Eastside Conditions Thread

**bodywhomper** · 04-04-2016, 10:51 PM

Glacier divide is an E-W ridge line with the north side as a chuting gallery. I'm pretty sure that's it. It has been a bit of a fantasy for me for many years.

Thompson looked pretty awesome, but thinner than I would expect. Hurd looked super thin.

**AKbruin** · 04-04-2016, 11:33 PM

Photo dump time. (TGR's new photo embedding system makes me want to throw my computer out the window.) The photos are more or less chronological. Sorry. Many, many scenics.

Saturday

Illuminated tent photos are so played out!

**AKbruin** · 04-04-2016, 11:39 PM

Sunday

The end.

**skier666** · 04-05-2016, 11:16 AM

Nice work buddy!

Love the glacier cameo in this...Goethe Glacier?

**406** · 04-05-2016, 01:14 PM

Awesome photos!

**AKbruin** · 04-05-2016, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by skier666

Love the glacier cameo in this...Goethe Glacier?

Yes, sir. It's not a large one though. (Thanks a lot, carbon emissions.)

**kidwoo** · 04-05-2016, 02:30 PM

You came out at north lake?

**Ottime** · 04-06-2016, 08:17 AM

I spent the day hiking the east face of University yesterday. Plenty of coverage in the drainage down low, but the upper portion is burning out fast. Seemed odd. Even the upper basin bottom was mostly rock. Transition from firm was slow, then from corn to wet was fast. Pic later.

**AKbruin** · 04-06-2016, 10:01 AM

Any reports on Powerhouse?

Originally Posted by kidwoo

You came out at north lake?

Yep. This is North Lake road looking into the Sabrina basin. Hard to look in that direction and not want to ski Picture Peak.

**jimw** · 04-06-2016, 02:39 PM

Awesome pics BG and AK (and whatsupdoc earlier, looks like you timed it just right)! Great to see folks getting after it on the eastside.

But regarding the coverage, I gotta agree with bodywhomper:

Originally Posted by bodywhomper

Thompson looked pretty awesome, but thinner than I would expect. Hurd looked super thin.

Given how much more snow fell this year than the past 4 years, I'm surprised how thin everything looks for this time of year. WTF El Nino??

For comparison, here's BG's pic of Hurd from April 1:

Originally Posted by BGnight

Attachment 179736

And here's Hurd on May 3 2010 (after a big group of us schralped the crap out of it

):

So that's a full month later in the season with way deeper coverage. I believe 2010 was a slightly above average snow year? And this year so far is around average? Here's hoping for some late-season storms...

On the other hand, this seems to be making some normally really fat lines into legit chutes!

**Ottime** · 04-06-2016, 03:12 PM

^^^^this year I thought the Dec-Jan run of snow mostly missed south of Tahoe. February was hot. So that basically left the snow that fell in March.

I was kind of expecting a big fat face of snow on University. It looked more like thin ribbons with the run outs burned liked you'd see in May. First time back there, so no idea of that is normal.

The north facing chutes looked very nice. Wish I had chosen those. There was no need for my heart to climb to 13k. Not sure how the climb would have been on them early w/o crampons. Forgot those in a closet near Tahoe.

**TEXASS** · 04-06-2016, 03:56 PM

Great that you got up there though. Sorry I missed out but up and back in one day wasn't doeable. That's a really nice area though when it is rideable and so much closer to home

Hey JimW Im pretty sure that pic was the same face of the famous Burt-o-hawk correct?

**SchralphMacchio** · 04-06-2016, 06:03 PM

2010 was technically an El Nino. It snowed basically every week in April and May with more typical El Nino storm tracks, from my memory. We had a lot of AR events this winter, but warm and northern track. Shasta / Lassen SWE is unreal right now.

**davieboot** · 04-06-2016, 06:59 PM

Nice work AK, great shots.

