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A ranger at the Tuolumne desk said half the folks on the JMT this year never checked snow levels, and now I get why
I was picking up a permit at the Tuolumne Meadows station last week and overheard a ranger telling a group that roughly half the hikers coming through this season didn't look at the snow report before heading out over Donohue Pass. One guy in the group said they'd just planned for July weather, and the ranger just kind of stared at him and pulled out a photo of the pass still holding a big cornice. It made me think about how easy it is to build a route plan around a calendar instead of actual conditions, especially when you're pulling trip reports from two or three years back and assuming the trail is the same every summer. I've been guilty of this too, back in 2021 I almost walked into a snowfield on the north side of Forester because I'd read a 2019 report and figured it was clear. Now I check the snowpack and recent trail updates before I even pick dates, and I build in a backup pass in case the main one is sketchy. If you're doing any high passes in the Sierra this year, what sources are you actually trusting for current conditions? I'd like to hear what's worked for people lately.
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