Very little snow in Lone Pine and say 3 inches on the ground around Lone Pine Camp Ground but this is over ice on the road.Could get snow to night but will need to stop or it will just blow . 395 is still closed N/S at Bishop and Nevada State Line May open sometime Friday 29 Jan Town of Mammoth isgetting snow say about 4 feet so travel around town will be slow once 395 opens and Avalance danger is high !!!

So for the older members if you are still using windows 7 it still works ,well if posts?

Hiked to the Portal yesterday very little snow , South facing area clearing quickly , we could still see storms so watch the weater reports and the web cam as the systems may move in . The last few years we are getting late systems . I think 2019 we had a hike planned and snow was the the foothills after one of the late storms went through. Say about 18-24 inches at the campground area from that storm.AKA the day we left Dave on the mountain!

Thanks for the update, Doug!
Is the lower gate locked? Or soft closed?
- laohe

Road Closed sign at the bottom ,but several 3 inch thick ice section above the sign.New rocks also when we went up saw some but on the way down new rocks,with the high wind and heat things are moving.

Thanks!

Mt. Whitney noob question here... I've hiked Whitney once but myself and a friend are interested in climbing the East Butress or Mountaineers Route sometime over our spring break at the end of March. We're pretty competent and have climbs of much higher grades under our belts and pretty fit. Saw the summit is looking pretty cold. Is rock climbing it usually reserved for the summer? How bad of an idea would this be? Also wasn't able to find an avalanche report for Whitney.

I’ve done the Mountaineers’ Route, East Face, and East Buttress several times each. The technical routes are certainly doable in the spring, especially if you catch a week of nice weather, but I would only do them in nice, summer weather. You don’t want to spend a night there because of a minor mishap or even slow progress.

Hi! Sorry I'm pretty new to the whole forum thing so this might sound like a dumb question but, does anyone know if it was bad winter this year? Or how long you guys think the snow will last until? I applied for some permit dates starting in early July and going all the way to early August and I'm hoping there won't be much snow during the hike. Thanks!

Winter is very dry, But we are in a new cycle where our storms are later in the season as this one now and again in 2019 where this weekend we had say 3' of snow on the upper elevation over dry trail.

So we will not know trail coverage till mid June , last year snow June 10, year before June 19. 10 inches in the Portal at 8300'

Now what we watch is the amount of snow from now till mid June , expect snow /ice on the trail for short sections till end of June all years. And our first snow will be the 3 rd week of August like clockwork.

In the old days I would say trail is OK well turns out we have hikers from parts of the country that never see snow.A short section can be frightful, for others never a thought.
If you live close to an area where you can practice walking on a snow covered track that would help, give you some idea of what to expect and build up your skills.

Thanks for the question , watch the web cam for snow coverage and melt.

Thank you so much for your input!

Speaking of the "No Winter," here's what it looks like 5+ miles north of Kennedy Meadows Campground on the PCT...

There were a few inches of new snow on the ground in the morning...mostly melted out by the afternoon...

There are a few more photos here: https://piotrowski.smugmug.com/Whats-New-1/PCT-North-From-Kennedy-Meadows-C/