1HappyHiker
Well-known member
Osceola-East Peak via Greeley Ponds & Osceola Trails: 26-Dec-2008
Trail Conditions:
As of the date of this report, the Greeley Ponds & Osceola Trails to Osceola-East Peak are broken-out.
[It appeared that the Osceola Trail from East Peak to Osceola was also broken-out. However, my hiking partner (Zman) & I stopped at East Peak and so it is unknown for certain if the trail is broken-out all the way to Osceola.]
It should be noted that although the Osceola Trail from the Greeley Ponds Trail to East Peak was broken out, it was not broken-out evenly, and it was sort of a mess in some spots with a lot of post-holing.
There were portions of the trail (particularly at the higher elevations) where the crust was quite thick and difficult to establish a foothold with our MSR snowshoes. And this might explain (in part) why some chose to bareboot since without snowshoes it was easier to break through the crust and establish a foothold. There was no exposed-ice encountered during our trek, but for certain there was ice underlying the snowpack on the steep rocky portions of the Osceola Trail.
Due to the variety of trail conditions we encountered, Zman & I changed footwear several times during this trek. At times, we wore snowshoes, other times crampons, and other times we simply barebooted.
All brook crossings were very doable, and there were no issues with blowdowns.
Of course, it the predicted rain and warmer weather come to pass over the weekend, who knows how this will impact on the conditions reported here!
Trail Conditions:
As of the date of this report, the Greeley Ponds & Osceola Trails to Osceola-East Peak are broken-out.
[It appeared that the Osceola Trail from East Peak to Osceola was also broken-out. However, my hiking partner (Zman) & I stopped at East Peak and so it is unknown for certain if the trail is broken-out all the way to Osceola.]
It should be noted that although the Osceola Trail from the Greeley Ponds Trail to East Peak was broken out, it was not broken-out evenly, and it was sort of a mess in some spots with a lot of post-holing.
There were portions of the trail (particularly at the higher elevations) where the crust was quite thick and difficult to establish a foothold with our MSR snowshoes. And this might explain (in part) why some chose to bareboot since without snowshoes it was easier to break through the crust and establish a foothold. There was no exposed-ice encountered during our trek, but for certain there was ice underlying the snowpack on the steep rocky portions of the Osceola Trail.
Due to the variety of trail conditions we encountered, Zman & I changed footwear several times during this trek. At times, we wore snowshoes, other times crampons, and other times we simply barebooted.
All brook crossings were very doable, and there were no issues with blowdowns.
Of course, it the predicted rain and warmer weather come to pass over the weekend, who knows how this will impact on the conditions reported here!
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