It was extremely smoky in the morning, so much so in fact that it was difficult to see the Owens Valley in the morning – ditto Richard’s notes that all you could really make out was the Inyo Mountains across the valley. I wound up placing a bandana over my face to “filter” the air – not sure if it did any good. Air quality gradually improved with altitude and didn’t appear that the smoke made it to UBSL.
I thought about climbing Thor Peak but since I had never been up this trail before my curiosity of wanting to check out the area won out and I decided to explore LBSL and UBSL to get familiar with the area. Met three guys from So Cal who had camped at UBSL who had just come down from Iceberg Lake. Temp was around 40 degrees at Noon at UBSL.
Thicker clouds started rolling in around 1:00 and I decided to head down. As I was coming down light snow grains started at LBSL and continued all the way down to the ledges. Air quality had improved in the afternoon and as I was coming down I could see Owens Valley again. Except for the smoke in the morning it was a great day.
