Villager and Rabbit Peak This Weekend?

[travis99]

I am possibly thinking about hitting Villager and Rabbit Peaks as a dayhike this Sunday. Anyone have any idea of the conditions? I am thinking that at these lower elevations that the snow should not be an issue and all I would expect are patches near the top. Can anyone confirm this? Do you think it would be reasonable to include Rosa Point in this dayhike? Hike Villager to Rabbit and the detour to hike Rosa Point on the return.

Input apprecatied,

Here are a few maps showing some of the routes we are thinking of.

http://www.gpsmountaineering.com/rabbitandvillagerpeaks

[halhiker]

I don't think there's a lot of snow but there is some. There is more snow on the San Jacintos than the Santa Rosas but it's hard to tell how much from down here. I talked to a lady today who was up near the Cactus Spring trailhead (about 4200 feet) and she said there was some snow on the ground there. At the Tram there is about two feet of new snow and about five feet at the top. A friend of mine went up yesterday and said the cabin is almost covered on San Jacinto. Tomorrow AM I'll look and guess how low the snow is on Martinez (an easy view from my house) because it's about the same elevation as Rabbit.

Hal

[halhiker]

Went out this AM and both Martinez and Rabbit look clear of snow. I guess other areas got snow because of some spillover from San Jacinto but the southern Santa Rosa look to be snow free.

Hal

[simonov]

Let us know how it goes. I'm heading up there for an overnight 23-24 Feb.

[travis99]

Went out this AM and both Martinez and Rabbit look clear of snow. I guess other areas got snow because of some spillover from San Jacinto but the southern Santa Rosa look to be snow free.

Hal

thanks for checking, I didn't think there would be much but for a trek like this I don't want any surprises.

[travis99]

Let us know how it goes. I'm heading up there for an overnight 23-24 Feb.

Will do, I read your other post and checked out your GPS track, it definetly is gooing to be a tough hike. Including Santa Rosa is not really feasible unless we can set up a char shuttle, it pushes it up to 24 miels and over 10,000 ft elevation gain.

[travis99]

Well, we didn't manage to include Rosa Point in this hike, it would have been just too much. But we did have a great hike and completed Rabbit and Villager peak in good time.

Here is my Trip Report:
http://www.summitpost.org/trip-report/3 ... tains.html

And here is our Route:



Full Sized:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trav_and_jenn/2274636940/sizes/o/in/set-72157603935242029/

[simonov]

Excellent report, as usual, Travis.

This will be very useful for our overnight planned for next weekend. You have convinced me to bring along an alarm clock so I can make sure we get up and break camp at Villager before dawn for the final leg to Rabbit Peak. The prospect of fumbling down that final ridge in the fading light is not worth contemplating.

[travis99]

Excellent report, as usual, Travis.

This will be very useful for our overnight planned for next weekend. You have convinced me to bring along an alarm clock so I can make sure we get up and break camp at Villager before dawn for the final leg to Rabbit Peak. The prospect of fumbling down that final ridge in the fading light is not worth contemplating.

thanks, good luck on your hike next weekend. FYI there was plenty of snow patches near the summit of Villager for melting water. I am pretty sure they will still be there for next weekend. But then again, you never know

[KathyW]

Travis - Really nice trip report. I just love the Santa Rosas. It's also nice to see your route mapped out. Eventually, I'm going to go back and do Rabbit from the Coachella Valley instead of via Villager like we did last time.

Speaking of hiking up from the Coachella Valley - there are supposed to be some petroglyphs the vineyard workers found at the base of the mountains east of Oasis - does anyone know about these?

Kathy