Connor:
As Laura showed in her post on snow conditions, you cannot go by what you find in any other location, especially when dealing with the HST to and through Kaweah Gap. Critical sections are deep in ValHalla, and in the shadow of Eagle Scout Peak. Valhalla hold clouds and therefore snow like crazy. Last year-mid July, when much higher passes were finally clear, Valhalla was clouding up solid every afternoon, and holding snow that turned strong teams back at about 9000 - 9500. If you want a rough comparison, last years WZ trip reports show first use of the MWMT switchbacks from 12,000 up to 13,500 around July 2, but the first HST hikers to push Kaweah Gap (except for two experienced winter climbers) 10,500 were about 2 weeks later. And the MW switchbacks are not clear as of this writing. That tells me that it is probably not solid snow above 8000 below Kaweah Gap, but its probably a lot lower than 10,000. This is not to say that KG is reliably 2 weeks behind the switchbacks, but its one piece of good beta you should consider.
Finally the route to KG above Precipice Lake is a lot harder to find than Trail Crest, even though the actual climbing is easier. No clear chute, and lots of it gets bridged and undercut.
In any event, good luck. If you want the skinny on individual creek crossings, camps etc up to Hamilton, let me know
The rangers tend to report second hand and very conservatively about snowmelt: your only really reliable info is from someone coming off the trail. I would still make that recon trip a couple of days ahead of your permit date, and hang out at Crescent Meadow in the mid afternoon to catch hikers actually coming off the trail
Last edited by saltydog; 05/16/12 09:58 AM.
