Thursday, January 27, 2011

Eastern Flank of Kearsarge Peak

I went for a quick morning ski before work yesterday.

The Onion Valley Road is passable up to the saddle.
However it does not look like it will melt out above there any time soon.

The old dirt road to Sardine Canyon and Little Onion Valley is melted out in spots.

From the saddle I found myself climbing this gully system almost immediately.
This treed bowl forms the head of the next gully system to the north.
Big views south.
Since these are east facing gullies, I found a whole smorgasbord of snow conditions.

The southeast facing snow was corning. The more southerly the better.

The center of all these gullies was firm windboard which I skied lower down where the southeast facing snow thinned.

The northeast facing slopes held some nice recrystallized fluff up high in the trees, but an unpleasant mix of windboard, wind scultpted, and soft snow below.

The descent gully. I worked that left side as far as I could.
Nice to be back on the planks!

No comments: