Cathedral Peak snow conditions?

[Jon Frohlich]

Anyone have any idea what snow conditions are like on Cathedral Peak right now? Tempted to give it a shot but no idea what the gullies look like right now. Anyone been up there? Most of the reports on the peak are generally from about 2-3 weeks from now so I'm not sure how it goes in late May.

[jfleisher]

I don't know this year, but I was up there in late May once a few years ago. The snow level was somewhat close to the parking lot, maybe less than a mile up. I was in snowshoes, and just getting to Cathedral Lake was fairly time consuming, and had to bail on summiting that day. Unfortunately, I haven't been back, but intend to...Maybe next month...

Above the lake, I imagine it's probably quality conditions for the couloir and summit run from there...

Jeremy

[Chicago Transplant]

Well I was up on Castle on Sat/Sun this past weekend, you don't really get much of a view of Cathedral from there because the ridge on Conundrum blocks it, but the slopes leading to Electric Pass were 100% snow. Everything above treeline in the Elks that we could see was fully snow covered, and we were on snow from 10,500 on the road non-stop. There were a few spots between 10,000 and 10,500 that were melted. I imagine you will find similar on Cathedral, full snow coverage above 10,500 is what I would plan on.

On another note, we did Cathedral last weekend of June last year and above the lake coverage was still strong, snow could be avoided in that basin at that time, but we intentionally followed it to avoid the morraine and walk on a more even surface. The couloir was fully snowed in for us as well.

Cathedral and Electric Pass from Castle:

Cathedral from Castle

17-Summit08-Cathedral - Reduced.jpg (214.69 KiB) Viewed 1235 times

[Jon Frohlich]

Thanks for the info. That helps out. I think I'll probably hold off on this one until the June 12th weekend when the approach is a bit easier.

[Papillon]

Thanks for the beta, Mike.