White Wing

 Sticking with the theme of skiing zones I've never skied before, I elected to check out the southeast slopes of White Wing coming in on Deadman Creek Road.

 Not the best photo. There's essentially three bowls here. I ended up in the center.

Great Jeffrey Pine in here.

Abundant high clouds kept the mood grey. Earthquake dome back left and Inyo Craters center.

Fairly easy skinning brought me to treeline and views east to Deadman Flat and Long Valley.

Love the stark scenery on top of White Wing

With the high clouds and a steady breeze the corn up high never softened. I did find fair skiing on the soft, faceted snow in the sheltered trees. Really had to watch the aspect though as anything with a hint of sun on it had a freeze crust which felt like riding on rails. No turning. Just hang on until you were back in the soft!

 Not sure this is really a "go to" zone for corn skiing since you climb about 1500' through the forest to get to 500' of open corn slopes. Super pretty though.

Bishop Bowl

I spent the last two days skiing out of Aspendell Meadows, the usual approach to Bishop Bowl. Yesterday I went out for a quick leg stretcher to check on conditions up there.

Didn't look too good. Almost turned around! The moraine is almost bare and the coverage in the meadow is meager.

I did manage to find consolidated snow with enough coverage to get up to the North Lake overlook. Lamarck Col left of center. Fools Ridge on right.

Whilst up there I noticed the snow looked pretty good on a nearby hill. Gave it a go and was pleasantly surprised.

The turns down saddle were decent so I took another run in the "mini-golf" zone.

Fun in there too.

I hadn't planned on skiing Bishop Bowl today, but my prescription goggle inserts popped out at my last transition yesterday and I wanted to retrieve them. I started off the day finding them and then booting up snow & sage to the top of the moraine.

Nice views greeted me there. Basin & Tom.

Looking up at the summit. I skied the tree run far right. Never done that before!

From my high point the views of the Paiute Crags and Mt Emerson were grand.

Mts Checkered Demon (left) and Locke (right). Could be some corn potential there!

My lunch spot, my gear, my hometown.

I happily found good powder skiing in these glades.

The descent off the moraine was "interesting" with large patches of 50/50 snow & brush. Supportable though so not too dangerous. 

Terrific day. Often wondered what this zone was like. Now I know!

 

Lakes Basin Trees

After a splendid day skiing lifts with Mary yesterday I had a real hankering for some good powder skiing. I went up to the Mammoth Lakes Basin to Lake Mary Ridge looking for well protected, north facing runs.

 The early morning ski over Lake Mary was sublime.

I was pretty impressed (depressed?) with the number of tracks at Lake Mary Ridge. Shouldn't have been surprised. It's low hanging fruit for sure. I was also a bit shocked noticing that the majority of the turns were made during the last warm spell with entire slopes covered with tracks and rollerballs. Ugh!

I followed an old skin track to the ridge and headed deeper into the woods quickly finding a nice knob with good looking snow and fun terrain. No tracks. Nobody around.

The skiing proved to be terrific. Short laps of 300' to 400'. Took five.

Best day in a while. Felt like winter too with cold temps and some north wind. 

 

Coyote Highlands

 Yesterday I kept it close to home again and skied up onto the Coyote Plateau via the Habeggar glades.

 We had another wind event since my last outing so the snow pack in open areas was ravaged.

The snow inside the glades wasn't too bad though. Neither were the views.

I wound my way through the east facing glades (more wind affected), up a rocky gully, and onto the plateau. I had hoped to summit Lookout Mountain, but I wasn't psyched to hike the bare ground up there.

Tremendous views of the Sierra from my high point. Humphreys, Basin, Tom

Bishop skyline from Mt Gilbert (left edge) to Paiute Pass.

Cruised back via my skin track to the glades, which skied pretty well, then a little survival skiing to the exit road - which is melting out and may not last long.

I hadn't been up this way since 2005. Glad I went.

