Snow Creek Village To Aerial Tram Mountain Station

[davidalynn]

Smiles, good to see you up there, hope you had a good day. We didn't quite get off the mountain till after dark, but had a great day. Always fun to take first-timers up. No mishaps, good weather, all worked out. Well, except for somehow getting confused on a switchback on the way up the desert side and going back down for a mile or so before we acknowledged it had gotten way too easy to keep running...

[Ellen]

Howdy All
Sally and I started hiking a little after 3 AM on Sunday. It was quite windy which effectively killed any attempt to converse and, in addition to the darkness, also slowed our pace. When the sun finally rose, we could see a huge layer of dust over the Coachella valley due to the wind. As a result, the sunrise was a dud. There was significant erosion of the trail in certain areas and the trail was choked with brush starting at about 4 K. I finally gave in and donned pants and a long sleeved shirt
after getting my left leg gashed several times.

Due to the obnoxious wind and chilly temperature, we enjoyed the radiant heat of the sun – not our normal reaction to hiking in the desert. As we approached the ghost forest (burned trees), it was evident that someone had worked on the trail. We switchbacked up through the rocks (this section always reminds me of a movie set for a western) and finally reached the pine trees on the north side of Fuller Ridge. It took us 6 hours to reach Black Mountain road. It seemed to take forever to reach the Fuller Ridge TH where we stopped for lunch a bit after 11 am. We donned down sweaters and beanies to stay warm while we sat and ate. Sally immediately put on her gloves -- I’d had mine on for the past several hours. My hands are more sensitive to the cold due to frost bite.

We resumed hiking around 11:30, still wearing our down sweaters and beanies. No matter how fast I tried to hike, I couldn’t get warm and my hands started to go bad. My friend Erica calls this pain “the screaming barkies.” Sally saved me by switching gloves – hers were Seirus; mine were Manzilla wind-stopper. It seemed to get a bit warmer after the Castle Rocks so we removed our down and Smart Wool long sleeved shirts. Big mistake – we wound up back in the shade and freezing again -- ugh Put the Smart Wool shirts on again. When we reached our first stream on the Fuller Ridge trail, we felt vindicated – it was completely frozen over.

It was a relief to reach the Deer Springs junction and climb up the “three bears” to Little Round Valley. We finally encountered our first hikers of the day, who were descending and not very courteous about yielding the trail. Bed Springs was partially frozen and the next stream had a beautiful ice cascade. We took a quick fuel break in LRV before heading up the endless switchbacks. By LRV, I knew I was not up to the summit and Sally concurred. When we reached the junction, it was 4 PM – we’d been out 13 hours. Took another short break for a celebratory toast, then started down the main trail.

The sun was setting on the descent, casting a beautiful pyramidal shadow over the desert floor. We were surprised to see a significant number of folks heading up -- many of them were completing C2C. We diverted from the trail at around 10 K and descended cross country to Tamarack valley. We wound our way over to the Sid Davis drainage. It was a relief to rejoin the main trail. Even Heartbreak hill (climb to the ranger station) and the cement switchbacks were welcome sights. We reached the tram at 7 PM – 16 hours and my absolutely hardest Snowcreek PCT hike Tram Tim welcomed us, Frank supplied us with anesthetic beverages, Jessica brought us yummy chili and security kindly took us down the tram road to my car.

It may be quite a while before I do this hike again. Thanks to Sister Sally for her unwavering friendship (even in the hypothermia zone) and for continuing to join me on these crazy treks
Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[smiles]

Hello all,

I was a little slower putting out a trip report than Ellen -- but hers is well detailed! My buddy Jason, and I headed up from Snow Creek Village as planned on Saturday -- but we ended up starting later than planned (about 4am instead of 2:30) since Jason got off work later than expected the evening before. We too, were greeted by high winds and blowing sand from the get go (my eyes are still suffering today!). We made steady progress up the never ending switchbacks of the desert slope. Jason started to get cramping in his legs at 5,000 feet -- but I introduced him to some Hammer Endurance Pills (as recommended by mjordon). He quickly recovered and was good to go for the rest of this hike.

Temps got colder and colder with elevation gain as expected. We arrived at Fuller Ridge Campground around noon and spent the better part of an hour there. I enjoyed my MRE for lunch. Davidalynn and 2 of his buddies passed us up at the campground (nice to meet you Dave). Fuller Ridge was awesome. Clear skies over the Coachella Valley to our left, a thick marine layer below us over the inland empire to our right -- and vaporizing clouds over the San Gorgonio Pass behind us. As the afternoon wore on and the fatigue starting setting in, I got a little frustrated when we had to lose some elevation, only to re-gain it prior to the Deer Springs Trail junction.

When we hit Little Round Valley, the sun was getting low and the wind chill was kicking in (4 o'clock hour). We met a group of campers pitching their tent for the night, and donned our beanie hats / gloves, and an extra layer on top. Unfortunately for us, we made the summit in darkness (exactly 5:30pm) -- or 13.5 hours after we started. We did not spend much time up there due to the miserably cold high winds -- and man was it dark without a moon!

It took a few minutes to find our correct way back down toward the trail junction 0.3 mile below the summit. We then made a beeline for the tram, staying on the trail through Round Valley and Long Valley. At 7:55pm, we arrived at the Mountain Station -- almost exactly 16 hours on the trail like Ellen! We were the only visitors at the station! They closed up the cafeteria and restaurant early and we rode down with about 6 employees at 8:30pm. That was my wildest tram ride ever. They said they were running it at reduced speed due to the high winds. We were rocking from side to side with the doors rattling! It was cool to see fireworks going off down below toward Palm Desert. As we came to a bumpy end at the Valley Station, what felt like a hurricane gust blew by as the doors started to open -- the doors shuttered to a stop halfway open. The operator reset them to get them open, just as the next gust blew over a chair and full trash can on the loading deck. A nice dramatic end to an epic hike. I can't wait to do this again -- after a couple C2C's in the meantime

[Sally]

Congrats, smiles, on a super accomplishment, and thanks for the great write-up. It sounds as though Ellen and I have the same pace as you and your hiking partner. It's too bad that our hiking dates weren't in sync.

Ellen, thanks for a great day...yes I have convinced myself that it was a great day indeed despite the suffering. There is some beautiful scenery to take in along that trail!

Here are the pictures of the day's adventure. Unfortunately I only got one shot on Fuller Ridge, the one with the frozen spring. It was too cold to stop and take off my gloves and shoot pictures!

https://picasaweb.google.com/1009477359 ... directlink

[zippetydude]

Hi everyone. I thought about all of you on Sunday as I had a chance to do Black Mountain Trail. It's short, so it was good for rehab, and it happens to be on the same side of the mountain as your path. I was amazed at how cold it got at the top, and Black Mountain is only 7772'. You were considerably higher, so you must have been freezing in that icy wind! Anyway, I am glad all had a successful adventure despite the conditions! Congrats!

z

[cynthia23]

Big props to Smiles, Ellen, and Sally for their epic endurance and excellent TR's. It sounds like .... fun? Ok, maybe not fun. But memorable!

Congratulations!