Emerald Lake Area

 I spent the last two days touring in the terrain above Emerald Lake in the Mammoth Lakes Basin. I love this area. There is almost always good skiing to be had either in the high bowls, the sheltered bowl below "Emerald Point", the trees, or the nearby alpine couloirs.

 Thursday I hooked up with my friend Patrick and we skinned up into moderate, prefrontal winds to find surprisingly good snow.

Patrick was on a splitboard. Super solid. Here he levitates into one of the small, high bowls near the col separating Coldwater Creek and Mammoth Creek.

Had to take secons run on an adjacent mini bowl. Even better than the first!

We also took two in the lower bowl beneath "Emerald Point" where the snow was more wind affected, but still a lot of fun.

Yesterday I went back up after the front passed and found 2" to 4" of light fresh snow. The morning was pure magic with the new snowfall, swirling winds, and cold fresh air.

Emerald Lake with Emerald Point left.

The crest was vivid!

Fresh skin track with Mammoth Mountain back right.

A long range view of the bowls near the col.

An easterly wind was still redistributing the light snow with small banners gracing the ridges.

The winds had loaded west facing slopes beneath the ridge causing this small avalanche.

I skied east off the col to Skelton Lake then around to the north run in Emerald Point bowl. Hit crust the upper half, but enjoyed good slightly wind packed powder lower.

Took a run westward off the col and found very good skiing on this short run.

Then back to Emerald Point bowl for a descent of the south run.

Nice skiing in there too.

 The day went from Winter to Spring in a hurry. Temps rose. The wind died. Got a fair bit of glomming on the second trip up. North facing snow stayed cold though. No rollerballs or wet slides, but I'm sure they're in abundance today (Saturday).

Looks like it's transition time. Hope that's not the last powder day of the season!

June Lake Backcountry 2

Rick had skied the June Lake backcountry Sunday and found excellent conditions so he gave me a ring and we made plans to ski Monday. We again rode chairlifts to the top of June, but this for this tour we skinned up the Hourglass on a well worn skin track.

The forecast was for mostly sunny skies, but soon the clouds built with light snow showers and occasionally moderate winds. Looking back at June Mountain (hump on left), Glass Creek Meadow, and White Wing (right in sunlight).

After a nice little run into the Fern Creek drainage we skinned up mellow slopes to the top of the bowl. Real pretty area. Saw a Snowshoe Hare too!

Soon we found ourselves at the top of Carson Bowl with the town of June Lake literally at our feet.

 Rick took a cool selfie of us before we dropped in.

The first few turns off the top were decent on cold wind buff snow then improved to quite good with slightly wind packed powder. Rick enjoys the ride.

Rick snapped this one of me. Lovin' the dramatic scenery up in the bowl.

 Another one of me. A little lower down.

 

The bowl opens up and moderates lower down. Great cruiser skiing in an incredible setting.

The exit was a little steep and rocky but not a problem. We elected to skip Devils Slide because it had been skied a lot over the last couple of days. The tree skiing just east of the slide proved to be ok. Fairly heavy with small to medium rollerballs. Skiing actually improved lower where there was just a few inches of new snow over a supportable melt/freeze crust. No death slush like Friday.

Another fantastic day! I had never skied Carson Bowl, but surely admired it many times. Super happy to have skied it in good conditions.

Thanks Rick! Not a tour I would have done solo.

Rick's avy observations for the tour:

https://esavalanche.org/content/carson-bowl-conditions

 

June Lake Backcountry

 I actually toured with a partner today! Rick reached out and we met for a tour up in June Lake. Rode lifts to the top of June Mountain, skied down to Yost Meadow, then skinned up to the "Ghost Trees"

 The area got 4" to 6" of wet heavy snow and more fell throughout the day. Felt like the Pacific Northwest.

Looking back at June Mountain

Not fluffy powder but still really fun skiing up in the Ghost Trees zone. Took two runs there.

We then skinned over to the top of Devils Slide with views of Gull Lake (frozen), June Lake, and Mono Lake.

The backside of the Negatives with Fern Lake low in the trees.

Devils slide is an awe inspiring ski. Just beautiful. We enjoyed good skiing in the upper third, fair skiing in the middle third and poor skiing the bottom third on nasty slush.

