"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
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"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
Yeah, but that was October. It is completely different now, which is why the OP asked about avalanches and Steve mentioned snowmobiles on the road. When that trip happened, the hikers drove right to the trailhead, which simply isn't possible now.
If you have the endurance to snowshoe the road to the trailhead -- or you own a snowmobile -- it's definitely possible. But you'd have to cross about a billion avy slopes to actually get up to the lake.
But you'd have to cross about a billion avy slopes to actually get up to the lake.
The trail indeed crosses avy slopes (i.e., steeper than 30°) but it wouldn't make sense to take that route in mid-winter. I am hesitant to respond because a route that is reasonably avy-safe >99% of the time can be risky every now and then. With that qualification, there is a snow route from the Esmeralda TH to Ingalls Pass that avoids exposure to critical angle avy slopes. If you carefully stay on route I don't think it exposes to a slope exceeding 25° and most of it is in the trees. We usually take the route to access ski tours in the spring, primarily because it's more direct than the trail that wanders E to the Longs Pass trail junction. On the other side of the pass there is a short stretch or two with exposure to est. 30° slopes but mostly low angle.
ETA: There is a sad history of illegal slednecks driving their snowmobiles to Ingalls Lake and posting pics on line.
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