I was thinking about going up to Rainbow Hot Springs near Pagosa this weekend in the San Juans. Does anyone know how much snow is there? The elevation is 7000' to 8000' feet I think.
Thanks.
Conditions around Pagosa Springs
Forum rules
- This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
- Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
- Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
- Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
-
Cody
- Posts: 27
- Joined: 1/14/2008
- 14ers: 47 1
- 13ers: 9
- Trip Reports (0)
-
tmathews
- Posts: 3460
- Joined: 7/2/2008
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: Conditions around Pagosa Springs
Snow in the San Juans is getting pretty scarce: ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/CO/Snow/s ... _depth.pdfCody wrote:I was thinking about going up to Rainbow Hot Springs near Pagosa this weekend in the San Juans. Does anyone know how much snow is there? The elevation is 7000' to 8000' feet I think.
Thanks.
Percent snowpack by watershed: ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/CO/Snow/s ... t_snow.jpg
Re: Conditions around Pagosa Springs
Your issue may not be so much the amount of snow (for backpacking in which we have done there several times), but runoff. Those springs sit by the river ... don't know if you've been there before so if I'm telling you things you already know, please forgive the redundancy. The water comes out of the side of the hill and the springs are a two layer type with a smaller pool above a slightly larger pool below (closer to the river). There's another set further upstream that sit one person each per small pool ... it will be too early to access those as they will be completely submerged. Happy trails! :D
As if none of us have ever come back with a cool, quasi-epic story instead of being victim to tragic rockfall, a fatal stumble, a heart attack, an embolism, a lightning strike, a bear attack, collapsing cornice, some psycho with an axe, a falling tree, carbon monoxide, even falling asleep at the wheel getting to a mountain. If you can't accept the fact that sometimes "s**t happens", then you live with the illusion that your epic genius and profound wilderness intelligence has put you in total and complete control of yourself, your partners, and the mountain. How mystified you'll be when "s**t happens" to you! - FM
-
altidude
- Posts: 286
- Joined: 2/16/2009
- 14ers: 58 1
- 13ers: 16
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: Conditions around Pagosa Springs
I braved the rain and hiked to these springs Friday night (5/22). The runoff was pretty insane and completely submerged the pools further up the river. A section of the trail (about 20-30') was also submerged and required climbing across a rock wall- not fun at night, with rain and a pack 
. There was still a bit of snow in the upper valleys, but only a couple areas near the campgrounds that required crossing snow.
. There was still a bit of snow in the upper valleys, but only a couple areas near the campgrounds that required crossing snow.The mountain always wins, we do not always lose.
Carpe mañana
Carpe mañana
