Friday, January 13, 2023

Westgard Pass Skiing

 Whew! I needed a rest after that last set of days. Thankfully a huge storm cycle rolled through and gave me a few days off.

 With the copious snowfall I figured something new (to me anyways) and off the beaten path would be fun, so I drove east from Big Pine to the Westgard Pass area.

Surprisingly, the most obvious ski zone was full of tracks with several skiers lapping it, so I utilized their skin track for a bit then headed up a different area across the canyon. Looked promising on the way up!

Sweet snow sculpture up on the ridge.

The first run was good fun.

So I went up for another.

After a few false summits along the ridge I arrived at this, Tollhouse Point (per the USGS map).

Splendid views. South with the dark shapes of Squaw and Waucoba on the right.

Sierra vistas weren't bad either.

Had a great run off the top, down and out via the skin track to the highway just above the narrows.


I had such a good time yesterday, I decided to go up there again today and explore some other zones. I followed the other parties' skin track to the top of a knoll. Pretty cool up there.

Looking over to where I skied yesterday.

Made good time on their skinner.

Another good view south towards the Inyos.

I skied northeast facing slopes down to the 4x4 road. Fun at the top and at the bottom, but cluttered with dead Pinyon in the middle.

I then skinned up a big north facing bowl and discovered some fine glades.

Deep Springs Valley off to the northeast.

Had an excellent run in there. A nice long one in open glades straight down to the road and out to the highway.


 Meadow skippers paradise up here!

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