First Ski Tour of the Season

After busting my butt on the bike for a couple of months racing cyclocross I needed a little break, so I took a quick tour up above McLeod Lake in the Mammoth Lakes Basin.

Travel was easy with a few inches of fresh light snow over a dense base. Nice day too with crisp temps, light winds, and bluebird skies.

 Made it up to the base of the crest for a little taste of alpine granite.

And some fine views of the backside of Mammoth Mountain and McLeod Lake below.

Pretty impressed with the coverage up high. A solid 2' to 3' base of dense snow. If bare rock wasn't showing you probably weren't going to hit anything. Skied fast though with just enough variability to keep me on my toes. Not super skiing but fun.

Coverage at Twin Lakes however was quite thin - and melting quickly. Somewhere around the 9,000' elevation the snowpack increases dramatically.

One and done here but a good tour for recharging the batteries.