Snow on Ben Lomond

[mountainrob]

Is the snow starting to melt on BL?? Could you make it to summit now without snoeshoes or crampons?? :2thumbs:

[devo_stevo]

Accord to the weather guy on KSL last night, there is still 67" of snow up there. I would take something along with you if were to go up there right now.

I went up there in early July a few years back and there was still a huge pile of snow on the backside of that mountain. It holds the snow for a while.

Let us know what you find if you go up there and welcome to Bogley.

[rwpontius]

From Ogden I would say there is still too much snow on Ben Lomond to try it. There is still a fair amount on the south face and the ridge running south to N. Ogden Divide. I usually make my first hike up there when the trail up only crosses one (visible from Ogden) snow field south of Bailey Springs Junction. That isn't to say there won't be other areas with snow though. The snow up there has been going fast so it might be hikeable (by my standards) in a couple of weeks or less.
RP

[mountainrob]

did you guys read the article about the 3 teenagers that they had to helicopter off the top of Ben Lomond?? All are okay.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705304636/3-teens-rescued-from-mountain.html

Any new updates on snowlevels there?

[live2ride]

I hit ben lomond every year and dont even venture there to late june, as they said above there is still 5+ feet of snow and the summit would be a bad deal to try to hike. Dont bother for now. Hit skyline first you can usually make it to the summit and run into a large wall of snow.

[rwpontius]

We tried Ben Lomond today. If you are familiar with the route we headed west at the top of the switchbacks on the unofficial trail. Some snow (as expected) on the way up. Once we got to the top of the ridge the route was at least 50% snow covered with snow and much of it steep enough that we had to leave the "trail" and bushwack. By walking on a lot of snow and bushwacking (and some melted out trail) we got just above Bailey Springs Junction. From there up everything was pretty much snow covered. Initially, we planned to traverse over to the ridge crest and follow it to the summit but the snow fields (and the slope) are quite steep on the summit cone and we decided to turn around just above Bailey Springs Jct. I suspect it will be better in the next two weeks. I'll try to post some photos of the summit pyramid tomorrow.
RP

[rwpontius]

Hopefully I will add 3 photos, all taken just above Bailey Springs Jct. The summit pyramid obviously has quite a bit of snow but there is much more than is apparent from the photos as you look south toward N. Ogden Divide.
RP

[mountainrob]

was the snow solid or did it feel slushy?

[mountainrob]

Two friends and I were able to Summit Ben Lomond today. The switchbacks that lead you up the last 900ft for the summit are almost completely covered. We kicked steps in the slushy snow and worked our way to the top. Probably very unconventional for BL......but it was fun!! It was fun coming down from the summit in the snow!

[devo_stevo]

Anyone been up to Ben Lomond recently? I'm planning a bike ride from Willard Basin over to Ben Lomond and down. Just wondering is the decent off of the top is going to be scarier than usual or not.

Thanks in advance for any info.

[James_B_Wads2000]

I haven

[devo_stevo]

[quote=James_B_Wads2000]I haven

[rwpontius]

I went up Ben Lomond a week ago Wednesday-late June. When you hit snow above Bailey Springs Jct. traverse over to the left and follow the ridgeline to the summit. There is a semi trail there. Actually, it was pretty good last week-better than previous years. Some of the way you will need to use your hands to climb but it really isn't bad. The big snowfield on the NE is melting out pretty fast though. A little snow on the east side above the switchbacks-not much and it may well have melted in the last week plus.
RP

[devo_stevo]

Well, it was a no go to Ben Lomond on Friday coming from the north on bikes. 2 reasons really.

1. There is still a substantial amount of snow in Willard Basin (more than I've seen up there on the 4th of July in the last 15 years).

2. My brother-in-law and I are not in the greatest shape of our lives right now. We got to the Willard Basin sign at the saddle and said, I'm done. We were 3 hours to there from my house in Brigham City, and 51 minutes back down. It was a great ride and we'll try it again later on in the summer.

On a side note, there were more ATVs and dirt bikes up there than I had ever seen up there before. It was a freaking zoo all the way up. When we got to the saddle, there were about 25 ATVs parked there. Nuts. For the most part, people were cool except for one hot shot kid, that was cutting the switchbacks and trying to go all fast. We yelled at him to stop being a dumbass, but I don't think he got the point.

Other than that kid, all they did was look at us as if we were from another planet that hadn't invented the internal combustion engine yet.