**bodywhomper** · 04-06-2016, 07:10 PM

What's really killing shit is this fucking heat wave!!! I'm really enjoying the time being naked in my yard with the chainsaw, but MAN(!).... and the skeeters are out of control at 2600ft

**AKbruin** · 04-06-2016, 07:12 PM

And that, folks, is why so many fear "hill people."

**bodywhomper** · 04-06-2016, 07:39 PM

I will do battle with my woman, and win.. and yet, I still lose because the fucking heat wave will create suncups of incredible size making travel nearly impossible

**BGnight** · 04-06-2016, 09:48 PM

Dore Cliff cirque in Lundy Canyon was really good today. Everything from pow>porn>corn...and a few spots of windboad/junk. You can drive almost all the way to the trailhead too. Funny that this place was getting hammered all winter and now that it has the easiest access there wasn't one track since the last storm. Ski crampons were very handy. Shit was rock solid early. SUPER smooth snow all the way up the cirque. Made for some excellent, high speed, GS turns on my final run around 2ish. Obviously north facing bowls are corning much later than south. Imo, the snow quality on north faces is much better and you don't have to be dropping by 11am. Some of the lines around the dogleg chute looked good and if I was to climb them I wouldn't start until noon. A little more snowmelt and the approach to Dore will not be as fun so get it while there's some snow left.

**Ottime** · 04-07-2016, 08:59 AM

Texass, yeah. Thanks for the beta. Knowing the road went to the snow helped. Long day trip from here, but always good to see a new part of the state. And work the heart out.

If it snows tomorrow, I might take a few laps atop the tram on Friday.

**jimw** · 04-07-2016, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by SchralphMacchio

2010 was technically an El Nino. It snowed basically every week in April and May with more typical El Nino storm tracks, from my memory. We had a lot of AR events this winter, but warm and northern track. Shasta / Lassen SWE is unreal right now.

Whatever Dr. Schraph!

All I know is all my pics from April/May 2010 have a shit ton of snow, and lots of sun... while overall snow depth at the end of the season at Tioga was just above normal. Certainly not like 2011. Anyway, that's why I said here's hoping for some late-season storms. I guess I should have specified snow though, not rain!

Shasta and Lassen seem like they're in a different state with the amount of snow they've gotten this year. At least that will be good for a while.

TEX, yep that is the scene of the Burt-o-hawk. If you look closely you can see the bomb holes.

**UPGRAYEDD_2505** · 04-07-2016, 11:06 AM

Pretty sure I took that picture of Hurd

**TEXASS** · 04-07-2016, 11:08 AM

I got really lucky and was invited on a Pinner Expedition in 2008 wih BCD and JimW. I really didn't know what I was in for but looking back I think we scored

Sidenote- This was before GoPro. The helmet cam footage was provided by the Goitercam.. I wore a full face helmet with a Sony HD handycam on it like the skydiving video guys. Freakin thing weighed about 15 pounds

**jimw** · 04-07-2016, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by UPGRAYEDD_2505

Pretty sure I took that picture of Hurd

Indeed you did! Remember meeting you in the parking lot. You must have been bummed to go out there and find it looking like a ski area.

Originally Posted by TEXASS

IThe helmet cam footage was provided by the Goitercam.. I wore a full face helmet with a Sony HD handycam on it like the skydiving video guys. Freakin thing weighed about 15 pounds

Ahh the goitercam!

That was a great day. The bummer with going early in the season though is all the lurking sharks. I took a huge chunk out of my board on like the 2nd turn. Somehow, it didn't seem affect the ride too much... might have been a different story if it wasn't pow!

**bodywhomper** · 04-07-2016, 04:18 PM

hurd from mid-may 2009 (more filled-in than now)

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**jimw** · 04-07-2016, 06:09 PM

^^^ yeah, and in 2009 at Tioga the snowpack as of April 1 was almost exactly what it was this year (92% vs. 89%):
https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tiogaopen.htm

Seems like once you get south of Mammoth everything is just a lot thinner in general. And even up around Tioga it's way thinner down low than at the same time that year (up high is looking good though). Again... WTF El Nino??