Corn - Sugar -Corn

 After skiing Jawbone last week I relaxed and recovered for a few days. Temps warmed, so I started thinking about corn skiing.

 Went down to Big Pine to investigate. The McMurry Meadows Road was passable until about a half mile below the meadows. Coverage past that was solid.

I ended up skiing the bowls on the right.

Strong north winds had jacked north facing and some east facing slopes.

Reached my high point on the ridge between Little Pine Creek and Birch Creek. Birch Mountain left and The Thumb back center.

Tasty terrain above.

Pleasant transition spot.

I was pleased to find decent corn and even better sun softened wind board for my descent. Corn indeed!

Sunday I hooked up with my friend Dave for some powder skiing. Only took one photo all day. We skied real nice, slightly faceted snow in the trees above this.

Yesterday I joined Ben, Ann, Lacey & Rick for another corn excursion. We elected to ski south facing slopes above North Lake.

Surveying the scene.

Heading up the towards the massive bowl east of the Paiute Crags.

Rick and Ann about to top out.

The crew relaxes a bit before the descent.

Killer views of the Sierra Crest above Lake Sabrina.

Rick drops in.

Ann enjoys the corn.

The snow was a bit more transitional here than down in Big Pine, but still skied quite well. Amazing day. Saw a small group of Ptarmigan, a Golden Eagle, and a foraging Coyote. Special day!
 

Jawbone Canyon

 I got a text from my buddy Rick last night. He was itching to tour after a long trip to Baja, so we made plans to ski Bishop Creek. I didn't have any great ideas for routes there, but on the drive up he suggested Jawbone Canyon - which has been on my mind a bit lately.

 Seemed about as good as anything, so up we went. The bottom of the canyon is filled in nicely, but the snow is mighty firm. We booted up for a bit, following a previous track. Better than skittering around on skis!

The head of the canyon was dramatically wind affected. We wound our way up to the ridge back right. Skinning was decent here.

Down canyon view.

Looking over to the top of Table.

We reached our high point where we had incredible views and were generally sheltered from the north breezes. Looking southwest.

West

We found some decent turns on this panel, but skiing was generally fair to poor up high.

Above this glade we found good skiing, but the open slope was also fairly wind affected.

Rick sets up for the last pitch.

Real nice skiing here.

 

A mixed bag for skiing, but the great scenery and pleasant companionship made for a quality day. 

North End of Wheeler Crest

 I didn't have much of a plan this morning. Thought about heading up to Bishop Creek, but elected to go to a zone that was sure to be quiet and might even hold some decent snow.

 The north end of Wheeler Crest provides a whole host of nice chutes. Witcher Bowl is the big canyon on the left, then there are ten or so runs to the right. This is a pic from last year. There's much more snow this year thankfully. Today I skied the ill defined line just to the left of the chute with the sun splashes.

 Unlike last year, I started at Sky Meadows. Lots of attractive lines here too although they all looked pretty wind hammered.

This area is super quiet owing to the long approach. It took me roughly an hour and half to get to the bottom of the run. Last year I skied the bigger line on the right and today I did the one of the left.

The big run from the bottom.

Fine granite on the way up.

I was a bit discouraged on the skin up as much of the snow was wind affected, but the skinning wasn't too bad so I kept plugging along.

High in the chute looking up.

Looking down.

Sweet scenery on the climb.

Treed alley near the top.

I found a nice sunny spot here to transition and snack. Decent views too looking down Witcher to the Lower Rock Creek gorge and the Owens Valley.

North to the Glass Mountains (left).

I was pleasantly surprised to find good skiing top to bottom although I did switch to the bigger chute near the bottom to take advantage of better snow conditions there. I was able to open it up and cruise through here.

The view up on my egress. Witcher left. My high point was the timbered ridge right of center.

 Glad I got adventurous today. Real nice tour.

McGee

 Mary and I went skiing at Mammoth yesterday. Nice winter snow on higher north slopes and fun spring snow on sunny slopes. No crowds at all. On the way home we saw a lot of tracks on McGee, but a few untracked lines that looked good too so I decided to give it a whirl. 

Despite a late mid morning start it was still very cold at the bottom. Probably single digits, but after climbing just a couple of hundred feet I broke through the inversion and it was warm.

 Looking up to the higher slopes.

I followed a party of three who had buffed out the skin tack. Easy cruising for me.

Looking down the run.

Nice spot to transition and enjoy the views. Mammoth Airport on the left.

Convict Creek left, McGee Creek right then the confluence flowing into the great white expanse of frozen Crowley Lake.

Looking up the run. This textured snow skied real well.

Lower down the snow was more wind affected, so I traversed over to this nice bowl.

The last turns of the tour. Super soft at the bottom where the air stayed cold beneath the inversion.

The view up from near SNARL. From mid mountain I skied the left of the of the two bowls the traversed left and again skied the left of the two runs there.

Nice to get back into the swing of the Eastside things!

Schell Creek Range

 When I arrived in Ely I decided the skiing out of Duck Creek Valley would be tough owing to long approaches on snowed in roads, but I rechecked the maps last night and noticed the terrain above Snake Creek wasn't too far from the main road.

Fortunately I found a plowed road just south of Snake Creek that got me over a mile in. The tour started on gentle gladed slopes. The forest here had been chained or mowed presumably for cattle grazing.

 

A little higher I found an old road along the ridge that made for fast travel. Fortuitous since the forest was quite dense and would have been tedious to navigate without the road.

Pretty Mahogany groves. Apparently the road had not been used in some time as trees had grown over the road in several spots.

At last some fine looking ski terrain appeared.

The weather was constantly changing with everything from calm and sun to cloudy and snowing.

Up in the glades the lighting was fantastic.

The best snow was along the treeline. About of foot of nice light powder in there.

Great terrain above up to the crest of the Schell Creek Range. Someday!

It was cold and windy up here, so I ducked into the forest to transition. Fine timber.

 Poor light. Great skiing.

Last day of the trip and it was a good one!