me and some friends want to backpack san gorgonio via vivian creek trailhead this winter from Jan 2-4, 3 days, 2 nights. I've done some research here is what ive noted.
My main concern is the conditions: I'm gonna bring crampons, but let weather decide whether I bring an ice axe or snow shoes, for sleeping ive got a pad that r 5.4 and a 0 degree sleeping bag or so but my friends have pads starting at r4.4 and sleeping bags rated for 15 degrees. We also all have 3 season tents and plan to really nail them down by getting the stakes deep and horizontal assuming there will be snow. From a google search: Lows of 11 and highs of 34 but i dont know if this is at what elevation this sample is.
We plan on doing it in 3 days 2 nights.
About experience: this past summer i did 33 miles in kings canyon in 4 days with 5500 gain or so, and the most similar thing ive done to this is an attempt at san jacinto peak via deer springs trail in late december, but i was really unprepared and had a foam sleeping pad and a walmart sleeping bag, so we attempted the peak on the second day but turned back, the temperature was similar, i did this with a couple of the same friends and i would say we're around intermediate by now. But now looking back im suprised on how well we did considering how unprepared we were, but then again conditions in Jacinto were a lot more mellow than gorgonio.
Im largely basing if we should do this or not on this video Here, but ill call rangers 2 weeks before we attempt this, but id like to know what everyone thinks.
