Howell Mountain Snow Comparison: 2017-2018

The photo on the left was taken August 23, 2017 and the one on the right was August 21, 2018. The snow field was much larger this year.

Howell Mountain 2018

This year we decided to scout a route suitable for horses. We stayed on the Kitty Creek trail all the way to Flora Lake, where the trail fizzled out. The end of the trail is very near the southern tip of Howell Mountain. We turned east and meandered through the forest until we came to Howell Mountain's southern ridge, with this view looking southeast.

We followed the ridge back northward, and in this photo, looking ahead, the highest point of Howell Mountain is nearly in view.

Above the treeline, the rocky tundra turned very steep, but Louie assured us that horses could handle it. I'm guessing this photo was taken at about 10,000 feet elevation.

Looking back down the slope, along the border of the trees, you can see the ridge we followed. At the right of the photo it looks like a meadow. That marks the end of the Kitty Creek trail. Flora Lake is there too, but it is too small and faint to see in the photo.

Finally we reached the highest point on Howell Mountain: 10,964 feet. Looking northward our destination is obscured by the smoke mist but it looks like fairly easy walking. At this point we had only about two miles to go across the tundra.

The immensity of this terrain makes it difficult to estimate the size of things. The incredible vertical wall of snow in this photo was probably about 100 feet tall. But our route merely passed by this huge snow field. There aren't any more photos showing how we found our way down to Mooney Meadows because the smoke mist turned into serious fog and we actually had a difficult time finding our usual route down the east side of the mountain.

Several days later, we were exploring an alternate route up/down the cliffs near our campsite. This view of the snow field which blocks our most direct route happens to show both the top and the bottom of the snow field, about 350 feet apart. We want to drag airplane wreckage up across that snow. But when one person is standing at the bottom edge of the snow field and another is at the top, we can't see each other, or hear each other, because the snow is mounded up between us. We were able to use walkie-talkies for communication but the batteries last only two days. So now I'm looking into solar-powered battery chargers.

When we arrived at the location in this photo, what I saw was a vertical wall. However, what Jeff saw was a ladder. He climbed up that "wall" easily in two minutes. This suggests that we could climb up and down that cliff rather than taking a longer route around it. If we were all trained in the use of crampons we could also traverse the snow field like Jeff did. These cliffs make such wonderful climbing material that we might be able to convince some more rock climbers to come play, and maybe help us drag up more airplane parts.