We had a good old time out there today. Skiing wasn't as good as it has been lately, but still lots of fun. Nice to have a partner.

The ESAC avalanche forecast was Considerable above and near treeline and moderate below. We were on our toes for sure. Here is Rick's observation submitted to ESAC:

https://www.esavalanche.org/content/storm-and-wind-slabs-june-backcountry

I deliberately kicked off this small slab on a little convex rollover.

Otherwise only small cracking that did not propagate, no collapsing and no observed naturals. Lots of rollerballs in Devils Slide from previous days though.
 

Blue Crag Area

 I love tree skiing, but I also love skiing big open slopes so I headed up to the Mammoth Lakes Basin and toured in the Blue Crag area.

Fortunately another party had broken a trail to the Ship's Prow (center) which I was able to use for a long while before breaking off just above this spot.

Blue Crag far left.

Happened to catch a photo of a small slough cascading down the north face.

I skinned up and left here for the first run, then far right to the white block for the second run.

 

The skinning got a little tedious up towards the top, so I booted the last bit up and over the lip. Always a great feeling to top out!

The first few turns were surprisingly good on wind buffed snow, then very fine powder all the way.

Had to head up for a second run. This is my second high point. I wanted to top out here too, but the sun was getting really warm and I figured it was prudent to turn around.

Ready to go for the second run.

Every bit as good as the first!

Parting shot.

Incredible day. So much fun!

I felt good about the stability in this zone. I "dug" several hand pits and did a lot of pole probing. There were no weak layers evident in the upper snow pack, although the far lookers left midway up felt a bit hollow so I avoided that area. No roller balls or wet slides today, but there was activity from previous days. I got an early start and was out of the high country by noon.
 

JL Junction

 Toured up to a mini peak near the June Lake Junction yesterday. Been coming here for along time!

 The little storm we had was waning by mid day although winds were still quite gusty. I found about 1" at the highway and 2" to 4" higher with wind deposits deeper still.

There was a melt/freeze crust beneath the new snow on the lower slopes - even in sheltered north facing terrain. It was a weak crust so the skiing was still fairly decent.

Higher up near the summit the crust seemed a little less prevalent and the skiing was quite good on the right aspects.

The views from up top are great. Mono Lake.

June Lake with Mts Wood and Lewis behind.

 I was pretty leery of skiing in zones with more snow as the winds were undoubtedly creating slabs and heightening avalanche danger. Here I found a little slab formation in the lee of ridges but they were quite thin and non reactive (no cracking or collapsing).

Storm Skiing Up North

I started the day thinking I'd ski in the Mammoth Lakes Basin again, but the June Mountain ski report indicated they got over a foot up there so I changed my mind. Elected to hit a zone I scoped out back during low tide. 

More great winter scenery on the way in with light to moderate snowfall and little puffs of wind that would blow powder clouds out of the trees.

Little bit of a chore getting back there. I found about 6" of new snow at the parking lot, 8"-10" on way in and 12" up high.

Very good skiing! Would hit the old sun crust if you got on any southern/sunny exposure, but soft and light almost all the time.

Dead fir wrapped upon itself.

So many open runs like this. Tremendous fun!

While the skiing wasn't quite as amazing as it was above McCleod Lake Wednesday, the runs were 1,000' instead of 400' and I took four instead of three, so I got a ton more smile mileage! Not a soul around either.
 

McCleod Lake Powder

Woke up this morning and decided to go storm skiing up in the Mammoth Lakes Basin above McCleod Lake.

Early reports from Mammoth Mountain indicated 12" to 14" had fallen with more on the way. Overnight temps were in the low teens and the winds were moderate - at least by Mammoth standards.

The tour started with some intense wind gusts blasting the snow out of the trees.

Things settled down a bit above Horseshoe Lake.

Little gusty at McCleod. Winter scenery is the best!

I enjoyed three incredible runs in this zone.

The snow had really piled up here. Easily 18". More in places. Legit face shots with no crust beneath.

Not too many days in the Sierra this year compare with the blower snow days they get in Utah or the Tetons. This one certainly did!

This zone is quite protected. I did not detect any slab formation. No cracking or collapsing. Loose dry sloughs ran pretty well in steep terrain though. Would be enough to knock a skier down if they weren't aware.