[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Rhod

So the High Pass was clear, as far as I'm concerned.

Seems that's right. Not sure where I got that from. Perhaps an old board game where the play of a "bad weather" card can close the High Pass.

Which begs the question as to why the Fellowship did not take the High Pass. It was close to Rivendell and safer than other passages over the Misty Mountains, as it was guarded by the Beornings.

The only clue that I can find lies in the following passage in The Ring Goes South:

The country was much rougher and more barren than in the green vale of the Great River in Wilderland on the other side of the range, and their going would be slow; but they hoped in this way to escape the notice of unfriendly eyes. The spies of Sauron had hitherto seldom been seen in this empty country, and the paths were little known except to the people of Rivendell.

So it seems that the Fellowship was reckoned to have a greater prospect of remaining unseen by travelling west of the mountains, even thought the eastern path was probably the safer and swifter one.