San Gorgonio

hvydrt · Post by **hvydrt** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:30 pm

Despite the doom and gloom forecast by Johnny Mountain and the mega Doppler HD 7000, 4 of us backpacked up the south fork. Its was overcast Saturday AM but cleared up for a great weekend. We camped at about 9400' in a nice sheltered spot. Ron and I climbed up the NW ridge and reached summit about 9:30 this AM. It was cloudy most everywhere below 7000' but nice and clear up high. The winds were really blowing but other than that it was nice weather and good snow conditions. It started snowing pretty good on the hike back to the trail head but we made it out of the mountains before it really stared messing the roads up. Pictures are here

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:46 pm

Love it when you beat the odds! Great photos. Excellent summit!

KathyW · Post by **KathyW** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:49 am

Beautiful pictures - I'm so glad the trip worked out for you. I'm also glad to hear that area you camped in was good - It seemed like a safe and sheltered area when I was up there last week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a good trip on March 6th and hoping I don't become a weather whimp again.

simonov · Post by **simonov** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:12 am

Hmm, I'm planning to go up on March 6 as well. Still need to get some stuff for the hike.

BTW, the Frank in your photos looks a lot like a Frank Palacios I know. Is that him?

hvydrt · Post by **hvydrt** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:25 am

simonov wrote: BTW, the Frank in your photos looks a lot like a Frank I know.

I am not sure what his last name is. He is from Kathys meetup group.

bluerail · Post by **bluerail** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:28 am

man that looked white ! looked like a great time. thanks for sharing the photos, makes me wanna be right there.

lilbitmo · Post by **lilbitmo** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:43 am

Very, Very Impressive 8)

The two bowls look ripe for some skiing, wish that was my thing

Nice work, thanks for sharing it.

simonov · Post by **simonov** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:12 am

Would you say snow shoes are necessary now to get as high as your camp?

Edit: A lot more snow coming. Conditions are in flux.

mattmaxon · Post by **mattmaxon** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:39 am

Very cool!

Thanks!
Matt

hvydrt · Post by **hvydrt** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 6:29 pm

simonov wrote:Would you say snow shoes are necessary now to get as high as your camp?.

Last weekend you could easily get to south fork meadows w/o snowshoes. After SF meadows snowshoes were a must. (the way we went at least; see map in pictures) The areas exposed to the wind were hard packed, while the areas where the wind had deposited snow were very powdery. But like you said, conditions are changing.

I used snowshoes from the trail head just for the extra traction and it helps on the uneven packed down trail when carrying a full pack.