I've been scouring the Mount Elbert TRs and log entries to see how much snow there may be around 4th of July. There is patchy snow in many of the pics, but little mention of it in the text, plus most of the info is from the north side. Does anyone know what current conditions or typical 4th of July conditions are like along the Black Cloud trail? Is there enough snow to be of any consequence?

Also, what is the route like along variation 1 shown on the Black Cloud route page? http://www.summitpost.org/route/166522/black-cloud-trail.html Is there a defined trail, or cairns, or just a cross country bushwack? We plan to hike the "standard" Black Cloud trail over South Elbert going up, then descend via this variation.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Based on my trip to the Sawatch last weekend, All S facing routes will definately be dry by the 4th. As for the details on the trail, I don't have any first hand info, but have found every other route on Elbert to be very straight forward.