Yesterday I got a chance to ski with my friend Ann for the first time post recovery. She was keen to head south and I was happy to oblige.
We headed down to Independence and up the Onion Valley road which is impassable past the switchback where the dirt track to Sardine Canyon leaves. We parked there and headed in.
Nice early morning light at the parking spot. Calm and pleasant.
On the road to Sardine, the snow isn't continuous but is dry for only a couple of hundred yards. We elected to skin up the gorge amongst interesting avalanche debris. Easy travel!
A bit higher up the valley opens.
The snow here was wintery and wind packed. More easy travel but the wind picked up markedly.
Higher still the wind was cranking but tolerable. Ann was cruising!
Nice scenery below into the Owens Valley.
Looking up to the windswept summit of Kearsarge Peak
Almost down. The lowest slopes are transitioning to corn and skied well but likely would turn to mank when things warm up.
Happy to find decent skiing top to bottom! I very much enjoyed the stunningly beautiful scenery and great company. A wonderful culmination of my recuperation. On to the next adventure!!
3 comments:
I love your blog! I've been thinking about doing a ski tour up Sardine Canyon for a while now. How many miles is it from the switchback where you parked up to Sardine Lake? And can you skin up the old mining road for most of the tour?
Go for it Justin! Looks like it's about 3.5 to 4.0 miles up to the lake. Probably a bit more accounting for switchbacks etc. Once we were in the canyon the old mining road was mostly indiscernible as the snow was pretty deep. It's not a steep tour except the little bench at around 10,700'. It's not a bad way to go up Kearsarge Peak too if conditions are right.
Awesome! Thanks for the info! Much appreciated. See you on the skin track!
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