TJ Bowl Zone

Knowing there was good coverage in the Mammoth Lakes basin and hoping for good snow above treeline, Ann and I elected to go to the TJ bowl zone.

We got a fairly early start and soon reached Lake George with Cystal Crag above right.

Easy travel on a previous skin track brought us on up to TJ Lake.

Ann breaks trail near treeline.

We figured we'd keep heading up as long as the snow was good and the travel wasn't too arduous.  Surprisingly the conditions never deteriorated and we found ourselves up in a nice chute where we switched to boot travel for the ascent to the top. Ann motors up.

She took this photo of me coming up behind.

Glorious views from the top northwest to the Ritter Range.

and southeast along the Mammoth Crest.

Time to ski! Ann got this shot of me dropping in.

The snow was slightly wind affected and there was a thin melt/freeze crust in spots, but overall the skiing was quite good.

Ann found some nice faceted snow over here.

The zone! Our chute was just left of the big block on the right.

We then skinned back up, took a decent run through "Tree J" then out via glades below - which skied quite well.

Just an amazing day. Exceeded all expectations by a substantial margin!