Snow at needles CA?

I was hoping to make a trip out the needles/kern river area in about three weeks. Does any one know how much snow there is out there right now?

Big storm coming through this week. 2/14

forecast.weather.gov/MapCli…;lon=-118.49235534667969&site=hnx&smap=1&unit=0&lg=en&FcstType=text

Weather has been pretty dry in Cali recently but I expect the Needles will still be too cold to climb in early march. Best idea would be to ski in on the road (which will be closed).

You haven't done much reading on the area, have you?

It's a summer/fall area, and even then it can be pretty cool. There's always a ton of snow over the winter and there is presently as well. May is about the earliest you could hope for. Even Memorial Day is pretty early there.

Thanks for the link to check the snow depth, I really appreciate it. I know the road will be closed and am expecting to hike/ski in depending on the depth of the snow. Not too worried about the temp. At least we should be the only ones there haha

I admire your spirit of adventure.

I have skiied most of the road leading to the trailhead (and that's only because the family vacations in that area). No too bad, and I'm a lousy skier. However, that still leaves the trail to the rocks themselves, which is another 2.5 miles or so each way, and the scrambling to get to the various climbs.

Should be an adventure any way you look at it. And yes, you will be the only ones there.

not that its much help, but we climbed the needles 2 years ago in mid april. most everything was melted out except the northside of the ridge, so the majority of the approach was kicking steps across spring corn. if you have your touring gear it would be super sick to cache gear at the fire look out, and just ski in every morning, brew up some water, and head out. your stoked!

As long as the weather is good, it'll be great. The storm that is heading in is forecasted to add another couple of feet of snow to the mix. What a better way to get there than skiing? Have a good one! Also, (not intending to hijack the thread) does anyone have any good beta on the climbing around there? I used to have an old Needles guide that (I believe) is out of print now, but it's no longer in my possession. I'm also looking for any info on Dome Rock's climbs as well.

"I used to have an old Needles guide that (I believe) is out of print now, but it's no longer in my possession. I'm also looking for any info on Dome Rock's climbs as well."

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post on Supertopo. lot of needles rats hang out there

The best info on the Needles - with links to all the other good info (particularly the first link in the intro paragraph!) is found here:

stanford.edu/~clint/needles…

And as to how much snow right now - changing rapidly in the "lots more snow" direction...

Dome Rock is a good alternative.

I forgot to mention...this is a really good collection of Sierra webcams: sierrafire.cr.usgs.gov/swfr…

There are a couple of webcams in the area if you browse around the site. As you can see, snow snow snow.