After two days of unsettled weather and a nice hard freeze in the mountains I elected to go south and check out Onion Valley above Independence.
The road is clear to the trailhead and there is continuous snow in all three of the principle drainages above. I left the car around 8:30 and headed up near the summer trail towards Kearsarge Pass.
Shortly these runs came into view. I've been up the left chute a couple of times, so I decided to head up the right chute today.
University Peak
I booted with crampons the entire way arriving at the top of the ridge with fine views.
University again
The east face of Mt Gould and Golden Trout Lake
Dragon Peak (left very dark) and Dragon Tooth (left center)
Topped out a bit before 11:00 and was greeted by a brisk north breeze which was keeping the snow pretty firm. Once I got down a couple of hundred feet the snow softened to perfect velvet. Found good snow back to the trailhead where it was just starting to get sticky. Beauty of a day!
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