4/21/2012 Marion Mtn Trip Report

[cdavis7m]

I took the Marion Mountain trail this past Saturday. I did the Suicide Rock trail a few weeks ago but this was my first time really on the mountain. I started on the trail at 7:30am and I was the only one out there. I carried 4L of water but I could have easy gotten away with only 1 or 2 liters if I had brought iodine because there were snow melt streams everywhere.

It was pretty snowy in the PCT section and I got a little lost. It took me 3 hours to get from the trail head through the PCT section, which was about 3.2 miles.

The section past the PCT to Little Round Valley was only a mile, but the snow was deep (knee high or even waist high if you took a wrong step). It took me 3 hours to go that 1 mile. Snow shoes would have helped. The trail was non-existant due to the snow so I just used the trail map and gps topo to guess my way around.

A 1:30 I decided that I'd rather get home earlier than try to summit and hope I made it home in the dark. I saw a few other groups on my way back who were going to camp where I turned around at Little Round.

Pictures for fun

[Lermo]

Thanks for the TR & photos cdavis7m! Sounds like a bit of a grind but fun. I'm heading up via Devils Slide in a couple weeks.

[Sally]

Nice work, cdavis7m! I haven't been on that side of the mountain since last summer, and I'm itchin' to get up there again. It's amazing how the little bit of snow we got this winter is still sticking around so deep in some places!

[Andy]

Wow, Marion can be a grind with no snow, let alone waist-deep post holing. Thanks for the Pics and TR!

[HH8]

It took me 3 hours to go that 1 mile.

Brutal!

Impressive first post - you even figured out pix first try!