Sonora Pass

[powdork]

Caltrans asks that no pedestrians, bicyclists or other vehicles go beyond the closure gates while maintenance crews are conducting snow removal/clearing operations. Safety is our priority, for the public as well as Caltrans’ workers.

I never understood this. I ventured onto the spur during one of their prolonged closures and after about 1.5 miles I got to where I could see them working. The guy got out of the dozer and yelled and shook his fist in the air (I was hundreds of yards away). I turned around and walked back and a few minutes later a plow truck came by (just driving there was nothing to plow) They yelled at me about being in avalanche terrain. I replied that I spend every day in avalanche terrain and am aware of the risks. The point is there will be miles between the closure gate and the road clearing so how exactly will we know when these operations are going on when we're at the gate deciding. Additionally, we could be skinning 50 yards off the road (probably less depending on what the right-of-way is) and caltrans would have no authority whatsoever. And to murky things up further you have other closures on the east side (buttermilks, etc) that are considered soft closures. You can drive right past the sign but don't get stuck because the road has been reduced to one lane at points by the januburied/flooduary runoff.

[~mikey b]

Hwy 108 opened to Kennedy Meadows this morning.

Edit: CalTrans says they are cleared on the east side up to 8500' about 5 miles from the county line.

No estimate of an opening date yet.

I'll have some aerial photos to post early next week.

[~mikey b]

Headed out on a 4 day snow survey trip for Hetch Hetchy this morning. Flying up south of the pass and skiing down to Cherry Lake measuring snow along the way. A helicopter and stocked backcountry cabins will make this a meadow skipping delight.

[skier666]

Nice...have fun!

Should be interesting to see when the road fully opens this year

[~mikey b]

Just got home...

Off to open mic night with Owen.

[hopelesslyadolescent]

Damn, Mike, that's a dream gig. Trip report and photos to follow?

[~mikey b]

Yes

Bond Pass to Kibbee Ridge with heli support.

[GiBo]

Sweet, man. Can't wait for the full TR.

[Skiwurrel]

I'm heading up from Bridgeport as far as I can get tomorrow, looks like a bit of visibility and maybe some fresh from the weekend, anyone want to come and find a good zone? Or recommend one its the first time I've been this way. Cheers!

[bobz]

Seriously jealous, Mike. That's some of my favorite (summertime only, due to access) Yosemite backcountry out there.

[~mikey b]

I'm struggling with my camera technology sorry...

[~mikey b]

I'm heading up from Bridgeport as far as I can get tomorrow, looks like a bit of visibility and maybe some fresh from the weekend, anyone want to come and find a good zone? Or recommend one its the first time I've been this way. Cheers!

Unless you can get to Leavitt Lake Road I'd go elsewhere from the East Side.

[~mikey b]

Taken around 8000' on the west side of 108.

[Vets]

Taken around 8000' on the west side of 108.

Thanks for sharing this. Very impressive work. If it is this deep at 8,000' it will still be a while before we can meet up at the top.

[emcee]

Yes

Bond Pass to Kibbee Ridge with heli support.

That's some of the most remote terrain in the Sierras, it's always been a dream of mine to hike it in the summer I can't imagine how desolate it must be in early spring

[~mikey b]

I'm going through my pictures today finally...

[~mikey b]

been slow on the TR....

Went out a couple of weeks ago with a couple of friends of mine on a snow survey out in a remote part of my backyard. This is generally a lesser traveled part of the Sierra along the border of Yosemite NP and the Stanislaus NF. It's difficult to access in the summer, and even more so in winter. This trip was done as part of the CA Cooperative Snow Survey with support from the USFS. This route has been skied since the 1940's, to measure snow and water for Hetch Hetchy. We were dropped off and picked up by a helicopter with special permission from the FS for this task. The cabins we used are stocked and supplied for the specific use of the snow survey crews. This was my first multi-day snow survey trip. I was lucky enough to be with two great guys and have ideal spring snow conditions for our mission. All in all we skied something like 60-70 miles in 4 days - mostly meadow skipping. We passed by a lot of great skiing along the way that we simply didn't have time for in 10 hour days with a lot of traveling and 2-3 survey courses per day.

Flew out of the Bald Mtn helitak base up on 108 in a 212 from InterMountain out of Columbia. They flew us out towards Cherry Lake and up along our route so we coulad asses some of the snow conditions.
















landing at Summit Meadow - our first survey course and the start of the skipping








leader of the group




my fellow follower







our only real turns to speak of - on the way down to Horse Meadow where we spent our first night

[kidwoo]

leader of the group

Haha!

Is that mcpheet?

I was wondering if that's who you were flying with.

[~mikey b]

No that's Holy Mazurkiewicz

Not a Maggot

[emcee]

F-yeah, remote-stoke counts as stoke! thanks for the report. I've been eyeing a summer route up kibby creek canyon but still haven't figured out how to get around the north side of kibby lake without either taking a whole day going up and down the ridge or having to freeclimb a 50' granite face and then haul packs up behind

[~mikey b]

sweet - I'm glad someone appreciates this sorta trip

so the cabin at Horse Meadow is the biggest one - and like all the others its buried in snow and takes a bit to dig out







so from Horse Meadow we had to make our way toward Huckleberry Lake - we had a route choice to make - stick to the north side of Cherry Creek and ski under Sachse Monument or go to the south side of the creek - the south facing stuff had a bunch of recent avalanche activity, and looked like it would continue to be active - rather than ski below active avalanche slopes above a slide for life to the creek, we went on the south side an traversed the safer north facing slopes












the boys were happy with our route selection




but I was not happy with our next bit...




I've never really been into skiing across frozen lakes but we skied a couple of miles along Huckleberry Lake - it was really no big deal but







looking back




after a bunch of skiing including extra few miles back and forth to do a survey course, we found our cabin for the night under Paulsen Dome - you won't find Paulsen Dome on the map - it's named after a Sonora jeweler who worked as a snow surveyer back in the old fogey days







Ryan digging out the stove pipe



Adam and Ryan


Paulsen Dome

[~mikey b]

the next day was pretty big - we left the main Cheery Creek Drainage and went out toward Spotted Fawn on our way to Kibbe -












again another buried cabin








you could see the lights of the valley from here

[~mikey b]

the last day skiing down Kibbe Ridge was pretty scruffy - we did a lot of aggressive pizza skiing and a lot of science














we managed to get to the LZ on time and our friends picked us up

[~mikey b]

We thought we were headed home but we ended up flying to Gianelli for another survey.





Flew over DR




and Hwy 108


on our way home

[hopelesslyadolescent]

Thanks Mike, great photos of a fabulous trip. We're all envious.