[Abert]

Taking a chance on the snow levels I headed up the Dosewallips to Del Monte Ridge yesterday, hoping to find some bare ground to camp on. The Dosewallips Trail is obstacle free and the Constance Pass Trail has only a few step-over trees (one may be a crawl-under for a more attenuated hiker). I didn't see snow until 4400' and it was patchy until reaching streams around 4900'. I left the trail after crossing the last stream at 5000', looking for the easiest path upward in the deepening snow. Temperatures were less than I expected and travel went fairly well until reaching Sunnybrook Meadows. I could see bare ground on the ridge above me but was postholing knee-deep in soft snow as I crossed the meadows. My optimism at bare ground ahead took a slight hit when I topped the next rise and realized that I still had 1000' of soft snow to boot up. I made what could be loosely termed forward progress and eventually reached the ridge and set up my tent on the last high point before Little Mystery at 6537'. A breeze made the early evening seem colder than it actually was and high clouds pretty much messed with both sunset and sunrise. The full moon was the highlight of the trip. Unfortunately, night photography isn't currently an option I'm equipped for. This morning with the lack of sunrise photo opportunities I walked over to take a look at Constance Pass and Home Lake before heading down to the Dosewallips and the walk out. After not having seen anyone on the trail on Wednesday I passed several day hikers heading in as I came out. Photos

Sunnybrook Meadows

Tyler Peak

Buckhorn

Mystery

Home Lake

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Too bad about the lack of sunrise/sunset photo ops. Hopefully the imagery of the full moon bathing the landscape lodged in your minds eye even if you don't have pics of it. Years ago I did a moonlit ascent of Fricaba from Royal Basin and looking across Deception Basin to Mystery was magical! I'm imagining your misery post holing up to your camp site. I hate postholing when I'm just out for the day, with overnight gear that must've been a suffer fest.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[silence]

Sweet ... way to get out there! Esp love the shot of Home Lake from Constance Pass. Olympics here we come ...

[Phil]

Cool, thanks for the update

[reststep]

Great campsite Beautiful scenery Thanks for sharing

[mhlSilverdale]

+1 on the campsite photo, awesome image. Elevation 6500+

[Radnord]

wicked cornices along the ridge. looks a lot different from when I camped up there three summers ago. Thanks for the sweet photos.