Yellow Hill-Elbow Peak-Jolly Mountain, Teanaway

The Yellow Hill-Elbow Peak-Jolly Mountain ridge sits at the western edge of the Teanaway. Being a bit further south than the main Teanaway crest and maybe benefiting from an Alpine Lakes rain shadow, it seemed like a good option to get miles in without wading through too much snow.

There are ~five blowdowns in between the TH and Jolly. A dusting of snow covers the majority of the trail from Yellow Hill to point 5850' before Jolly Mountain, and there are a good number of areas with 3-6" of snow; however, route finding is not an issue. The last 1.5 miles to Jolly is consistently 10-12" with windblown drifts of up to 18". Average temperature on the ridge yesterday was ~25F, with a pretty-constant breeze and gusts up to 45+ mph.

Finding a reasonably-fresh wolf track was a huge bonus.

On the ridge between Yellow Hill and Elbow Peak

Heading up Elbow Peak

Climbing up Elbow Peak; fresh snow blowing off the ridge

Elbow Peak summit area, maybe?

Heading toward Jolly Mountain

Heading toward Jolly

Teanaway wolf tracks

Point 5850'+ behind Sir Hikes, approaching Jolly

Deeper snow on Jolly's south slopes

Jolly Mountain summit ridge

Jolly Mountain summit 6443'

Headed home along the ridge; Elbow Peak in the middle, Yellow Hill at left

A few brief views on the way out