Gradually feeling better, so I went on a short tour up South Fork Bishop Creek Monday. Table and Habeggar's are still very thin (basically dry) at the bottom so I continued up canyon on the snow covered road.
Headed up to a seldom visited zone on NE aspects which were holding nice cold soft snow. Swell views of the Parcher's and Brown Lake zones on the way up.
It's been a long time since I've done this tour and I had forgotten the lay of the land. Thought I was taking a shortcut to avoid Alder bushwhacking but it turned into an arduous "longcut". Laughable.
The original intent was to ski these nice trees above, but I was too pooped after my alder fest. Looked good in there!
Once back through the alder I enjoyed a nice run back to the road.
Rested up Tuesday then joined my buddy Dave for a tour up out of Aspendell towards Bishop Bowl. The meadow is quite thin and thinning more with the warm temps, but the approach gullies held enough snow to allow us mostly easy skinning up the moraine.
There's good coverage once up and over the moraine although the snow is pretty wind affected. Dave tops out on the first knoll along the East ridge with Bishop and the Owens Valley behind.
We enjoyed grand views of Bishop Bowl.
and the Sierra crest above Lake Sabrina. Coverage looked quite good back there.
The skiing down wasn't great, but not bad either.
With careful reading of the snow texture one could fine soft snow in the glades. The moraine run was surprisingly decent too. Sun softened wind board in the gullies skied well with mash potatoes here and there to keep us on our toes.
Good to be getting out!
