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  • 07 May 2025 - Conditions Report: Rock Creek - Little Lakes Valley, Morgan Pass

    May 23, 2025 2 min read

    Here's what the owners found on their jaunt to Morgan Pass during a recent day off back on Wednesday:

    Conditions Report: 

    Current As Of: May 07, 2025

    Activity During Report: Winter hiking in snow. 

    Conditions

    The road is currently closed at the pack station, about 1.3 miles from the Mosquito Flat trailhead. The road walk until there is in patchy snow. The sunny spots are melted out, the shady ones are still snowy. 

    At Mosquito Flat, the bathroom is technically open, but some rodents apparently had a lot of fun there in the winter - use at your own risk...

    Once you are on the actual Little Lakes Valley Trail to Gem Lake, you spend about 90% of your time on snow. There are just a few melted out patches above 10,000 feet.

    In the AM hours, the snow was still firm enough to walk on it without flotation (aka snowshoes), but after noon it was warmer, so the snow softened and we postholed. In that case, we were glad we had brought the snowshoes.

    However, these days, the temperatures are so warm that you might already need snowshoes in the morning. We don't expect the snow to get very firm at night. 

    We ran into two parties who had wanted to go up Bear Creek Spire but decided to bail because of the large amounts of lingering snow.

    According to one mountaineer, Peppermint Pass has a large mound of avalanche debris at the bottom. 

    We witnessed some wet avalanches and heard a few more go off in gullies that we couldn't see into - stay safe if you do anything in or below steep gullies! Wet snow avalanche danger is a great concern in  these temperatures.

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    Need Gear? If you're in need of mountaineering boots, ice axe, crampons, or other gear for your adventures, you can rent or buy everything that you would need with us here at Eastside Sports.

    Got a More Specific Conditions Question? As always, don't hesitate to call us at store (760-873-7520) if ever in need of adventure ideas or conditions information!

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    The road between the pack station and Mosquito Flat.

     
    View of Long Lake and the Sierra Crest

     
    It's still wintry above 10,000 feet elevation.

     
    On top of Morgan Pass at 11,106 feet elevation, looking at Pine Creek (East)

     
    The bathrooms at Mosquito Flat - rodents had some fun here.

    *All conditions reports are subject to change, increasingly so with each passing day since the observation(s) were made. They are provided as a tool to assist your adventuring, not to replace your own risk management and decision-making. No information in any trip or conditions report published by Eastside Sports should be considered definitive in its information or directive in its recommendation.