I rested up for a few days after my last tour enjoying easy spinning on my gravel bike. Tuesday I was ready to go again, but pretty unsure of the snowpack conditions. I elected to see how the corn cycle was shaping up.
First I drove up McGee Creek (open to summer trailhead) but found a long walk to south facing snow - although Esha Canyon is still looking good down to the creek. I fell back to Plan B and drove up above Crowley Lake Campground to check on Nevahbe Ridge.
I was able to drive to nearly 7500' above which the road is nearly continuous snow. The road eventually turned into a cool snow filled, shallow gully.
The first few chutes off Nevahbe Ridge were blocked by steep rocky entrances, but once I topped the first moraine these drainages beckoned.
Easy entry to corn city.
Fantastic rock formations too.
By noon it was time to turn around. Gonna put this line in the pocket though. It's a good one.
Happy to report I found very nice corn skiing all the way back to the truck.
Yesterday Patrick and I joined forces for a tour up Cocaine Chute off the Dana Plateau.
First we skinned up the V-Bowl above the Tioga Pass Road.
Above the V-Bowl the beautiful Cocaine Chute comes into view.
Once up into the chute we switched to booting with crampons. Went smoothly although it is indeed quite steep the last 200' or so.
Patrick lunches at the top with splendid views of Mono Lake below.
Mt Dana. Solsitce Couloir looking thin.
The Conness/North Peak zone looks pretty good though.
Dropping into the chute was fairly spicy. Steep but edgeable, there was a funny top layer of granular snow that sloughed off easily over fairly firm winter snow. Side slipped in and down a bit before settling in to some tolerable hop turns. Whew!
The upper half of the chute brought us fair skiing on a mix of windboard and transitional snow, the lower half was quite good on softened wind board. We were a little late in the V-Bowl. Too soft and mushy but almost all supportable.
Big adventure in a most aesthetic setting!
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