Snowy Winds

I'm just back from a few days trying to make my way through the Wind Rivers. I had originally planned a through-hike over the divide, but the remaining snow load made my change my plans so that I could back-track if necessary.

I initially left from the Elkhart Park trailhead on Saturday, June 21. Within a mile, I was negotiating 3ft drifts. I walked to Miller lake (about 10K, if I remember correctly), which was just clearing of ice. I was unable to make it further because of the snow. With snowshoes, perhaps I could have gone further. I brought an ice axe and crampons, anticipating lingering snow, but it was very soft. I was post-holing up to my waist with every step.

I walked out and tried the Spring Park entrance, as I had heard from other hikers in the area that it was a bit more open. Glimpse Lake was lovely, but the ice was just burning off of Trapper. I walked on up to Trail Lake, but it was still completely frozen.

Having been up there last summer just after the 6th of July, I can attest to the fact that the Winds are still 2 to 3 weeks away from being open much over 9.5K feet.

It was lovely, but slow and difficult to cover much ground. It's tough to fish through slush as well <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Sounds like the "old days"! When I worked for NOLS in the late 60's - early 70's we always were bashing through snow. Back in those days we had large groups and would take turns breaking trail though the snow! Sorry about the snow ruining your trip. On the positive side, it looks like it is a good year for the glaciers.

It has been my experience that if you go into the Wind River Mountains in June in normal to high snow years, the southeast part of the range (starting out of Sinks Canyon) generally has less snow than the northwest part of the range. The east side of the mountains are a little drier than the west side. Also, contrary to what you think, once you get above timber on south faceing slopes, the snow melts a lot earlier.

I've been watching the Continental DIvide Trail map on postholer.com, and it appears that the Winds had close to normal snow levels this year, for the first time in quite a few years.

I presume it will all be melted out by the time I get there about August 11.

When I was growing up (1940's/1950's) the higher country generally wasn't fully accessible until about July 15. That was true even though there were a number of drought years in the 1950's. I remember one year (I think it was 1957 but can't swear to it) that it wasn't accessible until August.