Ruby Mountains: Thomas Canyon II

I got up in Lamoille Canyon early hoping to beat the warm temps we experienced yesterday. Fortunately the clear night provided cold temps and a steady breeze kept strong warming at bay.

Quiet at the trailhead at 7:30. Nice light too.

Yesterday Elysia and I spied a pair of skiers heading up the first drainage on the west side of Taylor Canyon, so there was a skin track in. The topo map depicted a large mostly moderate drainage with large cliffs. Enticing - so up I went.

Looking back at the trailhead down at the bottom.

The peaks and faces were just beaming.

I made good time with the help of the previous skin track, eventually finding myself on a high ridge looking down into Thomas Canyon where Elysia and I skied yesterday.

Fascinating rock formations on the ridge.

The view up from the trailhead at the end of the tour. My route took me up and right toward the dark peak.

Windshield pic on the way out. It was great to be able to drive to the campground. 

From the ridge I had a few hundred feet of fair skiing on wind affected snow before entering nice glades which provided about 1500' of very good powder skiing. Below that was a mixed bag of softening sun crust (surprisingly decent skiing), not softened sun crust (quite poor skiing), with a little powder and wind board thrown in. Good tour.

Ruby Mountains: Thomas Canyon

Today was the first day of a week long road trip out to Nevada. I'm at Lamoille Canyon in the Ruby Mountain Range and enjoyed a fine tour with my good friend Elysia. We parked at the first parking area for snowmobilers and skinned up the main road past the beautiful Terminal Cancer couloir.

We then took a right turn and headed up Thomas Canyon enjoying easy travel on a previous skin track and snowmobile track.

Looking back down canyon.

We found some nice gladed bowls near the head of the canyon. Elysia skins up.

Soon we found ourselves at the top of a ridge with terrific views. Mt Fitzgerald.

Majestic Snow Lake Peak.

We found good skiing in the glades, which were heavily tracked by the helicopter ski operation.

Still plenty of room for fresh track for us though. The snow was getting a bit heavy lower down as the temperature rose. Still were able to find a little fair skiing here and there on the way out. Mostly we just zoomed out on the snowmo track! 

Back to the road we found ourselves in the snowmobile zone complete with impressive hill climbers, fast racers, and cute kids enjoying the day.

What a way to start the road trip! Thanks Elysia!

A Couloir in the Humphreys Area

After a fun day skiing at Mammoth yesterday Ben and I drove up to the Upper Buttermilk zone to look for some corn - or at least spring type snow.

The views from the truck to start the day weren't too hard on the eyes.

To start the coverage wasn't great, but the travel was fast.

Ben skins up through some wind sculpted snow.

We were hoping to find cooked up snow in this area. The giant SE face of Mt Humphreys hovers above.

Once this gem of a couloir came into view our goal was set.

Ben boots up low in the chute.

Ben took this shot of me nearing the top of the run.

 The views from the top were grand. Basin Mtn left and Peaklet right.

Ben enters.

The skiing in the couloir was not exactly what we hoped for. Up high was a couple of inches of thick grabby snow over a firm base and lower was soft, but unconsolidated snow. I'd call it poor to fair skiing. The apron below provided nice skiing though. Quick travel out.

Don't have to have great skiing to have a great ski tour though! 

Back to the Lakes Basin

I headed up to the Mammoth Lakes Basin again in search of soft winter snow and to see how much the snowpack had been affected by the big winds the last few days (up to 145mph on Mammoth!).

I toured through the tree kill area west of Horseshoe Lake. Volcanic activity produces elevated CO2 levels in the soil that literally suffocate the tree roots.

The familiar zone. I climbed the sunny trees on the right, traversed the open slopes beneath the crest, and descended the darkest tree area on the left.

The obligatory shot of the backside of Mammoth.

Wind hammered!

Magnificent granite.

Wind erosion distant, wind deposit foreground.

I was happy to find unaffected snow here. Good skiing for about a 350' run. Took two!

Nice outing. Still blowing and chilly up high. Calm and mild low.

Pointless Peak Ski

After yesterday's tour over to Hilton Lakes I felt like I had a decent handle on snow conditions in the Rock Creek area, so when my buddy Rick wanted to ski today I suggested we head to Pointless Peak.

Pointless Peak is so named because the top is actually a broad plateau with no significant summit point. I hiked it summer before last with Ann. Click here for the write up.

Our first views of Pointless this morning. We would climb and descend the chute on the far left.

 Looking down at Rock Creek Lake a little ways up the chute.

Rick climbs. Skinning was mostly quite good. Ski crampons were very helpful.

Rick took this photo of me about to top out.

The views from the top were grand. West.

South into Little Lakes Valley

 We found good skiing throughout on a mix of sun softened wind board and "early" corn.

Perfect corn in these widely spaced pines!

Spectacular day! I had a good ol time skiing with Rick and was stoked the conditions turned out to be so good for us. I've admired these lines for many years.

Hilton Lakes

I wanted to see how the snowpack was holding up in the Rock Creek area, so I drove up to the normal winter closure, parked, and headed up the steep moraine to the west. The snow was thin but consolidated on southeast slopes, deeper but faceted and slow going on northeast slopes.

 Love the Junipers in this area.

I stuck with the sunny/consolidated snow through the brush and Aspens here. Still way easier than slogging through bottomless facets in the shady trees.

Higher up I began to get some views. 

Once on top of the bench it was generally easy travel through the tranquil forest.

Patricia Peak. I would eventually wind around beneath the shady north face.

One of the goals for the day was to check on conditions in the Grand Central Couloir on Mt Morgan North. Looks like it might go. Thin at the bottom. A few rocks showing in the couloir. Could be good though.

I finally got into some alpine terrain. One of the Hilton Lakes just visible low center in the pic.

Twas basically just a walk in the woods, but still quite enjoyable. On the descent the facets in the trees were ok. Had to watch for rocks. I enjoyed a dozen or so good turns on corn above the road. 

This is a nice, seldom visited zone - even during spring in big years. Just wish there were a little more snow!

Moody Day in the Lakes Basin

There has been all sorts of weather since my last tour. First there was a big warmup Saturday into Sunday, then fierce winds and a massive temperature drop Monday and Tuesday. I elected to take a tour up in the Mammoth Lakes Basin to see how the snowpack fared.

Near the trailhead there were lots of pine cones, needles and small branches on the snow, but no tree fall or large branches.

I toured up to Emerald Lake and then towards Skelton Lake. The travel was relatively easy on mostly soft, faceted snow in the forest.

The snow in the more open areas were definitely wind affected. Clouds hung low while the wind came and went, although I could hear it howling over the high ridges.

I really enjoyed the moody mountain scenery in this area.

This is the view from my high point of the day looking northwest.

The skiing on the upper open slopes was poor, but down in the forest above Emerald Lake it was fair to good even.

 

A fun fast exit brought me back to the trailhead. The skiing wasn't much to get excited about but it was a great tour nonetheless. I was happy to check out a new route and the scenery was great.