8/29/2021 Route: South Slope Posted On: 8/29/2021, By: Thmpsn_ Info: Had an interesting encounter with a moose along the road in the dark today while hiking solo haha. Whole route is summer conditions as previously mentioned - the deeper sections of standing water on the road can he hiked around with easy detours off to the side of the road. The immediate area around Wheeler Lake is still deceptively boggy...filled up the trail-runners with water on the ascent and found a dry route on the descent. Final pitch to summit is steep and loose, but not bad by any means. Short and sweet - but overall meh. No other hikers on trail today. |
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7/30/2021 Route: South Slope Posted On: 8/1/2021, By: E_A_Marcus_949 Info: All clear. Lots of boggy marshland near wheeler lakes and above the rocks heading into the basin. No snow. Great loop. |
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7/10/2021 Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver Posted On: 7/10/2021, By: mjlucarelli Info: Summer conditions. Only crossed one small snowfield and traction was not needed. All other snow was avoidable. |
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6/20/2021 Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver Posted On: 6/20/2021, By: hellmanm Info: Large puddles all over the 4wd road, but avoidable with minimal bushwhacking. After the lake there are a few snowfields. Most are avoidable, but the ones that aren't can be navigated with minimal postholing. It's not freezing overnight though, so be mindful of that. Spikes would be helpful, but aren't necessary. The south slope to Clinton can be done without touching any snow, but It's still a big pile of semi-loose talus. The traverse to mncamee and traver is snow-free, as is the descent off traver (you will get wet though — everything is running right now). The wildflowers are mostly in full bloom — probably one more week for everything to pop. |
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5/15/2021 Route: South Slope Posted On: 5/15/2021, By: Thevirtualsherpa Info: Booted then boarded Clinton today -road closure still in effect at the reservoir - 4x4 road to lake is not fun in morning or afternoon. Loads of huge puddles, snow but not enough to ride down and lots of postholing. Don't even bother putting skins on until you get to the lower basin. Slopes before and after lake warmed very quickly but stable and minimal sinking around 8AM. Upper bowl was much more firm, even around 10:30AM where crampons may be necessary. Descended summit around 11 when upper snow was almost perfect and lower snow was def starting to get past its prime. Boarded off summit to lower 4x4 road with 1 small area to walk due to lack of coverage. Walk out was terrible though. Pics of some of the lines in the area including the north couloir of Democrat for beta. Still lots of snow in the area but the longer lines (top to bottom coverage) are going quickly. |
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5/9/2021 Route: South Slope Posted On: 5/9/2021, By: wintersage Info: Trailhead was dry and accessible, the approach road had patches of snow and large puddles of water that were avoidable by going into the willows as previous reports mentioned. Snow in the AM was hard with microspikes being sufficient, slightly slushier after noon. Pretty much continuous snow from the basin to the summit, with only one the last 0.3mi of the summit being rocky. Only needed microspikes and ice axe. |
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12/5/2020 Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver Posted On: 12/5/2020, By: datum313 Info: Boot packed trail to Wheeler Lake with several icy spots. On the ridge, patches of sugar snow on talus, which concealed holes. Other short sections wind blown and slippery, but traction wouldn't help much. Snowshoes were useful on descent around the lake. |
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9/30/2020 Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver Posted On: 9/30/2020, By: MC.Ikema Info: Snow free on the ridge from Wheeler. |
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9/19/2020 Route: South Slope Posted On: 9/19/2020, By: sigepnader Info: Approach is the same muddy/watery mess in other trip reports but the trail goes through the willows. Once you get in the basin it is nice and dry. Absolutely zero snow left on Clinton, McNammee, or Traver. |
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9/12/2020 Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver Posted On: 9/14/2020, By: Sglm14 Info: Hike to Wheeler lake was easy, just some puddles along the road. Past the lake to about 13,300 there's a few inches of snow to deal with and some areas up to ankle deep. The last 500' to the summit had some snow but avoidable. The Traverse to McNamee and Traver was not bad at all but heading down was a little tricky due to snow-covered talus. By the time we hit the lake a lot of the snow had already melted. Overall a great day to be out! |
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8/30/2020 Route: South Slope Posted On: 8/30/2020, By: tcphoto87 Info: Ended up not summiting due to a combination of starting a little late, iffy weather and feeling a little light headed that slowed me down, but thought I'd go ahead and leave conditions report for as far as I got. Was planning on doing the 3 combo but didn't work out for today. The previous reports weren't joking about the water on the trail/road. Huge sections that are like ponds, some with rocks you can hop across but others don't. But almost all of them had little trails that went off to the right to get around them. Didn't encounter any snow but Lincoln and some others from the drive up had some fresh snow on them. I got to the lake and decided I wasn't going to summit but kept going to see how far I could get, and got to a flat marshy area above the waterfalls. The trail to that point was a little hard to find, also I'd avoid going along the lake edge cause multiple times my boots got soaked and covered in mud from what looked like solid ground but wasn't lol. There's a trail that starts where the road ends that takes you to the area to ascend that I missed since I went right to the lake first. Whole bunch of mine shafts up there too and lots of debris with nails sticking up to watch out for. Also the point I stopped at said 4.24 miles but I still had a good 1400+ft gain at least so idk if that all happens in the last .25 miles or if its longer than 9 RT. |
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7/18/2020 Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver Posted On: 7/22/2020, By: cochsman Info: Road was wet but all water was easily avoidable by popping into the willows here and there or walking on top of rocks. There is a big creek crossing that you can go uphill about a 100' and cross easily. The route is easy to discern from the lake and up into the basin. We climbed Clinton first then walked the ridge to the other peaks. Rock is surprisingly solid. Snow is avoidable everywhere except one small section below the basin. Glad to be on foot - I've never seen such a bad traffic jam of wheelers! |
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7/18/2020 Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver Posted On: 7/18/2020, By: Unknown Info: Trail to Clinton has minimal snow, was able to kick step in trail runners. The cross over to Traver was dry and casual. Once descending Traver the final slope to the road has snow but might be avoidable. Did some sketchy finesse moves to descend safely. Great views and lots of lifted jeeps. 4x4 road was wet or flooded most of the way, a couple willow bypasses on the deep stuff |
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7/8/2020 Route: South Slope Posted On: 7/9/2020, By: BendExile Info: Very wet road from TH to Wheeler Lake. Multiple areas of flooding requiring bypass thru nasty willows. One stream crossing was spicy. Multiple snow fields above lake. Ice ax would have been helpful.Did not encounter anyone above lake but below lake on descent saw a moderate number of hikers and a caravan of 9 ATVs. Beautiful scenery except for view of Climax Mine on summit. |
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6/27/2020 Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver Posted On: 6/28/2020, By: CindyM Info: some sections of snow field, good enough for kicking in and plunging, galissade. water running high some part of trail. |
