30. April to 03. May 2021
Late Winter or early Sprig in the High Sierra.
I guess this one was an early Spring one. Unfortunately another low snow year in the Sierra.
We wanted to get one more Sierra snow trip in before it all had melted out.
The satellite imagery (https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel-playground) had shown that were would still be a good amount of snow coverage. When we got to the Onion Valley Trail Head (Roads to the Eastern Sierra Trail Heads seem to be open early this season) we were greeted with little to no snow. We decided to leave the snowshoes behind, take an ice axe each and share one pair of crampons if needed.
On the way up Kearsage pass we barely hit any snow. The way down was pretty much the same until we got close to Lake Charlotte. From here on we had a couple of section post holing till camp.
The next morning we basically hiked snow free all the way to Gardiner pass. On the way we saw a massive avalanche path. Seems to already be a couple of years old.
The descent on the north side of Gardiner pass was fun and fast over semi solid snow. While we continued downhill towards Gardiner creek the snow got softer and softer and we had to heave ourselves out of snow wholes a couple of time. On the way up into the Gardiner Basin we stayed off the almost non existing trail so we could make use of some south facing snow free areas.
The next morning brought us crisp and firm frozen snow so the hike up and over Sixty Lakes col was a breeze. Sixty lake Basin still held a good amount of snow but we made good speed.
We camped just above the Rae lakes towards Dragon lake. By the time we ate dinner it was snowing and we retreated into the tent.
The snowstorm passed fairly quickly and we had a beautiful sunset.
The last day we had good snow all the way up to the final chute up over Gould pass. The snow in the lower part of the steep chute was still a bit frozen so we each took one cramp on and an axe. A quick descent past golden trout lake had as back at onion valley.
| Day: | Start: | Finish: | Distance [miles] | Elevation + [feet] | Elevation – [feet] |
| 1 | Onion Valley TH | Lake Charlotte | 8.8 | 3012 | 1908 |
| 2 | Lake Charlotte | Gardiner Basin | 7.5 | 3377 | 3325 |
| 3 | Gardiner Basin | Rae Lakes | 7.1 | 3011 | 2291 |
| 4 | Rae Lakes | Onion Valley TH | 4.7 | 1859 | 3737 |
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