Jeremy Jones goes DEEPER in Search of October Snow

By SethLightcap | October 21st, 2009

In celebration of both a glorious Sierra summer and the long awaited arrival of winter, I thought I would share some 'Deeper' stoke from a pair of High Sierra adventures that Jeremy Jones and I knocked out recently.

About a month back we chased out to the high country of Yosemite for a little recon and rock climbing on the Matthes Crest. While the images should give you an idea of what tip-toeing on a mile long granite knifeblade might look like, the feeling of climbing this soaring razorback must be experienced to be understood. The only way I could describe the rush and exposure is that it's f@!king incredible! Amazing rock quality, ridiculous views, and one wicked hand traverse after another. If you haven't run the Matthes Crest yet get out there next summer. The approach is only a couple hours and the climbing is fairly easy. We simul-climbed a bit of it, free-soloed most of it, and belayed the 5.7 summit pitch.

The call of the High Sierra shook us out of Tahoe yet again last week when a ferocious storm stopped summer dead in its tracks. On October 13th a 36 hour tempest pummeled the Sierra dropping up to six feet of snow above 10,000 ft. Insta-base….or so we hoped. It was enough snow to get us racing down to Mammoth and parked at the base of Tioga Pass the day after the storm cleared anyway. A couple grand worth of gruesome talus climbing later we found what we were looking for though….Winter!…and of course…our first ollies and toeside slashers of the season.

Enjoy the images and get ready for a lot more Deeper insanity as the snow flies. It’s only October. We got seven months of Deeper dayz still to come…Bring it on Ullr!

**The Matthes Crest traverse in Yosemite is not to be missed. It's a surreal climbing experience. Here Jeremy approaches the second tower.**

**Gaining the summit of the Matthes Crest is the crux of the route but requires only a couple steep hand jams, nothing too tricky.**

**Our eyes couldn't stay away from this cirque. How many mid-winter lines can you see?**

**Riding out the crest dropped us onto the descent plateau. Another hour and half to the car from here.**

**We found some sweet foot skiing on the way out.**

**Had hoped to link up an ascent of Cathedral Peak too but settled for a swim in Cathedral Lake as it began to rain. Half hour of hiking in a downpour got us to the car.**

**On October 15th, Jones and I grabbed our rock boards and took on the talus fields of Tioga Pass. We groveled up 2000 ft to the base of the Dana Plateau.**

**Verts were the ascent weapon of choice as they allowed you to balance between packed snow and boulders better than just bootpacking. There was not enough snow to splitboard.**

**Arriving at the base of the Coke Chute (9500 ft) we were a little deterred by the thin coverage but figured it would get better just a bit higher.**

**And it did. Easily six foot thick wind packed pillows sat at the base of the couloir.**

**This heavy wave was just begging to be slashed.**

**A little ways up the chute there was some wet slide avy debris that looked to have released at the tailend of the storm. Supposedly it rained to 11,000 ft but the couloir was not runneled.**

**The snow surface was smooth and consolidated in most places. Not pow, but quite nice, much like the views of Mono Lake.**

**As usual the potential of the Dana Plateau was astounding. Add 10 feet of snow to this face. Where's your line?**

**Towards the top of the couloir we hit a small vertical snow shelf. Jones busted out one of his favorite climbing techniques to move past it - the pull-up bar.**