Heading up Rush Creek trail from Silver Lake to Thousand Islands lake (elev 10K) this weekend. Does any know at what level I can expect significant snow, if at all, before Thousand Islands lake?

I don't recall any serious stream crossings last time I was there, but if there are any treacherous ones due to high runoff, I'd appreciate that intel too.

Cheers!

1000 Island is about 1/2 melted out (as of Saturday). We hit snow on the trail to Ediza above 9K, and continuous snow above the lake.

If anyone's interested: I just spoke with the ranger at Lee Vining. Rush Creek trail up to Spooky Meadow is all melted out, then there's 20-30% coverage from there to Thousand Islands Lake. Thousand Isle area has 50% snow coverage.

(I've seen Rangers be WAY off before though, so take that with a grain of salt.)

I came out a few miles south of there today, and it's melting fast. I'd expect less snow than the above report.

I happened to be up at Thousand Island Lake this weekend (7/22 - 7/24). Here are some pictures:
TIL and Banner Peak:


North Glacier Pass near Banner Peak:


Rogers Peak and Lyell (I think) from the top of Davis Peak.:


Donahue Pass towards Lyell Creek and Tuolumne meadows:


The canyon west of Mt. Davis. Note the huge snow bridge that must be 20 feet high:


The glacier to the Banner-Ritter saddle north side and lake Catherine:


Shadow Lake and part of the minarets:

Nice pics, Jspeigl. Makes me want to do a rocket run down. . .

Wow... great photos!

I'm hoping to do Cecile Lake from Agnew Meadows in a few weeks.

We just got back yesterday from a trip to Clyde Minaret. The approach from Reds Meadows to Minaret Lakes is free of snow. From Minaret Lake to Cecile Lake is patches of snow. The approach from Cecile Lake to the base of Clyde was almost completely snow covered, except for a few spots of cliffs and talus poking out.

The snow was frozen solid at 7am but softened by mid morning and remained soft into the evening (we were still descending the snow field at 7pm and the conditions were good). We descended the Ken-Clyde couloir which is free of snow for the top 2/3rds and filled with snow below the rappel at the giant chockstone. We had to do a couple extra raps below this point to avoid some 45 degree snow*. These rappels were a pain in the ass and time consuming. After the gully widens and the snow becomes less steep there is a somewhat scary section of step kicking down 30 degree snow*. Gloves and a very small and basic self-arrest tool (like a big, fat tent stake) would be ideal. We had pointy rocks. If you were to carry ice axes on the climb you could probably glissade the whole couloir without the extra rappels.

The mosquito presence in the area ranges from mild to severe depending on your location and the time of day.

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* I'm not very good at judging the angle of snow, so take these measurements with a grain of salt.


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Edited to add some photos