Please look at the story over on the Yosemite accidental death thread. The first of those deaths last friday was in the heart of the fire hose section of the lower Mist Trail referred to above, at the base of the steps. Second was along a similarly wet section of the Yosemite Falls trail. You do the math.
BTW, The beta above stating that the JMT is "almost just as wet" is just flat wrong with respect to the lower section. There will be wet patches from runoff, but nothing like the soaking the Mist Trail (hence the name) gets from Vernal. Also the JMT does not have those long stretches of slick granite in that section. Its a pain in the neck scrambling over the old broken pavement, but if you fall on the JMT, you don't go in the river. On the upper section (above Vernal) the Mist is farther from the river and the JMT gets a lot of drip, runoff and ice from above, mostly in one section, so the situation is sort of reversed.
This time of year, I would take the JMT to Clark Point, and drop down to the Mist from there unless you get really good beta that the JMT is clear of ice from Clark to the top of Nevada.
Last edited by saltydog; 05/17/11 03:54 AM.
