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[bluerail]

" Your picture gives us a good idea of what the last section is like at this time."

As I mentioned that picture was from Jan 1st, most all of that snow is gone now and from that vantage point all you see right now are traces of snow in the trees and gullies. I'm not the best to tell you the condition of the snow, I basically stepped onto it an ran like it was lava. Tina will be the one who can get descriptive as to how the snow was. Out of the 2 1/2 hours I spent up around the snow, about 30 minutes were spent dealing with it, and that was a mix of sinking through soft, to fairly hard that I could chop with my ax and would support my weight.

Hi Ellen, I talked to Karin last night and she told me about your trip. I'm glad you guys had a good one although I still think your freakish for the cold. The weather out here in the desert is perfect today. But I think were close to the end of it being like this.

I'm gonna start looking for mountain hikes, but somewhere much warmer than 14 below.

And yes, from Brett mentioning a southern facing slope we probably were in the same vicinity.

[bluerail]

Nevermind about the perfect weather I mentioned today. We just got back from a short trip up Skyline and it was amazing. Kathryn literally was picked up by the wind and carried a foot or so.
Windows were blown out in Palm Springs, power knocked out, a huge palm tree laying across Indian avenue with a Prius underneath it. All kinds of wind damage in PS.
But up about 2000' - 2500' on the trail it was really cool watching all the new vegeatation getting blown around like a prairie in a tornado.

[tinaballina]

WOW-skyline yesterday-what a hard hike. the funny thing is my legs are perfectly fine, aside from the two scrapes from hitting rocks and me slicing my own leg with my crampon (it wasn't that deep, thank god!). what is killing me are my shoulders because i carried so much damn weight up the mountain. When i saw Doreen from below, i yelled out telling her i had so much weight on my shoulders, she said she could tell from the way i was hiking. i wanted to be prepared, which is a good thing but i think i should have trained to carry that much weight before doing so straight up 8300 + feet. Live and learn.
it was great to be up skyline again for the first time this year. i went up with doug (one of my hiking friends who i feel safe with under any conditions).
We had to gear up around the first small traverse up at the top. from that point on it got real interesting, post holing and trying to follow dougs steps. i got a lesson for sure with the crampons and using my ice axe. Once we hit BFR, it was like a high came over my body, i knew then how much i missed the trail. the snow from there on up was patchy, the switch back trail is kind of lost and you just end up goling straight up the mountain. it was kind of fun doing it in the crampons because you could claw your way up the mountain. i told doug when we got to the top i felt like a lumber jack after that last pull. i was pushing logs and dead trees out of way as i clawed up.
CY, Kathryn, Mark and my queen Doreen, it was great seeing you on the trail. We never caugh up with Steve, i am just glad he made it up as well.

[Cy Kaicener]

When Tina says it was a Hard Hike - it definately was a HARD hike (in those conditions) When I felt the weight of that pack I could not believe that such a small pack could be so heavy. Its heavier than my wife's handbag which makes her list to one side a little Its better to have what you dont need than to need what you dont have. It was good seeing you again after all this time. The trail should be a lot easier in about three weeks time at about the time of a full moon.

[zippetydude]

Tina, the amount of stuff you carry in that pack is becoming legendary. Is it true you have a microwave and a portable generator in there? I'm not sure anybody could keep up with you if you just keep the pack weight down below 200 lbs.!

Great job on Skyline to all of you who went - it's rough enough battling the snow, how much rougher it must have been after already doing most of Skyline, then having to plow through it to be done! Ugh. Amazing!

z

[tinaballina]

[quote="zippetydude"]Tina, the amount of stuff you carry in that pack is becoming legendary. Is it true you have a microwave and a portable generator in there? I'm not sure anybody could keep up with you if you just keep the pack weight down below 200 lbs.!


LOL, good thing i left the make up at home, that would have put me over the limit.

[zippetydude]

Hey, where did the snow get really tough? I'm thinking about maybe doing an out and back there this weekend, with the possibility of popping out the top if this hot weather has melted off enough to make it reasonably passable.

z

[tinaballina]

after the manzanita and you switchback to the left of the mountain you then traverse, it starts around that first traverse. i ordered micro spikes to use when i go up on april 4th, will still possibly use an ice axe, not sure yet. Will you be using anything or just going up?