Headed up from the New Army Pass Trailhead, but veered left at the South Fork Trail Junction...
The meadow 2+ miles in was a soggy mess, but most of the rest of the hike to the NAP Junction was not bad...
Crossed paths with 4 people who expressed opinions on the Pass and got 2nd hand info about 1 other...
1 couple called it at High Lake...that's what I was going to do...
1 couple called it the most hair-raising part of their trip...They had gear (crampons ond axes) and said the descent of the cornice included slopes at about 40 degrees...
There was a solo climber who chose New Army Pass for his decent route after a successful summit of Langley and "rock climbed" it...(2nd hand info from the 2 other groups)
When I got to High Lake, I saw that a LOT of the lower Switchbacks were clear, so I headed up...I made it to 12,102' with only a little snow and scree detouring...76' short of the Pass...There were obvious tracks on the scree, so I think I could have followed, but decided for lunch and a walk back via the New Army Pass Trail (16 miles for the day)...
Interesting that the snow up high doesn't seem to be melting...no obvious water running off of the snowfields...Maybe Doug can explain his theory on (sublimation?)???
Lots of running water on the New Army Pass Trail on the way down...The Logs were mostly exposed at the stream crossing, so you can keep your feet dry...I wore waterproofs, so the trail water didn't bother me much this time out...I did slip at the end of the logs as I was stepping onto the far shoreline and filled my left boot with a bit of water...
Here are some photos:
I'm pretty sure that temp is inaccurate. but it was warm and humid (T-shirt weather, even at 12K...)
An overview of the snow situation downhill...