Lee Vining Canyon-V bowl & Bishop Area- Pine Creek current conditions

Lee Vining Canyon V bowl:

It had been 19 days since I visited Lee Vining Canyon and V-bowl area. I believe there is relatively the same or actually less snow than earlier this month. It was quite warm and wet out there with the cloud ceiling just at the top of V bowl and obscuring the Dana Plateau and high country. I decided not to skin up slope too far due to shallow snow depths and the damp surface conditions down low. Some days are better to make soup than go backcountry skiing, a friend of mine once said. Diehards could have got some skiing in though, it just wasn't on my plate today. 

Was also interested to observe if we would actually get a “lake effect” heavy precipitation event that was a possibility in the weather forecast. Unfortunately it didn’t work out as well as when conditions lined up for a similar event on Christmas night. It may have snowed an inch, and didn’t look like much more at the top of V bowl. No snow in the trees, and it was warm down low in the canyon; calm, soupy and socked in.

Pine Creek Canyon, Bishop Area

Since I wasn’t successful in Lee Vining, I headed up Pine Creek in the Bishop area to check conditions. It had been looking snowy up there. Although there is a bit of a blanket of snow at the trailhead, it still is much too thin for me to try and adventure yet, but as always there is probably something available for the not so faint of heart. It was warm and wet in Pine creek as well, with no wind.

PICTURES below are from Lee Vining Canyon