The Price is Right - A Westside TR 5/6/2006
The Price is Right - 5/6/2006
Ever since I started backpacking in Desolation Wilderness I’ve wanted to ski the western-most peaks of the Crystal Range. Access to this area is basically cutoff during the winter months due to no snow removal on the road/s leading into Wrights Lake. By the time the roads melts out…so has the snow on the peaks.
The standard approach to the Crystal Range in the winter is either from Rocky Canyon on HWY 50, via Echo Lakes to Lake Aloha, or from the trailheads on HWY 89. The latter typically require an overnight agenda.
While Pyramid Peak sits at the southern end of the range and sees the most skier traffic the more northerly peaks on the range like Mt. Agassiz and Mt. Price see much less traffic. I’d been on Pyramid previously so the natural instinct was to check out Mt Price and Mt Agassiz.
With a combination of family obligations for Friday night and Sunday-day my window of opportunity would fall on Saturday. I considered pulling a marathon drive to the Eastside for a daytrip but with high gas prices and a Crystal Range trailhead less than 60milesaway from my doorstep, I decided to finally scratch the Westside itch.
First things first though…the kids had Open House Friday night. :)
Skyler
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Haley
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They’re both growing like weeds and doing great, I’m a proud Papa. :)
After Open House I headed up the hill to meet mmcpheet and Roman at Strawberry Lodge. Matt had gone up earlier in the day to pick up our secret weapon for the Westside approach………a snowmobile. Special thanks to JayTe!!!
At the lodge we enjoyed some last minute grease and beverages.
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I got to see my Kings get eliminated in the first round of the NBA playoffs too. :(
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Then if was off on our mission. We drove about 2miles up the Wrights Lake road to the snowline and started shuttling our gear up the road.
Mmcpheet and Roman head off into the darkness.
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While I make some sandwiches on a makeshift table…..see, snowboards are good for something. ;)
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After a couple miles we set up our camp.
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mmcpheet shows the latest in ultra-light bc gear. The “Ricardo” personal duffle bag. It comes in at 9lbs 6oz and holds 1400 cubic inches. ;)
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Before we knew it the time was 12:30am and our alarm was set for 5am, nothing like a full night of sleep. :?
Morning came quickly (no surprise) and at 5:30am we found ourselves getting ready to loose our “snowmobile-skier” virginity. :mrgreen:
Here goes nothing….I hope this works.
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It actually went pretty smooth considering two of us were on the sled with one person towing. Roman was on the back of the sled and got bucked off a couple times (priceless). Matt’s arms got tired too from holding on to the rope but since he was a skier we wouldn’t let him on the sled and he stuck it out. Luckily it was only 7 miles or so. :)
We reached Wrights Lake and got our first good look at the Westside of the Crystal Range. Our objective is just behind the pointy peak in the looker’s right side of the photo.
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Here is the view in summer…
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http://www.mountainknowledge.com
and even a painting.
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http://www.joanhoffmann.com
We continued on past the lake to the wilderness boundary where we planned to stash the sled for the day.
We found a good spot and had some breakfast before switching to self-propelled mode.
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We got a rare view of the Desolation SickBird and heard the familiar “caw, caw”….it must be a sign of good things to come. 8)
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The springtime sun was quickly rising and it was time to get moving.
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Getting closer…near Grouse Lake.
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The snowpack is still pretty deep in places......don't fall in! :shock:
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Some glide cracks are starting to open up too.
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The west facing runs above Smith Lake.
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Just above Smith Lake we came across this. It looks like it was from a cornice break…probably last week when we had the rapid warming.
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It was a huge piece of snow and left behind a large swath in its path.
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Roman making his way up using his Verts.
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mmcpheet
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Matt and I gained the ridge and looked down to Lyon's Lake.
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And up to a nice looking line off the false summit of Mt Price.
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Roman learned the hard way the limitations of his Verts snowshoes. They don’t traverse firm snow well at all so he was forced to take a less than ideal route. He kept his cool and took his time though so all was fine.
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