Eastern Sierra 2011-12: The 1000" Winter

[spanghew]

Two inches in Big Pine as well.

[Joey Bag O' Donuts]

at least a good foot in town, and should dump all day. Me the thinks tomorrow could be real good , today as well

[Franz Klammer]

So, resort or BC today? Decisions, decisions.

[-Devin-]

Still snowing pretty good in Bishop. They called off school in Bishop and Big Pine.

A couple inches of snow in Bishop this morning. We don't see that very often.

The wind forecast for Tuesday night looks bad, so get it while you can.

[Franz Klammer]

Chair 22 today was good, but, wow, I am glad we stayed inbounds on a day like today.

[gimpy]

yeah, looks like tuesday is the day up here in the hoe as well before it gets warm and the winds have their way w/ what we got. not as much to play on above 8.5 k here

w 8.5/9k snowline are roads drivable that high??

d- i am busting ass at work for the next 2 weeks then i will have some time. prolly more time then my wallet can afford but still time. hopefully just in time for winter to come out of hiding.......again. i'll be in touch.

[Long duc dong]

Why does is have to get warm now?

I hope you guys had fun with this storm. I was in Vegas for my anniversary, so I figured it might bomb. It will be nice to have a base, but those warm temperatures might make everything slushy. Follow that with cold, and you have an icy pack off-piste, sort of the way it was for much of January last year.

Oh well, I guess I should not complain. It is still better than it has been. At least now there IS a base. MLK weekend I skied a couple of days at Mt. High, instead of planned Mammoth trip....That is really saying something. I did not even miss Mammoth at that point. I have only made 3 trips to the ski lease this year.


To everyone up there, have fun, and be careful.

[Franz Klammer]

Mrs-soon-to-be Klammer and I were up in Mammoth until today. We skied the resort in great powder conditions (Chair 22 was awesome) on Monday and then had a really good backcountry day on Tuesday on the Mammoth Crest (Ship's Prow and skinned back up to ski TJ Bowl). The snow was excellent and not temperature/wind-affected at all.

We also made probably the first tracks of the season (correct me if I am wrong!) in the Bardini Chutes and Telebowls this morning. Snow still was great, but starting to warm up everywhere that was not on a north exposure. That said, it warmed up massively in the afternoon and it felt like late spring when we were leaving.

I am out for work this and next weekend, however, I hope to be back out for the second weekend of February. Luckily they're forecasting snow for that and I hope to back in the Eastern Sierra. Bloody Mountain North Couloir anyone?

[weavin]

Hey Franz - you had to be the two behind us four on Tuesday eh? Good skiing for sure. Here are some pics.

TR at http://eastsidescott.blogspot.com

[highanxiety]

Nice work Franz & weavin!

enjoyed your TR/pics on your blog also weavin. The one looking up at your tracks looked sweet. Nice to see the backcountry and mammoth mtn starting to shape up. Way to get after it folks..

[Skeeze]

Would definitely like to get into the BC this weekend. Any suggestion for something mellow? South facing might actually get nice and soft by the weekend.

[AKbruin]

Any word on conditions around Bridgeport? Could do a little expedition to hit Ski Dreams or whatever it's called this weekend. (But probably won't.)

I am out for work this and next weekend, however, I hope to be back out for the second weekend of February. Luckily they're forecasting snow for that and I hope to back in the Eastern Sierra. Bloody Mountain North Couloir anyone?

Possibly . . . . Is North Couloir the main one?

[Franz Klammer]

weavin -- Great pictures and, yes, that was us. When I saw you guys, I knew it would be someone from TGR. We also followed your tracks down the trees in TJ Bowl, but skipped the Crystal Bowl and just skied out by crossing TJ Lake and Lake George.

AKBruin: Yes, north couloir is the main and obvious one that you can see from 395.

Further assessment on conditions (might have changed since the heat yesterday and today):
- Sherwins looked pretty good (4 to 5 tracks)
- Mammoth Crest is very good (we saw another party of 4 on Lake George Headwall on Tuesday)
- coverage to the road for the Bloody trailhead
- Old Man's Bowl and Little Morrison seem ready to go (no tracks though)
- McGee East Face does not seem to have enough coverage
- McGee Creek (and Esha) look a lot better (saw someone walking/skinning on the unplowed road from the trailhead)
- snow down to Rovana for Mount Tom

[Joey Bag O' Donuts]

nice, saw your tracks in telebowl this a.m.

[Dark Star]

Nice work Franz! To add...a few classics looked good on my way home to Tahoe from Big Pine Friday. Coke Chute, Tom for sure, Basin and even the main Wahoo all looked very skiable and fun. Bloody looks nice again as well. Further south we found the snow up high to be very thin and super dry. There was blower north facing pow to ski for sure-over a thin base to keep you very much on your toes-and great snow in the two couloirs we skied. Protected north seemed to be the call, and skied superbly in the lines we got into (one is seen in the attached shot), but to get high there's some thin cover to deal with that makes objectives less deep more friendly. I'll have more of a report and pics up on unofficial probably monday. Hopefully people can get some this week!

[Franz Klammer]

^^^ Very nice!

What line is that? And what other lines did you do?

[AKbruin]

Hit Horse Creek canyon on Saturday. The plan was to hit Ski Dreams, but we ended up having to turn around on the bench just below (late start, early-season legs, bushwacking/trailfinding below, blah blah blah). There is enough coverage to skin almost all the way, but the bottom 2000' vertical feet/first 3 miles of approach (and descent) are crusty shit. Above 9000' there is some nice powder on north-facing aspects mixed with a little crust here and there. Coverage is okay, but another 2-3' would help a lot. So the skiing was meh, but it was good to get out and the post-tour Tavertine soak and beer was fantastic.

Here are a few photos to give a sense of coverage. Unfortunately, I think one of my kids got his/her creasy fingers all over my P&S lens, thus the general haze.

[gimpy]

but to get high there's some thin cover to deal with that makes objectives less deep more friendly.

still trying to wrap my head around that.

[UPGRAYEDD_2505]

Here are some crappy iPhone pictures ("photographs") that I made fancy-like with my thinking machine (a "computer").

[Dark Star]

Franz, we skied out of Big Pine. There's no "accepted" names for the lines we skied as far as I know. And Gimpy, the point is there's snow in a few lines up high, but getting to them would be tedious through mucho thin cover...so skiing something that's not a huge approach, but quality, would be more ideal for now...

[Joey Bag O' Donuts]

nice windbuff on the hill today. definately lots of fun

[Franz Klammer]

How was it this weekend? Is it worth to get out there or are we better off waiting for the next storm cycle?

[Zeppelinskier]

what tom looking like or basin?
thin around tahoe if you aren't up high

[Joey Bag O' Donuts]

How was it this weekend? Is it worth to get out there or are we better off waiting for the next storm cycle?

I tought class yesterday morning, so cannot vouch for sunday. However, most of the week was pretty fun tearing around the groomers and a few other spots. suppose to get a little snow tonight and tomorrow, so you never know. It has stayed fairly cold, so the snow has been holding up very nice. We are definately making the best of what we have, and its just plain nice to be out on the mountain

[Cedrik]

How was it this weekend? Is it worth to get out there or are we better off waiting for the next storm cycle?

Last Sunday the groomers were excellent. However, the weather is "beautiful" and sunny right now, so for bc the next storm cycle would probably be best.

Since we're having part of our roof replaced next week, there's a high probability of stormy weather coming.