Does anyone know about where I'll bump into snow on this hike?

climbingchic wrote:Does anyone know about where I'll bump into snow on this hike?

I haven't been to Lake Blanche in over a year. I'm thinking you'll start seeing snow patches around 8000 feet. Just a guess though...

That's what I figured too. Thanks.

I was in Broads Fork (canyon west of Mill B South) on Tuesday. The trail disappeared under the snow at 7800. It's probably moved up a bit since then. I'm heading up toward Lake Blanche next Tuesday. If you've already been there, let me know what you found.

I ran into snow at 8300ft, about a half mile before the lake. It's packed enough that it's easy to walk on, even at 6pm.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=223319157692006&set=a.221376777886244.63540.138811969476059&type=1&ref=nf

On Sat June 25 it was patchy snow starting around 8500' or maybe a bit higher. The Big Cottonwood stream was impressive in the morning and scary by mid-afternoon. A few pics here:

http://blog.regehr.org/archives/551

Sorry guys, I didn't see the other posts til now. Thanks for the pics! They're nice. I was really hoping there wasn't any snow right up until the lake, but we still made it fine. Took us a while longer since I chose to go around the couloir area to avoid slipping down that. I had a newbie with me who just had tennis shoes on. We had a great time and it was so nice to finally get some elevation and be somewhere in those mtns.

I know this doesn't really fit in this thread, but I didn't want to start a new one:

Does anyone know about snow up to the Cottonwood Ridge? Is it deep/extensive enough that I'd need an ax to climb Broad's Fork to Twin Peaks?

I'm going to be in Salt Lake in 10 days, and was hoping for an ascent somewhere on the Cottonwood or Alpine ridges, but I don't feel really comfortable doing it in a lot of snow.

agb wrote:I know this doesn't really fit in this thread, but I didn't want to start a new one:

Does anyone know about snow up to the Cottonwood Ridge? Is it deep/extensive enough that I'd need an ax to climb Broad's Fork to Twin Peaks?

I'm going to be in Salt Lake in 10 days, and was hoping for an ascent somewhere on the Cottonwood or Alpine ridges, but I don't feel really comfortable doing it in a lot of snow.

There's still plenty of snow up high. You definitely want an axe if you head for example to the BF Twins.

Does anyone know if scrambling to the top of Sundial would be easy enough without encountering too much snow? I was going to do Deseret Peak on July 16, but we might try Sundial instead since the South Willow Creek road is closed indefinitely, 3 miles before the trailhead. The snow looks like it's melting pretty quickly from down in the valley. Also, if there is still significant snow above 10,000 feet in a week, does anyone know how technical the ridge leading up from Sundial to the un-named peak on Cottonwood Ridge would be? It looks easy enough without snow (class 2, without having to use your hands much?), but I'm curious if it would be better to wait a few more weeks to do this (since I don't have an ice axe).

regehr wrote:

agb wrote:I know this doesn't really fit in this thread, but I didn't want to start a new one:

Does anyone know about snow up to the Cottonwood Ridge? Is it deep/extensive enough that I'd need an ax to climb Broad's Fork to Twin Peaks?

I'm going to be in Salt Lake in 10 days, and was hoping for an ascent somewhere on the Cottonwood or Alpine ridges, but I don't feel really comfortable doing it in a lot of snow.

There's still plenty of snow up high. You definitely want an axe if you head for example to the BF Twins.

Oh man, this was good advice. There was a shload of snow up there (two weeks ago, on 7/13). We wouldn't have got very far above the meadow w/o the axes.