Mount Tallac
MVP:
REI Rental Snowshoes—As much as it was a pain to carry and wear these snowshoes, they were invaluable. Still, the rentals were made for flat ground and did not perform well when the terrain got steep.
Hike Review:
The Mount Tallac Trail was a gorgeous trail that I want to return to.
The trail weaves through trees, lakes, bluffs, and it was all just so beautiful, especially in the winter.
There were plenty of shaded parts, and not shaded parts on the trail.
It had snowed on and off for the week before I had went there, and so there was no trail to follow after we caught up with the hiking group that had left the parking lot before us. After that, we trail blazed.
Snowshoes were a non-negotiable requirement for this trail, and I was really glad that Venkat had influenced me to bring them. We found out that some steep shortcuts would also require crampons, which I did not have.
What I Learned:
I followed Skurka’s advice and wore my waterproof trail runners with knee-high gaiters instead of heavy winter boots. It worked better than I thought! Although my toes were colder due to the lack of insulation, as long as I moved around, my toes felt great. The lighter weight of my foot system also made the entire hike much easier than expected!
Snowshoes are invaluable, but at the same time, are heavy. They were great for trailblazing in virgin snow, but on the way back, both Venkat and I switched to just our normal shoes.
I used my ice axe (or any ice axe) for the first time while ascending and descending some steep terrain. The 60cm sized worked out well. Near the top of the mountain, the snow depth was reduced down to a few inches and this is where the ice axe didn’t perform well in the classic upright position. I should have climbed the slope facing it directly, but I didn’t have the footwear for it. I glissaded sitting down and used the ice axe as a brake, and it worked really well!
I used the rental trekking poles with the snow basket, and I used it so much during the hike that the side of my thumb that was in touch with the trekking pole felt worn out by the end. They were so useful in helping balance on slippery snow.
The narrower mouth insulated water bottle kept the hot tea so much hotter than my wide mouth insulated water bottle. I’m switching to the narrower mouth one for all winter hiking.
The boiling-hot soup that I packed for lunch was perfect for the hike. Although the temperature was only lukewarm by the time I ate, it was so much better than trying to gnaw at a frozen sandwich.
I learned that I should just stay on the official trail. Because we were trailblazing, we skipped Cathedral Lake, which worked out well. Unfortunately, we also tried to skip the slight detour of the official trail in getting to the top of the mountain range, but the steepness got to be too much, and I didn’t have crampons, so we ended up turning around. I think if we had followed the official route, we should have made it up to the top without issue. But now, I kind of want to go back with crampons and conquer the steep section.
Walking downhill in snow takes almost as long as walking up. It’s so slippery that you have to take everything slow and steady.
Trailblazing in virgin snow is tiring work. The snowshoe picks up so much snow that it really works out your thighs. It’s even worse on a steep uphill ascent.
My left hip bothered me in the first few miles of the hike until it went quiet. On the steepest uphill portion, my right knee screamed in pain on every uphill move. But as soon as we turned around, both pain points completely disappeared.
I wore the 30L Gregory daypack that I got last week. It worked out okay. It was able to store everything I needed, but around the 7 hr mark, the lack of a hipbelt led to fatigue on my shoulders.
I was slightly scared of how cold it was and that led me to overpack on clothing. I probably carried 2-3 lbs of excess outer wear.
I carried 2 L of water thinking that the hike would take around 6-7 hrs. Even though we turned back before the summit, the hike still took 8 hrs. I didn’t run out of water, but if we did reach the peak, I would have definitely run out. Next time, I should carry 1.5x the amount of water I would usually need if I’m snowshoeing.
Friends Made:
There were so many friendly faces on the trail, but the most memorable was this party of three small asian women with one older white guy. They seemed tired when we caught up to them, so Venkat and I trailblazed. We made jokes, traded advice back and forth, and took pictures, but we never traded information. Next time, I should just carry a business card or something.
What Happened?
8.55 miles, 8 hrs 30 mins, 2649 ft of ascent
Last year, I made a friend while hiking in Desolation Wilderness—Hiroumi-san. Well, the week after we met, he hiked to the peak of Mount Tallac. Ever since, I wanted to summit it too! When I shared my desire to summit Mount Tallac, Venkatesh was instantly interested and told me that he would come with me.
We met at the Taylor Creek Sno-Park at 7am and soon started hiking on Cathedral Road. We found our way to the Mount Tallac Trail, where we started following fresh snow shoe tracks. Right after we got up to the ridge overlooking Fallen Leaf Lake, we caught up to the snowshoeing party who seemed to be tired. Since Venkat and I had fresher legs, we trailblazed while the other party followed. Venkat and I took turns trailblazing, and I really appreciated having him along for this summit attempt.
Venkat and I were snowshoeing faster than the other party (even though we were trailblazing), so we didn’t notice that they took a different route than we did. We then looked at our map and realized that we had gone off the official trail. We were trying to reach Mt Tallac via a different trail named “SE Chutes”.
Although the SE Chutes were steep, we made steady progress. We even got help half way up these chutes with fellow snowshoers, who passed us and trailblazed for us. However, as we climbed, the path got steeper and steeper with the snow cover getting shallower and shallower. Without the snow to hold my snowshoes, they started slipping, and without crampons, I did not feel good about going further. Venkat also had trouble with traction, and we decided to turn around after we gave it our final try.
The way down was almost as slow as the time we had spent going up due to how slippery the trail was. By this point, I had the ice axe in one hand and the trekking pole in the other—the ice axe would help me self-arrest if I fell. We made it down with me wearing Venkat’s unused crampons and Venkat rocking his snowshoes. At this point, we both decided to hike with just our shoes, since the snow path was well compressed down. There was one of two short stretches where I was able to glissade, but the foot path was a bit too bumpy and the snow was too deep on either side of the path.
The rest of the journey back was uneventful. It was just tiring to walk carefully on slippery snow. In the morning, the snow was cold, so it was crunchy, but by the afternoon, the sun had caused to snow to melt, then refreeze, causing things to be extra slick—our hiking poles did god’s work in helping us avoid slips and falls.
We got back to our cars around 4pm, and we were realized that our speed for the entire hike was almost exactly 1mph. This really drove home for me how tiring snowshoeing with elevation gain is. I bet in the summer I can do this at twice the speed. I guess we’ll just have to find out.
