[zephyr]

[Nancyann]

Re:Luc and slabbyd’s question about the snow depth. In case you didn’t see my post on Rocknclimb’s thread in Trail Talk, here it is. Went up the Eagle Lake Trail yesterday, October 4. No snow on road, but snow starts at trailhead. By the time you get to 6500 feet it is two-three feet deep. We turned around there because it was snowing, not heavily but enough to make it not fun anymore. Temperature was 30 degrees, not much melting going on!

Eagle Lakes Trail, Chelan Sawtooths 10/4/19

Eagle Lakes Trail, Chelan Sawtooths 10/4/19

[Luc]

Dang. Not looking good to get up into Oval/Surprise area without slogging. Agreed that the temps aren't really rising enough for significant melt. Still watching, though. Probably similar to the same in most areas Entiat north to the border. Maybe Chelan lakeshore is an ok alternative. Enchantments are probably blanketed pretty good, too.

[Nancyann]

Just got back from a few days checking out the situation in the NE Pasayten and conditions are very similar, EXCEPT the access roads were absolutely trashed by last weekend’s storm. I probably should start a thread about this but don’t have time right now, so here it is in a nutshell: Toats Coulee Road to the Windy Pass TH and Cathedral Driveway is the only one passable as of two days ago, unless you have a lifted 4X truck and a chain saw. We walked a couple miles up the Windy Pass Trail in two-three feet of snow. Drove a short way up the road to Iron Gate in a Toyota Tacoma 4X, had to back down due to snow depth. Fourteen Mile road is trashed, too many blowdowns to count. Tried to drive up to Cold Springs Camp on Chopaka Mountain via Chopaka Lake, had to back down where a backhoe turned around, looks like it came very close to rolling off the cliff. Snow deep and icy on the road, again way too many blowdowns to count. What happened was that the storm dumped so much heavy snow that the aspens and other skinny trunked trees broke under the weight and fell across the roads. We cleared some with a hand saw, and a local hunter we talked to cleared many with a chain saw, but many more to go.

[zephyr]

[Luc]

Yeah Zephyr I second that. Not sure if there is any place to get out for multiple nights without being thigh deep in snow. Larches are definitely worth the drive from Seattle, but perhaps somebody can suggest other spots. Ideally I'd be able to do 4-5 nights out. Probably a lost cause this year.

[HitTheTrail]