snow conditions in Round Valley/Wellman's Divide, May 12

[bcrowell]

Wellman's Divide to San J is doable in running shoes now, although boots might be helpful if you want to keep from getting your socks wet. I brought microspikes and never put them on. Coming up to Wellman Divide, there are boot tracks in the few places where snow is unavoidable, but no postholing as long as you're able to figure out where the trail is. If you wander too far off the trail, you'll find yourself in deeper snow. Although some folks posted last weekend to say that the snow was several feet deep in this area and there was lots of postholing, that snow seems to have melted off very rapidly in the last week. IMO it's no longer a good idea to take Tamarack rather than Wellman in order to avoid snow.

I wasn't on Mihai's S2S hike, but I shared a motel room with someone who was. They got to the tram station in time to take the last tram down. Snow apparently is not a huge issue on that section of the PCT at this point.