The big storm rolled through early this week. The precipitation amounts were truly remarkable with several inches of water falling in the mountains. The temps, however, were warm and it was not clear how much snow fell at the differing elevations.
Hoping to find local action, I drove up Highway 168 above Bishop to the South Lake Road.
Table Mountain didn't look too bad at the very top, otherwise pretty poor.
The Inyo County road crew was plowing the South Lake Road above Habeggar's in order to remove a large rock in the road, so I switched my plan and headed over to the Aspendell/Sabrina side. The big peaks sure were looking fine.
Weird going on the road though. The pavement seemed to be warm/moist while the snow just above the pavement was cold, so the skis got super sticky anytime they got near the surface. It wasn't a big deal up near the North Lake turnoff where the snow was deeper, but a real downer lower. I even walked the last quarter mile!
On the drive back I stopped to admire Mt Tom, Wheeler Crest and the Tungsten Hills
Today I toured up to Red Cone. Didn't look too bad. Should have taken at least one run in there, but my exit route was looking sketchy and I was saving my legs for that.
Views along the crest.
Mammoth Mountain and Horseshoe Lake.
It was a real mix of skiing.
First of all, Lake Mary Road is rapidly melting out with big bare patches, ice, and vehicle tracks. There is only a few inches of snow.
Higher, near George Lake coverage improves depending on aspect, but most snow had some sort of sun effect. Even up on the rim of the cone, west facing snow was glazed and east facing snow was just starting to soften (9:00 am).
The descent started with some truly nasty breakable melt/freeze crust. Staying in the skin track was the best bet although it was icy and fast.
Lower I found some SE facing slopes that held supportable crust that was just softening. Best skiing of the day.
I got into some shady north facing slopes that weren't too bad either except for all the tree drip that had refrozen. Open patches away from trees had soft, but heavy, faceted snow. Not too bad. Beneath the trees was best avoided although mostly supportable.
The exit actually went a lot easier than I expected. I took it real easy! Was happy to make to Mamie Lake without incident. BTW this was the only lake ice I saw. Twin, Mary and George were ice free.
Great to be on skis again. I had hoped for a little better skiing and a little more snow, but it's only October. Hope the storms keep coming!
1 comment:
Ahhhh, i saw your post and saved it for last . . . delete, delete, delete, at last, a little morning sanity, serenity . . . let's hope that somwhere between the useless car alarms and the dog bone on the thin floor that we got more snow.
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