Ely Skiing

 Friday, gray day. From Ely I spied a small peak with a fine looking east facing bowl, but it was a long ways back so I decided to make a two day project of it.

The bowl left of center with the summit just above viewed from Ely.

 

The Forest Service road heading towards the peak was untracked. I had a long slog ahead of me! The peak is back above the grove of pines.

 

The road winds back to the location of the old Ward Mountain rope tow. Sweet little slopes.

Pretty, low angle glades along the way.

I skinned up to the top of this bowl where the snow became firm and the winds were blowing hard.

Had a good run in the bowl and down here in this serene terrain.

 Saturday, summit day! I got an early, cold start. Gorgeous morning.

Having the skin track in made for fast and efficient travel. I just zoned out and enjoyed my surroundings.

Yesterday's tracks left.

Up on the crest, the summit laid just beyond this treed bump.

Almost there.

Super views from the top. South to Ward Mountain, the high point of the Egan Range.

Southwest to the Pine Range.

Northeast to the Schell Creek Range and the town of Ely.

Southeast to the Snake Range with Wheeler Peak.

Time to ski!

Real fun run.

Great to see how much more snow is here. This year.

Last year.

 The great snowpack is a blessing and a curse. There's a lot of great ski options close to town, but the higher terrain requires very long approaches. A snowmobile would be most handy - or make it a two day project!

Cave Lake Park Skiing

 With high pressure rolling in and a lot of wind wrecked snow in the Sierra I headed out to Ely, Nevada looking for good powder skiing.

 Just 25 minutes outside of Ely is Cave Lake State Park. The park is far from the big peaks of the Schell Creek Range, but holds a lot of easily accessible glades.

As is often the case the stream crossing was the crux of the day. Almost got the skis wet here!

Lots of nice little glades on the skin up.

My destination was this nice long run. Looking down.

Looking up. This one skied quite well.

Got up to a small summit with real fine views. Looking across Spring Valley to the Snake Range with Wheeler Peak (Great Basin National Park) left.

The summit and the run from below.

Last fall I rode by and noted this peak. Thought it might be a good ski. It was!

 

Today I went back up. Nice to have a skin track in.

My first run was off the top to the northwest.

A little thin the first few turns, but good fun after that.

The view back from afar.

I still had a little energy left, so I went up and took another run in the shade to the left. Another good one. The exit through the little glades was pretty sweet too.

Total solitude, perfect weather, real nice snow. Yay!
 

Three Days Above Indy

 I spent the last three days skiing above Independence. It's quiet down there. The terrain is interesting, and it's kinda rare to ski the low/mid elevation terrain in that zone.

 Thursday I went back to the slopes directly above Gray's Meadow. It was immediately apparent that the wind had blown quite hard here and had definitely reduced the snow quality.

 The idea for the day was to skin back up this ridge and ski the bowl back center.

Up high near the bowl most of the snow in the trees was still good while many of the open areas showed signs of a wind crust.

Burned, dead, but still proud.

The view from the top of the bowl. Had a splendid run from here.

Next day I took my buddy Chris in to ski the slopes in Lime Canyon. Wind damage here was even worse than I expected, but we still enjoyed fair to good skiing.

The exit out the canyon bottom is getting pretty thin and brushy. Chris dealt with it with good humor.

Yesterday I headed back to Lime Canyon hoping to ski one of the several north facing, sheltered chutes further back in the drainage.

Pleasing granite outcrops in the main canyon.

My hopes of finding good snow in the chutes were greatly misplaced! Great terrain. Poor snow.

South facing slopes were warm and inviting. I started to wonder if maybe they'd ski well.

Trees were no help in mitigating the wind damage.

Soon a good looking south facing chute appeared. Previous skiers had skinned up a short ways and turned around. I followed their track, finding the snow still frozen and crunchy.

I traversed out of the chute onto this southeast facing slope which had been baking in the sun longer. I lucked out and found good skiing here.

 An hour earlier it would have been crunchy, an hour later it would have been mashed potatoes. Sometimes timing is everything.

I avoided the brushy canyon bottom by taking a high, downward traverse to the slopes above the road, which provided fun skiing on soft, faceted snow over bush moguls.

Memorable!

 

Big Trees

 Today I decided to drive up Bishop Creek and check on the reported wind effects on the snowpack. I got to the end of the plowed section of the South Lake Road and indeed most aspects, though not all, looked quite wind hammered.

I knew of a few sheltered spots that might be holding good snow, but require a good bit of work to get to. The 20mph winds weren't all that inviting either, so I headed back down canyon to ski some glades above Big Trees Campground.

For the most part the glades held soft, wind eroded snow although there were patches of wind crust behind and around some of the trees.

Huge chunks of tree fall littered the slopes.

Several tumbled down the slope carving trenches that created wind crust. Best avoided on the descent!

At the top of the glades I popped out onto a gentle ridge with nice views.

A bit higher I got into a zone with these amazing little pinnacles. Magic land!

I reached the summit of a small knob at about 8700'. Summit block with burned bush. No wind and plenty of sun made for a quite comfortable snack break and transition.

Excellent panoramic views.

The crux of the day, both coming and going, was the stream crossing.

The view of the glades and the knob from the highway. Skiable thanks to our ++ winter. I skied the far right side where wind effects were minimal.

 The skiing was good. Had to watch the little patches of wind crust, but they were easy to avoid.

 This little tour brought a big smile!