Despite widespread reports of severely wind damaged snow in the high country I elected to head up to the Mt Humphreys area above Bishop in hopes of finding a little decent skiing and confident I would enjoy the fine alpine scenery.
The first good news of the day was that the Buttermilk Road is passable to within a quarter mile of the usual parking for this zone. Need high clearance.
Early morning windshield photo.
The view from just above where I parked.
Looking down to the Buttermilks with Grouse Mountain center.
Winter trees
Thinking this slope on Peaklet would have provided decent skiing before it got too warm. Maybe.
The upper part of Wahoo Gully is filled in but the apron is another story.
Looking back to Bishop. Mostly supportable wind board here made for tolerable skiing.
Ah yes! Alpine scenery.
The imposing southeast face of Mt Humphreys on right.
Classic Couloirs! Kindergarten (left) and Checkered Demon (right).
Skinned up to the rocks in this broad bowl. A bit crusty but ok skiing.
Recent wet slide activity. Strong north winds have loaded high south facing ridgetops. Subsequent warming then triggered this fairly large avalanche.
Overall the skiing was fair to poor. Found some nice soft snow in the few sheltered trees I traveled through but endured plenty of breakable crust and sastrugi too.
The grand scenery did not disappoint however. Incredible!
No comments:
Post a Comment