Snow Camping... Mount San Jacinto State Park
Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:04 am
My gf and I went snow camping this weekend (1/31/09-2/01/09) in Mount San Jacinto State Park off the top of the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. 
We got there at about 10am Saturday and we snowshoed up the Long Valley Creek drainage directly up to Tamarack Valley (we were following a gps track we had made). The snow coverage was excellent which allowed us to make it directly up the drainage relativley easily, which was cool 8) . By taking this route we got to Tamarack Valley in only 1.10 miles (according to gps) insted of the approximate 2.5 miles that it would have taken on the summer hiking trail. Once we got to Tamarack Valley we made our camp immediately, since it was already beginning to get cold. After setting up our camp we cooked our food and melted down snow to use as water since we planned to try to summit Mount San Jacinto early the next morning. The rest of the day was spent just exploring around the camp and looking over maps for which route looked the easiest to the peak. We went inside the tent really early since it was very cold, and ended up going to sleep around 7:30. Acoording to my rei keychain thermometer it was like 24 degrees outside 
when we were going to sleep, but luckly we were well prepared for the cold and actually slept really well. Anyways the next morning we woke up later than expected like at 7am. We headed off towards San Jacinto Peak once again following the drainage (since this is where the rangers in Long Valley recommended was the best way to summit). It was harder than expected we snowshoed all the way up to just below the final ascent up to the saddle? between Jean Peak and Mount San Jacinto. At this point we had planned to use our crampons to reach the saddle but the conditions were really more for snowshoes since as soon as I put my crampons on I began postholing through really deep snow, so needless to say I immediatly put my snowshoes back on. From this point we ascended up to the saddle which was rather steep in places but felt fairly confident since we were carrying ice ax's insted of treking poles and had been training for this, in the north facing slopes of the San Gabriels. (We have taken several trips off the ACH recently near Blue Ridge to practice self arresting techniques). Well we made it to the saddle between Jean and San Jacinto Peaks at about 10,300 feet, but decided it was too much for us to keep going up to the peak, we were tired and had to leave that day also, so we decided to turn around there. The rest of the day was uneventful and we made it to the ranger station by 3 to turn in our permits. Overall it was cold, but we didn't let the temperture get in the way of us having a great time. Another great part of the trip was we learned so much 
, and got to expierence harsh winter conditions that we couldn't learn from just reading a book. We created our own route, we got to sleep on ice, and stay warm, we expierenced first hand snowshoeing vs crampon conditions, and best of all we got to practice our self arresting skills over and over again. Both my gf and I look forward to more winter camping trips in the future
Here is some pics if anyone's interested:
http://picasaweb.google.com/brian90620/ ... #slideshow
We got there at about 10am Saturday and we snowshoed up the Long Valley Creek drainage directly up to Tamarack Valley (we were following a gps track we had made). The snow coverage was excellent which allowed us to make it directly up the drainage relativley easily, which was cool 8) . By taking this route we got to Tamarack Valley in only 1.10 miles (according to gps) insted of the approximate 2.5 miles that it would have taken on the summer hiking trail. Once we got to Tamarack Valley we made our camp immediately, since it was already beginning to get cold. After setting up our camp we cooked our food and melted down snow to use as water since we planned to try to summit Mount San Jacinto early the next morning. The rest of the day was spent just exploring around the camp and looking over maps for which route looked the easiest to the peak. We went inside the tent really early since it was very cold, and ended up going to sleep around 7:30. Acoording to my rei keychain thermometer it was like 24 degrees outside when we were going to sleep, but luckly we were well prepared for the cold and actually slept really well. Anyways the next morning we woke up later than expected like at 7am. We headed off towards San Jacinto Peak once again following the drainage (since this is where the rangers in Long Valley recommended was the best way to summit). It was harder than expected we snowshoed all the way up to just below the final ascent up to the saddle? between Jean Peak and Mount San Jacinto. At this point we had planned to use our crampons to reach the saddle but the conditions were really more for snowshoes since as soon as I put my crampons on I began postholing through really deep snow, so needless to say I immediatly put my snowshoes back on. From this point we ascended up to the saddle which was rather steep in places but felt fairly confident since we were carrying ice ax's insted of treking poles and had been training for this, in the north facing slopes of the San Gabriels. (We have taken several trips off the ACH recently near Blue Ridge to practice self arresting techniques). Well we made it to the saddle between Jean and San Jacinto Peaks at about 10,300 feet, but decided it was too much for us to keep going up to the peak, we were tired and had to leave that day also, so we decided to turn around there. The rest of the day was uneventful and we made it to the ranger station by 3 to turn in our permits. Overall it was cold, but we didn't let the temperture get in the way of us having a great time. Another great part of the trip was we learned so much , and got to expierence harsh winter conditions that we couldn't learn from just reading a book. We created our own route, we got to sleep on ice, and stay warm, we expierenced first hand snowshoeing vs crampon conditions, and best of all we got to practice our self arresting skills over and over again. Both my gf and I look forward to more winter camping trips in the future Here is some pics if anyone's interested:
http://picasaweb.google.com/brian90620/ ... #slideshow