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Has anyone been up Cucamonga or Ontario Peaks lately ? They are dry on the south side but is there ice on the trail on the north side ? I am here in SoCal for a couple of weeks and I would like to hike up there. I hope the trail is dry but I know how just a little snow up there can turn into a dicey layer of ice once hiked upon.

wyopeakMike wrote:Has anyone been up Cucamonga or Ontario Peaks lately ? They are dry on the south side but is there ice on the trail on the north side ? I am here in SoCal for a couple of weeks and I would like to hike up there. I hope the trail is dry but I know how just a little snow up there can turn into a dicey layer of ice once hiked upon.

you will likely find snow. we were up on hawkins ridge on saturday, not really the exact same area, but close enough (and lower elevation), and we did come across some snow on north facing aspects. more importantly, however, is that we are getting more precipitation this week, so conditions will be vastly different within the next couple days.

I went up Cucamonga on Jan 10th after the storm that came down from Canada and dusted the area with snow down to 2,000 feet. It melted out pretty good and yes the southern ends of the trail were dry and little wet. However the northern crawls were in snow but only a few inches. The trail has been well beaten down by others and only icy early in the morning. We didn't need our crampons but had them and an ice axe just in case. Careful footing or microspikes is all you would need. Again that was Jan 10th, I haven't heard of any storms or snowfall since so I'm sure its the same if not more melted down.