I'm heading up the Snow Creek route on San Jacinto tomorrow. Anyone know what the snow conditions will be like?

It looks to be pretty thin up there. I've been in Palm Springs for work the past few days and it's been very warm.

Climbers on the thread below would also be interested on current conditions on Snow Creek
http://www.mtsanjacinto.info/viewtopic. ... 4&start=15

SierraSummits

Let us know how the route looks.

First, DWA monitors this message board for mentions of snow creek. I know this because we had to down climb after I took a hard fall and needed to make a direct route back to the car. The caretaker was not happy to see us at 2am in the morning. Ultimately, I think he was mildly sympathetic and even gave us a ride our car on his snowcat, but that was after he called the cops on us and we had to wait 30 minutes and explain to the palm springs police what we were doing trespassing. Luckily, they didn't seem to care very much and joked around with us before letting us off with a warning. My climbing partner and I also received notices of trespassing in the mail this week.

Conditions high on the mountain were tough. Brutal post holing and good bit of mixed climbing. Be prepared for the route to take longer than you expect, which was ultimately our downfall. We had planned for a day and half and when we realized, after hours of route finding and bushwhacking on the approach, and then getting cliffed out around 8000 feet, that there was a strong chance we might not make the last tram down. We both were averse to another night on the mountain as we had obligations the next day. Unfortunately, down climbing proved to be tricky, and I took a 50 foot fall down a partially dried up waterfall over class 4 / low 5 rock. Amazingly, I didn't break anything and was able to very painfully scramble out over the next 12 hours before spending the next three nights in a hospital with a massive hematoma on my left leg, too many cuts and scrapes to count, and a mild concussion that would have been death had I not had a helmet on.

This a tough climb and in current conditions you may want to bring a rope and few pieces of pro just in case you need them. Also, make sure to take the legal route avoiding DWA property.

sorry i missed your earlier post, we live here and are in the creek often, although we haven't had to turn around at all this year and still get through as a day trip, the conditions have been pure hell this year. early in the season we still had to climb the second fall due to lack of snow. beyond that, snow was never consolidated well and the trips up have been miserable slugfests this year.

if you ever have questions on conditions you can reach me on the san jacinto message board pretty easy. pm Bluerail.

Steve

I only do the legal route.....isn't that right Warren ?