Anybody have recent beta for snow in the SE part of the ONP? Looking at a loop from the Lena Lake trail up around the north side of Mount Stone and back down the Putvin trail. I'm not really worried about walking on snow, but the trip will be way better if the lakes are all melted out. I saw a report that upper Lena was melted out, but Milk was frozen solid. Curious about Hagen and LoA.
Thanks!
[edited after reading OP more clsoely, 'doh]
Obviously you saw one of the recent WTA TRs from Upper Lena indicated that it is melted out now, though milk lake was still snowed in. The recent LoA TR made it sound like that was melted out pretty good now too. I did a similar loop a couple years back in Oct 2013, only passed on the south side of Stone. When I hiked it, although it was almost entirely snow free at the time, the scree/rock ramp up to St Peter's Gate, from the ponds on the north/east side, still had some icy/hard pack snow, and I used crampons to ascend, though microspikes would have been fine. If you have microspikes and trekking poles (or an axe instead of poles) I'd recommend bringing them to ensure your route success. Parking a mountain bike at the Putvin TH makes for a quick return trip to the Lena Lk TH.
I'd definitely be interested in hearing how bad the bushwhack is around the north side (or how you got over that large rocky ridge).
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