Latest Conditions

[Norris]

I need some exercise, so I think I will hike to the peak from the Idyllwild side tomorrow. Seems like conditions warrant crampons more than snow shoes...should be leaving Humber park between 7:00 and 7:30 am.

[Norris]

Well, not one of my better days on San Jacinto! The trail was only broken as far as Saddle junction, so I lost a lot of time route-finding. I had difficulty finding the trail at around 9000' in the area shortly before the junction with the Deer Springs trail, and I was making very poor time, so I turned around. Oh well. Way too warm, crappy conditions. We need another major snowfall and a spell of cold weather.

[some guy]

Thanks for the report, Norris. I was wondering how conditions were up there. I tried a similar hike back in December a couple of weeks after the first snowfall and was surprised that the trails up there were barely touched past saddle junction. Very slow going. Haven't bothered to go up again since...

[Norris]

I hiked to the summit from Humber park on December 29, and found the trail broken all the way to the summit, so I was kind of expecting the same conditions, given that it had not snowed really recently. In December, I didn't need either crampons or snowshoes. This time, the trail to saddle junction was extremely icy, and there were some steep places where without crampons you could have had a serious fall. The snow above the junction was frozen early in the day, making for good crampon conditions, but deep, and quickly softened as the day went on, leading to the occasional posthole. It would have been a nightmare descending later in the day without snowshoes, which was part of the reason I turned around. In these conditions one would have to carry both crampons and snowshoes, I think. Too much weight and too much trouble.

[Rick Kent]

I did Snow Creek today (Mar 2). Definitely icy ... a lot of hard frozen snow. Continuous coverage from the chockstone up. Everything was great until about the last 1000 feet where snow conditions were strangely varied and frequently unstable. Definitely some dangerous stuff up there. Every move I made only seemed to get me into bigger trouble. Worked it out but feel a bit lucky. Took about 13 hours from Snow Creek Village up to the summit and then down to the tram.

[Cy Kaicener]

Congratulations Rick - Thats awesome I take it that you went on March 2
I will keep checking your website for pictures
http://rickkent.net

[Rick M]

Glad you made it Ok. Top part seems normal this time of year/conditions. I have a friend that once steped into something and found himself dangling 20 feet above the snow below. My Avatar is Baldy north side this weekend.

Your photos are great! I've spent about 3 hours so far looking through some of your climbs (U & V notch, Whitney, Shasta, GTeton, Russell, etc) and brings back good old memories of those climbs from the 70s for me. We might get a photo at the start, one along the way, and a summit shot with a big clunky SLR if we took a camera but nothing like the number you take...isn't digital photography great. You must be climbing with a helmet cam! On several of your pictures I can still remember being at those exact same spots 35 years ago or so. Thanks again.

ps Anyone going out on ice? Make sure your crampon points are sharp!

[cynthia23]

Congratulations on what must have been a very difficult climb, Rick K. I don't think I will be doing the Snow Creek climb in this lifetime--or if I am, I'm gonna wait until I'm 90 and ready to go anyway! But I admire those who do!

[Rick Kent]

That's good advice about sharpening the crampons. My crampons have been well used but the day before doing Snow Creek I sharpened up just the two front points. It's a good thing I did because there were some long stretches where I was relying totally on those points -- 1 inch penetration or less. No kicking steps here and just a couple inches penentration with the pick of the axe. I was really wishing I had a second tool. That was the good stuff though. The bad stuff consisted of a crusty surface layer that fractured and fell away when you stepped on it revealing an unsupportive granular powder underneath which in turn was on top of a layer of boilerplate ice. Treacherous stuff.

[Norris]

Wow, congratulations. Glad you made it OK. I saw your earlier posts about Snow Creek (obviously) and on Saturday I was wondering if you were going for it on the other side of the mountain. I'm certainly no authority on Snow Creek, but I was a bit worried that it might be dangerous because it was so warm.