South Fork Bishop Creek

The original plan for the day was to head up to June and ski lifts with Mary, but neither of us had the stomach for the inevitable crowds, so I switched gears and went for a tour up the South Fork of Bishop Creek.

I was hoping for a little more snow up here although the forecast was for just 2" to 4" and we got a little more with 4" to 6". The storm cleared at dawn leaving clear crisp skies. Stunning.

I noticed this zone had decent coverage when Forest and I were up here last week, so I gave it a whirl.

Table Mountain steeps

Despite the low snowfall total there were several loose dry sloughs which entrained a fair amount of snow.

The skin track and big views from my high point.

Looking up at the end of the run.

I'd call it fair to good skiing on dust plus on crust. There just wasn't enough snow to keep from skiing on the old crust. The best turns were on the low angle runout where I stayed up off the crust for the most part.

Gorgeous day though. This run's a hidden gem!

Skiing is Fun!

Catching up! 

Friday I skied at Mammoth with Mary and Dori. First time on the hill after the big storm and I was stoked to see how much the coverage had improved. Fun wind buff in spots and the groomers were top notch.

Crowds were getting thick though with long lift lines kicking in late morning. Really enjoyed the skiing though. Beauty day too.

Saturday I hooked up with Forest and we toured up the South Fork of Bishop Creek. Looking for soft snow in protected zones we elected to head up into the glades north of Tyee.

We wound our way around and up into a nice little chute.

Looking down canyon

A little too variable and a little too tight to let the skis run, but still good fun.

A view of the zone from the South Lake Road. We skied the open glade in the center and then bushwhacked out. I'd call the skiing fair to poor. Full value bushwhacking though.

Saturday Mary and I joined Jim and Elysia for a tour up near the June Lake Junction. We cruised up Forest Service roads to a fine view point.

Mary's first day in the backcountry. We found good, soft faceted snow in the shady trees.

Lunch at June Lake Beach was delightful. J&E are teachers so they're vaccinated.

 Looks like this period of high pressure is about to end and more snow is due by the end of the week.

Bring it Old Man Winter!

Two Days on Kid Mountain

Friday I took a drive south to check on snow depths, trailhead access, and look for avalanches. I did not see any avalanches although clouds obscured the upper elevation terrain. Low elevation snow depth was not impressive with little snow at 6,000' and around a foot at 7,000'.

Big Pine Creek seemed the best bet with the road plowed to ~7,300' just below Sage Flat Campground. I checked CalTopo and noticed a lot of low angle terrain above the campground, so I made the plan to have a look.

Saturday morning dawned glorious.

 

One of the big unknowns for the day was the creek crossing. I poked around for about twenty minutes before finding this spot. It required a short step across open, rushing water onto an ice shelf. Not terribly dangerous, but I was always relieved to get across without incident.

The next big question was snow condition. I was surprised to find a largely supportable base. I feared a brushy wallow fest, but aside from an occasional hollow bush, travel was easy.

For sure this doesn't look super inviting for the skier. Probably the reason I saw no one else up there! The broad open slopes left and right of the large pine center-left were my goal.

Came across this cool deer track & scat.

Higher up the brush was well covered. The base remained supportable and there was 4" to 8" of lighter snow on the surface.

Run #1. So much fun!

Even the lower slopes skied well.

Saturday was so good I decided to double it up and go back Sunday.

Super quiet. Super skiing. Safe too, with slope angles less than thirty degrees for nearly the entire tour.

The avalanche concern kept me out of the main avalanche paths and away from the higher, steeper terrain. I experienced no cracking or collapsing of the snow pack. There were no natural avalanches. 

The main problem throughout the Eastern Sierra is basal facets (i.e. old rotten/sugary snow). In this zone there was no previous snow on the lower slopes and only an inch or two on higher slopes, so the basal facets were not a major concern. Higher elevations which held more snow previous to the big storm are likely much more dangerous.