Hi all,
I got up to LBSL today in the very sunny weather! Parked about a mile down the road (just before the family campgrounds, I think), which was past some snow and some [avoidable] rocks but before another long patch of snow. With a better vehicle (or a rental), one could go further -- and I did see one at the portal.
The trail is mostly dry through the NF turnoff and still easy for the first stretch after that. Then it gets a little incertain: not enough snow to go straight up the valley, punching through the snow even where it exists, etc. I ended up on a [the?] Rockwell variant to the base of the ledges. There were other ways to get to that point (with a little more bushwhacking, I think), but as far as I could tell no one had crossed to the south side of the stream. From there some footsteps led up the canyon, but it wasn't clear how that would play out and the E-ledges looked fine so I went up along the rock (following some other footsteps).
Once at lower boy scout the snow was a little less consolidated and (without snowshoes) I was punching through every third or fourth step; that was with minimal / no pack. So although it might be firmer early in the morning, I think snowshoes are a good idea (but not absolutely crucial). I didn't go higher today but would imagine they'd come in handy further up as well. There was open water at the outlet of LBSL and a waterfall just below, for those thinking about hydration.
And for those thinking about getting in a little vertical ice (Len? Tina?), I wish I could give you more precise data... I've never climbed around there so don't know the precise areas. There looked like one potential spot just to the north of the lake near the outlet, but it's all melted now. There also looked like a larger area further up the route on the south side, which (as far as I could tell) was still solidly ice but covered with some snow.
I'm off for another day in the hills tomorrow, and hope everyone has a great weekend outside somewhere!
-julian
