Started around 10am and got up to the shelter by 1:30pm.(Road mtn bike for first 3 kms) Heat was not too bad. Shady in trees and a bit of breeze on the ridge. Lots of clean, cold water at the shelter. Not many bugs. No one up there when I was there. You can pretty much avoid any snow when summitting if you take the trail.(left of snow area) You dont need crampons and/or iceaxe but I used my crampons coming down b/c I had them. I took a route across the snow. Definitely a 11 hr hike. Its pretty nice past the shelter. Soaked myself quite freqently to stay cool.
Cell phone pics
Shelter
Summit
(noticed that someone used the shelter's interior ladder for firewood. Also, the emergency equipment in shelter is gone ie stretcher.)
What idiot would chop down an obvious needed structure just so that they could get firewood? I know that as more people chop trees [illegally] for their own summit fire, the farther they have to walk back to the hut. Pure selfishness
hmm I'm planning to do this mid August. So there's little snow? Can I make it to peak w/o crampons then?
Yes, you can do it without crampons. The snow area is not steep and is not over any cliffs. If you take the marked trail it pretty much avoids all snow. I went straight up from the hut across the snow you see in picture.
Golden Ears Summit (July 31, 2009)
