Highly recommend wearing/taking snow shoes regardless of conditions at the trailhead or previous posts. We assessed the base of the trail and it appeared that snowshoes were just added unnecessary weight due to the conditions and trenching efforts done by previous hikers and opted to leave them in the car. Huge mistake! All went well until about 1.5 miles up where, which was too late to turn back and get the snowshoes. We ended up expending way too much time and effort continuously post holing waist deep, just reaching the headwall after about 3+ hours and decided to turn back from there. As the day warmed, the snow softened considerably and post holing worsened going down. If attempting to summit La Plata around the date of this post, do yourself a favor and wear/pack your snowshoes regardless of base morning trail conditions.
|
