As expected, Snowmass is in complete summer conditions- you don't even have to set foot in snow if you really didn't want to! A sign at the TH said there was a bear sighting 8/2 in the area. I found there were two options for hiking southwest around the lake, If you follow the trail near the shore of the lake, don't be surprised if you have to bushwack a little- pretty straight forward though, nothing terrible. We climbed the gully in rain, and it was not as challenging as I had expected/read it to be in the given conditions. Took the direct variation to the summit- I was happily surprised to find there was alot of dirt mixed in with the rocks (as opposed to just a bunch of loose rock) which made for a relatively easy climb up to the ridge. Backpacked in, but just used trail runners and rain gear to summit (no spikes, axe, etc.)
|
