Mammoth Lakes Basin Ski

I toured out of the Mammoth Lakes Basin today. Headed up to Emerald Lake and then higher into a nice sheltered tree zone.

Emerald Lake with Mammoth Mountain behind.

The Ship's Prow area. Filling in.

Hammill Chute looks good to go coverage wise.

Looking back from near my high point.

Nice views.

Very tempting, but flying solo so I passed.

The skiing in the trees was good where neither the sun nor the wind had stricken it.

The snow was just inconsistent enough to keep me from opening it up, but was still better than I expected. Soft & fast for the most part.

Made it down to Lake Mary Road just in time to catch the start of this High School XC race. Cool!

Still real thin and icy/mornings slushy/afternoons below 9000'.

June Lake Ski Camp Out

I focused on cycling for a few weeks after Christmas with cyclocross nationals capping off the season and, after spending a week getting projects done around the house, turned my attention to skiing.

With a cold, moderate sized storm forecast to move in I headed up near June Lake and found a nice camp spot.

Fortunately, the storm rolled in as advertised.

Pretty morning view from camp with Carson Peak left and Ritter/Banner back right.

I enjoyed an exceptional powder day at June Mountain Thursday.  Friday Mary came up and we had great fun finding left over powder and carving corduroy.

Nice sunrise views from camp Saturday morning. Ritter/Banner again.

Mt Wood and Mt Lewis also from camp.

Took the lifts up to the top of June Mountain Saturday and then made my way over to White Wing. I lucked out as a solo splitboarder had been up the previous day. No trailbreaking for me and only one set of tracks, perfect!

The view back towards San Joaquin Mountain (white peak back left) and the Negatives (right).

The high point of White Wing.

Zoom shot to Mammoth.

The skiing was superb. Took two in here.

The not so superb bush whack back to June.

Real nice afternoon back at camp.

Ritter/Banner played peak a boo late in the day.

Sunday Ben & Ann and I headed up to Virginia Lakes for a tour. Opted to skip the popular roadside attractions and headed back towards the pass. Looking back.

We attained the ridge looking down into the upper reaches of Green Creek with Summit Lake below and Virginia Peak center.

Ann & Ben traverse around towards our first run of the day.

A bit brisk up there with a steady wind.

Olive jumps in!

Olive and Ann with first tracks. Skiing was ok. Found it to be a bit wind affected. Fun when you stayed on top. Not so much when it was breakable. A little powder here and there though.

Next we headed to a shady slope hoping for a little better skiing.

It was a little better.

Looking back to our first run.

On the way out Ann took us up on the northeast shoulder of Black Mountain.

To the top of this fine run.

Decent snow in there. Wind affected in spots but improving as we descended.

So nice to get up in the mountains.
Ski season has begun. Now we just need more snow!

Sky Meadow

I toured up in the Mammoth Lakes Basin today hoping to find some decent tree skiing and enjoy some seldom seen winter weather.

From the trailhead the snow is very thin. The Tamarack folks have been moving snow and grooming, but it's barely hanging in there. Lots of ice too.

Along the northeast side of Lake Mary the road is bare for a hundred yards or so. 

But between Lake Mary Store and the top of Coldwater the snowpack increases significantly with surprisingly good coverage in the trees.

Above Sky Meadow the trees were rimed and the cloud deck was low. Great winter scenery we haven't seen enough of this year.

The thin crusts at and below treeline have faceted out pretty well but the thicker crusts in the open terrain persist. Skiing the glades in the forest was real good on the sugar snow!

Hopefully we'll get a little more winter here soon!  

San Joaquin Knob

I was pretty impressed with the snow coverage up on San Joaquin Ridge during my last tour so I got out the maps and looked for something interesting out there to explore. Noticed a knob just off the ridge with a little northeast facing bowl and figured I should go check it out. Explore!

I parked about half way between Main Lodge and Chair 2 and headed straight north. After passing the sewage ponds (frozen but still stinky) and some funky micro terrain I emerged into open flats.

Glad I had my phone with the Earthmate app or I might have wandered off course in the forest. As it was I took a fairly direct line to the top of the knob. Looking back to the ski hill.

and north out to not so White Wing (right).

Ever pleasant views of the Minarets.

The bowl was holding real nice sugar snow over a solid base.

Took a couple of short, fun runs in there before heading back.

Cool zone with a remote feel. Good skiing too!

San Joaquin Ridge

I figured it would be good to get up in the hills, breath some mountain air, and get the legs and feet used to ski touring. Started at the ski area and headed up to the Minaret Vista and beyond.

 Looking back at the local ski hill. Heard the wind buff was exceptional.

Coverage was solid and the steady, cool winds were keeping the snow wintery except in the sheltered south facing zones.

I got in some fun low angle turns on this snow.

Pretty sweet views too.

Fun little outing.

First Ski Tour of the Season

After busting my butt on the bike for a couple of months racing cyclocross I needed a little break, so I took a quick tour up above McLeod Lake in the Mammoth Lakes Basin.

Travel was easy with a few inches of fresh light snow over a dense base. Nice day too with crisp temps, light winds, and bluebird skies.

 Made it up to the base of the crest for a little taste of alpine granite.

And some fine views of the backside of Mammoth Mountain and McLeod Lake below.

Pretty impressed with the coverage up high. A solid 2' to 3' base of dense snow. If bare rock wasn't showing you probably weren't going to hit anything. Skied fast though with just enough variability to keep me on my toes. Not super skiing but fun.

Coverage at Twin Lakes however was quite thin - and melting quickly. Somewhere around the 9,000' elevation the snowpack increases dramatically.

One and done here but a good tour for recharging the batteries.