Road is clear but in terrible condition as always up to the Twin Lakes trailhead. Lots of water on the road and a few places where my Subaru Crosstrek scratched the base. I have a hefty skid plate so no worries. There were two trucks and another Subaru at the top.
Before diving in too much, let it be known the Winchester Lookout is closed till further notice due to vandalism during the winter months.
My partner and I started up around 9:45a. He was on foot and I brought my Splitboard for some end of season turns in the snow fields. I ended up carrying my board a significant part of the way with some uphill skinning intermittently. About 2/3 of the way up the trail becomes impassable due to large and very steep snow fields in the avalanche chute. We decided to drop our bags and scramble where we could to get to the stop. It was Class 3/4 to get to the lookout.
We reached the top and decided to try the main trail back down due to how steep and loose the rocks had been. The snowfields were brutal. We made it through and upon reaching my bags again I had a very nice ride down till 1/2 mi to the trailhead in the slushy soft snow. Not a long run but it was fun to slide on some snow again.
Things to note: micro spikes will not do. You need crampons with the front hooks to truly dig into the snow. Experience locking yourself into the snow is a must. You also need to bring an ice axe and be ready to self arrest. This trail is nearly impossible right now without proper tools and experience with snow travel. It’s going to be a few weeks until the snow fully melts out. As with all other trails the snow pack is at Late May/June levels this late in the season. Both twin lakes aren’t even close to being melted out fully.
We did bring our two huskies, specifically dogs that are made for this kind of travel, and they did better than we did as we slid and dug into the snow. Snow is very sloppy and soft. Hard to get purchase.
All in all exhausting day that ended around 3p with very slow methodical travel.
Comments
Drawntohighplaces on Winchester Mountain
That’s for the trip report. That’s such a shame! Was there any info on helping get it fixed? Thanks for sharing! Cute pups:)
Posted by:
Drawntohighplaces on Jul 19, 2022 06:43 PM
Opening
Unfortunately no further updates on opening the lookout! It’s so hard to get to right now that I’m sure they’re saving that project for more snow to melt out. It’ll be a few weeks at least. We saw campers hanging out by the lakes and it looked like they did a little bit of paddle boarding in the mostly snowy lakes. Still a gorgeous day! Thanks!
Posted by:
rhodieroadie on Jul 19, 2022 07:18 PM
MtnHiker! on Winchester Mountain
Thank you for the report.
Lookouts like this one are some of our favorite hikes to do. Very sad to see how little respect some people have for these historical buildings. Many thanks and much appreciation to the organizations and individuals that volunteer their time and effort to take care of them.
Hopefully repairs will be completed soon.
Posted by:
MtnHiker! on Jul 20, 2022 08:51 PM