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I expect to be coming thru the area between the 16th - 19th and need to know if I should bother packing the snowshoes? (much easier to leave behind... but the knees don't do so well with extended post-holing)

Is the route up to Griffith (and beyond) clear yet... (or soon to be..)... or is it still buried from a heavy winter?

NJTripper wrote:I expect to be coming thru the area between the 16th - 19th and need to know if I should bother packing the snowshoes? (much easier to leave behind... but the knees don't do so well with extended post-holing)

Is the route up to Griffith (and beyond) clear yet... (or soon to be..)... or is it still buried from a heavy winter?

There is still snow on the top of Griffith, and undoubtedly on the N-facing slopes of the SLT. The Mummy scree slope looks almost completely bare (there will be some snow whn you enter the trees at the top of the slope).

I was up Mummy today (the 13th). I hit very few patches of snow till I departed the trail ~10300', and only minor snow to the top of the peak at 11540'. The stretch below Devil's Thumb still looks a bit snowy. This section (Devil's Thumb on R side) to south still looks problematical:
http://hwstock.org/mum21x/

Just a heads up -- the higher Spring Mountain Peaks got at least 4" new snow this Sunday. The new snow is light stuff, and may be burning off the S-facing routes this week. However, some of the N-facing routes that people use to escape snow by hitting rock -- e.g. Devil's Thumb -- may still be coated, therefore dangerous.

MoapaPk wrote:Just a heads up -- the higher Spring Mountain Peaks got at least 4" new snow this Sunday. The new snow is light stuff, and may be burning off the S-facing routes this week. However, some of the N-facing routes that people use to escape snow by hitting rock -- e.g. Devil's Thumb -- may still be coated, therefore dangerous.

Thanks for the head's up.... regretabbly, I had to post-pone my trip up to the Charleston area.. Next opportunity looks like it will be mid-October... (long way away...)

Is that well within the 'snow-season' for the Charleston area... or is it more hit-n-miss?

NJTripper wrote:

MoapaPk wrote:Just a heads up -- the higher Spring Mountain Peaks got at least 4" new snow this Sunday. The new snow is light stuff, and may be burning off the S-facing routes this week. However, some of the N-facing routes that people use to escape snow by hitting rock -- e.g. Devil's Thumb -- may still be coated, therefore dangerous.

Thanks for the head's up.... regretabbly, I had to post-pone my trip up to the Charleston area.. Next opportunity looks like it will be mid-October... (long way away...)

Is that well within the 'snow-season' for the Charleston area... or is it more hit-n-miss?

Usually October is quite nice.

I went up Charleston today by NLT and the Devil's Thumb shortcut. I had to use crampons for about 100' vertical. However, a lot may be about to change -- the nighttime temps may be above freezing this week.

The normal NLT south of Devil's Thumb still has 50 degree snow across; the snow was quite hard in the morning. Some of my friends went that way today till they could cut up a chute to the (trailless) ridgeline, and found that way was quite arduous and sketchy. With the warmer temps this week, some brave soul may be able to set footprints in that area.

The SLT trail looks pretty snowy below the ridgeline. Once on the ridge, you can probably get by with some postholing.

The Devil's Thumb shortcut was rather creepy today, as there was still some snow on the rock. I suspect that snow will disappear with a few days.

PICS: http://hwstock.org/chazsno10/