Lone Peak Cirque Conditions 2020

Conditions 5/15
Supportable snow from cowboy camping on. Rock was completely warm and dry on the Summit Wall, snowy ledges on Question Mark Wall. Crampons highly recommended. There is no running water in the cirque
Stocked the Jacobs ladder Wag Bag station (usually lasts the weekend but not always). PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR OWN WAG BAG AND PACK IT OUT

Thanks, almost would've gone up there without a stove. 

Bump. Curious to hear about snow line elev. after these hot temps. 

Just returned from the cirque. Significantly less snow, melting very fast. In the two days we were up there we saw some areas melt out by  20ft. 

Conditions 6/9:
New snow is receding quickly, boot penetration was only ankle deep. Walls were mostly dry apart from ledges holding snow. Water is flowing everywhere.
as of today the wag bag station is stocked at Jacobs ladder. If you're planning to get on the jacobs ladder trail (even mountain biking) we could use help stocking the station the next two weeks as I'll be out of town. Call/swing by the shop 801-448-3037 and we'll get you a dozen bags to restock the station with

I think I dropped a TC pro on the summit or somewhere on the staircase descent about a week ago. If anyone is up there and spots it pretty please let me know and I'll repay in beer!

Thinking about heading up near the end of the month. Wondering if folks had a condition update or any advice on whether the spring will be running in late July. 

 Bump! Anyone go up last weekend? Looking to go up Friday / Saturday and wondering how much water to take...

bump

I went last weekend and there was a trickle in the stream below the boulders.  I am almost certain there will still be a few pools there this weekend.

Snow in the cirque to melt, water about half a mile below in some rocky pools. Water is also available at the nice camp sites along the ridge, about a mile from the Cirque. Road access to the ghost falls TH is closed, which complicates the approach.

We parked at the gate before the Peak View Trailhead and the approach took the exact same amount of time. I would argue it is preferable to driving up the bumpy dirt road to the Ghost Falls TH.

Greg Gavinwrote: We parked at the gate before the Peak View Trailhead and the approach took the exact same amount of time. I would argue it is preferable to driving up the bumpy dirt road to the Ghost Falls TH.

So you still went up Jacobs ladder, but you parked lower on the road? Is that right?

Just got back.  There's a few spots with water along the approach from Alpine.  Once you're in the Cirque, we found decent flows of snow melt in the afternoon, but nothing really in the mornings.  It's melting out fast.  We noticed drastic changes and many rocks uncovered from Friday to Sunday.  You may have a different experience next weekend.  

Creed - https://goo.gl/maps/gz4A1KStKxugcsMq8 

The area doesn't look like it does on the google map due to recently built homes, but that's the spot.

See "Peak View Trail" on All Trails - https://www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/us/utah/peak-view-trail

The red box is the current parking and the dashed line is a paved road that ends at a gate where you'll pick up the trail.

We took all the straightened out versions of the trail and it was easy.

The gully just below the cirque had running water in the early morning hours.

Greg Gavinwrote: Creed - https://goo.gl/maps/gz4A1KStKxugcsMq8 

The area doesn't look like it does on the google map due to recently built homes, but that's the spot.

See "Peak View Trail" on All Trails - https://www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/us/utah/peak-view-trail

The red box is the current parking and the dashed line is a paved road that ends at a gate where you'll pick up the trail.

We took all the straightened out versions of the trail and it was easy.

The gully just below the cirque had running water in the early morning hours.

Thanks Greg! Headed up there on Thursday for a few days. 

Adam Flemingwrote: Just got back.  There's a few spots with water along the approach from Alpine.  Once you're in the Cirque, we found decent flows of snow melt in the afternoon, but nothing really in the mornings.  It's melting out fast.  We noticed drastic changes and many rocks uncovered from Friday to Sunday.  You may have a different experience next weekend.  

Nice to meet you and Julian up there this weekend. If/when the world opens back up (safely), maybe we can all link up in the creek.

As of 7/25/2020 there is still a good puddle about 15 minutes from the cirque. 

Went up to the Cirque this weekend via the Jacobs Ladder trail.  We took the Peak View Trail to Jacob's Ladder that Greg described above and found it pretty manageable.  We were at the trailhead at 3:00 am, so we didn't actually end up needing that much water (I only drank about 1 liter by the time we got to the puddles described below).   

There were still a few puddles to drink from ~5 miles up the trail.  There is a very obvious wooden post near the end of the only pine tree forest section of the trail.  The puddles of water were off to the left of that post in a creek bed, but they weren't very deep at this point.  Further up the trails about 15 min away from the boulder field in front of the cirque, there were also some puddles in the stream bed. 

The cirque still had two significant patches of snow in it that you could also melt for water. 

There were short thunderstorms each afternoon on the days that we were up there, and they blew in very quickly without any warning, so watch the forecast.  

We also had pretty good cell reception with AT&T at various spots on the trail, and perfect reception at the summit of the cirque.         

The puddles at the cowboy camp ("obvious wooden post") mentioned above are gone. 

At 5-6am on Tuesday, a tiny amount of water (from rain the previous evening) was running in the lower parts of the final gully up to the cirque, around ~9800+ish'. However, on our way out around 4-5pm, it was all gone and we were only able to find to two small puddles near the bottom of the gully. I fully expect these to be gone by the weekend. If you find them, take it as a blessing and I'll warn you that the lower puddle we found tasted like it had a frog decomposing in it after being filtered. 

With the lack of precipitation in the forecast though this weekend, I would recommend being prepared to make it all the way into the cirque via Cherry Canyon or Jacobs Ladder without finding water and having to melt snow when you arrive. 

We went up Cherry for the first time, cutting over to Jacobs Ladder just below Enniss... and I'll opt for that over Jacob's Ladder in the future, even once the road to Ghost Falls is reopened. Why does this approach get a bad rep?

This is what was left on the afternoon of the 28th. 

A few small puddles on the last gully up into the cirque, but not many. Here is the snow on the 29th - figured keeping this updated as much as possible is probably best this time of year.