Lamarck

Got out last Saturday with my buddies Anne, Steve, and Darren and took a tour up towards Lamarck Col. I was fairly optimistic we'd have a good shot at some nice powder skiing up in the alpine zone. Turns out I was a bit too optimistic as the winds had worked their evilness on the snow up high.

The wind packed snow was skiable though, and we did get a nice dose or two of powder lower down in the trees. The scenery was amazing and we had the added excitement of very strong winds up high.

Seems like I always take this pic from this spot - and I always like it. Fool's Ridge.
The view up from Grass Lake. Our ultimate destination was around the back of the flat topped peaklet on the right.
Nearing treeline -still nice powder here.
Then the camera crapped out!
Every picture turned out totally white.

We had a good time - or at least I did, and I think the others did.

Habeggar's

My wife, Mary, has a tough time with ski boots and lately she's been working to get her AT boots tolerable for touring. Simon modified her liners last week, so we were eager to see how well they would work.

Habeggar's seemed like a good idea since she could bail easily if her feet were killing her and the skiing is dependably good.


The day was perfect with mild temps and almost no wind.

These gullies on Table Mountain were definitely cross loaded, but we saw only a few small cornice breaks and no evidence of slab avalanches.
Mary's boots were much improved although a new problem area appeared. Here she is enjoying the nice powder in the glades.
Anne and Mary ready for run #2.
The snow skied fast, so even these low angle slopes were a hoot.
The snow was still light and cold for the most part, but there was a pesky sun crust out in the flats and on the aspects that were more west. Wind was not a factor in the glades, but outside on the approach slopes the wind had pretty much wrecked the snow.

There were a few areas of wind slab that were hollow sounding (low angle, thin slabs), but we did not experience any collapsing or cracking.

Lime Canyon

Got up early for a dawn patrol outing today before work.

Lime Canyon is off the Onion Valley Road, low down near the campgrounds.

I seriously questioned my choice to go there once I arrived at the trailhead.
There was very little snow and it looked like I would be booting for a long while before I even started skinning.

Fortunately I persevered.
After 20 minutes of mildly irritating booting I started skinning.
Ten more minutes and I found myself at the bottom of a bowl.

Didn't look like much.
Maybe 500', wasn't sure it was worth it.
Turned out to be close to 1,200'.
Definitely worth it!

The morning light was great.

This is Independence Peak rising over the bowl.
Nothing but boot top recrystallized powder!
Independence Peak from the top of the run.
The first run.
After the second run (click to enlarge).
The view from near the trailhead.
The bowl is the large snow field left of center.
What a great way to start the day.
Work was a breeze after that!

Red Mtn Again!

Sometimes I am a creature of habit.

With a skin track set and conditions known to be excellent the decision to head back to Red Mtn was unimaginative yet easy.

Used yesterday's track for about 1,000' of vertical then veered east to a quieter part of the mountain.

Skin track stoke with Anne.

The skiing was exquisite!


Yeah!

Red Mountain, Powder!

I skied with long time partners Steve, Jed, and Anne today on Red Mountain near Tom's Place.

The latest storm was cold & wet leaving three to four feet on Mammoth and about a foot to a foot and a half here at Red.

Here's Jed near the top of our first run.
After a week in England Anne was more than happy to come back to some great snow.
The skies cleared and we enjoyed great views like this one west to Mt. McGee.
The crew is all smiles anticipating another great run.
Ready to go.
Blowing up the blower!

Even got a cameo appearance in Jed's Snow Report

Just amazingly good skiing lately - with amazingly good folks!

Powder!!!

No question, that was the best powder storm cycle in a long, long while.

I skied lifts Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Mammoth, June, Mammoth) sans camera.

Friday and Saturday we enjoyed deep, light, largely untracked snow, laughin' and grinnin' all day long.

Sunday went for a tour out of June.
Action shots were mostly poor.
Got this one in the flats where it wasn't so deep.
Up in the glades, though, the snow was incredible.

Toured in an unusual and undisclosed area Monday.

Looked (and skied!) like British Columbia.


More excellence was found.

Five days of Five-Star skiing!!!!

Mt Aggie

Last week I hatched the idea of a car shuttle tour starting at Convict Lake, up to Mt Aggie, then down into the McGee Creek drainage. We ended up skiing the SE side of McGee instead, but ran into some other folks who had in fact executed that exact tour with rave reviews, so Simon, Steve and I gave it a shot today.

We hiked up a nice boot track to the top of the moraine above Convict, then skinned up above Tobacco Flat to the North ridge of Mt. Aggie.
The skinning was a bit tricky/frustrating on the firm windboard until we reached the more even ground of the ridge. Ski crampons would have been helpful.

Steve (l) and Simon (r) skin up on the ridge with Old Man's Bowl behind (see last Saturday's blog).
We booted up the last few hundred feet to the north (lower) summit.
We arrived at the top and chatted up some friends who happened to share the same vision for the day.

Then we skied down this fantastic drainage for at least 3,000'.

WooHoo!

We enjoyed good to very good corn skiing the entire beautiful descent.


And now back to our regularly scheduled February powder skiing - I hope!