March 1, 2009 Basin Fiasco #2

Some of you may recall my last trip to Basin Mtn back in January which could only be described as a fiasco. Well, I did it again! Again I was far too optimistic about snow coverage, and again the snow that we had was really lousey. This time we were blessed with howling winds too.

At least we were able to ski from the car. This is a picture from the tailgate towards Mt. Tom.

Another picture from the start towards the Tungten Hills (foreground), the Owens Valley (midground), and the White Mountains (background).

Here's another view of the valley from a little higher up. Yes, it looks skiable, and it was if you don't mind lots of hidden lurking rocks with your hollow rotten snow. Scarey.

The winds were not quite strong enough to knock us over, but the stinging shards of blowing snow were somewhat less than pleasant.

Alas we crested a small ridge and were rewarded with this view of the "Basin" for which the mountain is named. The main attraction is the broad couloir dead center.

Neither of us were very excited about our prospects up the couloir, so we poked around some old mines. It was quite pleasant out of the wind in this mine shaft.

The descent was mostly a series of shakey traverses on hollow, crusty, mushy snow. We hit this Aspen grove for added excitement.

This shot shows most of our descent. Ugly. Very Ugly.

Back at the truck we observed a nasty plume of dust moving up the valley.

It was one of those days where turns were basically out of the question. There were no expectations. No one got hurt and no gear was severly damaged, so we were able to laugh the whole thing off. The excercise was good, the views great, and the companionship superb!