Eastside Conditions Thread

[jimw]

Nice, that looks surprisingly good! Suncups not too bad down low?

[Shralpinist]

Anything with a decent pitch was nice and smooth all the way to the end of snowline. The flats were pretty sun cupped but soft enough to charge through.

[Shralpinist]

Skied a couple runs on Leavitt a couple days back. Coverage is still pretty good with very minimal dry walking starting from the PCT junction. Skied it all the way back to the creek save one small section of walking on the out. Good hard refreeze. In fact I had to kill over an hour on the top waiting for things to soften which came as a surprise given how warm it had been. Things are/were pretty sun cupped but skied pretty nice once soft. The Y was far less sun cupped than the bowl. Maybe there was or will be a surface refresh but looks like the snow may be too far south for Sonora? The creek crossing on the back end was about knee deep and fairly swift but no big deal. Easy hitchhike back to the car.

Attachment 183671

How was Deadman's looking?

[somethingclever...]

How was Deadman's looking?

Looked pretty fat.

[~mikey b]

Fire near Lee Vining. 395 closed in both directions.

[CS]

Went up Dana last Friday. Took my cousin on his first venture outside the resort. The upper snowfield off the top was nice and smooth, broken up by a small rock band. The couloir itself was good. Pretty smooth, maybe a bit too thick on top but still easy to make turns in. Well, for me at least. My cousin got a bit gripped in the coolie and did all he could to scratch his way down. The snow in slide canyon was more burnt than I anticipated and we had to hike all the way out. Oh well, still a great day in the mountains.





N Peak still looked good off in the distance






Lots of snow out there still








No shots of actual skiing/boarding in the couloir, I was focusing on helping my cousin get down. At the bottom we cut hard right to try and get around the moraine and stay on snow as long as possible.




Looking back

[AKbruin]

Nice job, CS and Shralpinist. North Peak still looks pretty fat.

[Dantheman]

Yeah buddy.

[~mikey b]

Anyone been in the Saddlebag area lately?

[jskierpx]

I was climbing in Tuolumne the last few days and from the drive in, it looks like it is burning out with this heat. False white mountain which we ski'd a couple weeks ago still has snow and would probably yield you around 1000' of skiing. I did not, however, drive up saddlebag road and scope out Conness or North Peak. But judging by the snow lower I'm sure theres still some lines to harvest if you're willing to work for it...

[Piggity]

Anyone motivated this weekend?

[rlewis]

Anyone been in the Saddlebag area lately?

I ventured out that way for a quick solo trip over the long weekend and skied above Conness Lakes area. The approach was dry until the lakes but got some good lines from there on up:
Attachment 184723





I made it to the Conness Glacier which skied well. I thought about following the rock's line down Y couloir until the thunder and storm clouds chased me away:






A good trip, and still some skiing to be had for a bit of work.

[jimw]

A bit late, but I was out there on July 4 to celebrate the start of a week long road trip. Took the first AM boat taxi across the lake, I was the only one on it. I love lazy summer approaches!





Nice scenery on the dry hike out to North Peak.





Actually decent coverage. Some suncups, but the steeper stuff was not bad. Kook chutes were still holding up. This turned out to be convenient later in the day...





Climbing up the waterfall section is always the sketchiest part of the day. Whippets - so useful!





Nice views of 20 lakes basin



View of lookers left chute on the way up. Hmm, looks pretty smooth... might have to come back to that one later...



... but first I figured I'd check out the main lookers right chute





After basically not seeing anyone on the entire route, partway up the chute I heard some voices from above. Popped out on the col at the top of the chute and ran into a couple skiers. We got to talking, and turns out one of them was Shralpinist from this thread! Small world. He and his buddy Bill from Truckee had started earlier and climbed up via the north ridge of North Peak (rock climbing), went over the summit, then came down to the chute to ski it. These guys were the real deal.





Topped out around 11, but the snow was still firm so I enjoyed the views and took a nap. None of the Conness summit chutes went anymore, except the far lookers left one (left of Y) that I call "cornice chute", because there's always a humongous cornice hanging over the cliffs above it lookers right. Interestingly, there generally is never a cornice right at the entrance to that chute. Linking back to some discussion from several posts back, the very top part of that chute (where the upper dogleg is) is a good way to access the Conness plateau from the backside. In that pic from 406 way back that I think was originally from steelman loooong ago, if you go where it says "certain death", it actually takes you to a little col that is the bottom of that dogleg, and then you can climb straight up from there. It is steep, but it is generally the only spot along both that ridge and the one on the other side (that AKbruin and friend were turned away from) that does not form a cornice.







Around noon, the corn looked ripe, time to drop in! This was my first time on a brand new split, nice way to break it in. I figured, if it can make it down this in these conditions, it's a keeper. Bill dropped in first and skied it like it was a blue resort run. His time living in Chamonix was obvious. Schralpinist with the blue jeans steeze, keepin' it real!







Schralped!



Well that was fun... Bill and Matty headed out at that point, but I still wanted to check out the lookers left chute. The timing works out nicely because the right chute gets sun first, so by the time we were down that one the left one was getting prime.



Near the top there's a rock choke, and from below I could tell it barely went, but I wasn't sure if it was rideable. I climbed up above it to assess it, but since it was only a couple feet wide on a steep slope, I decided to just strap in below there. It wasn't worth it IMO to try to scrape down from above, plus the run above it was basically just a short rollover to the steep part. I was out here for fun, not skeeeetttch. BTW to reply to another earlier post, this chute is definitely not easier than the main one. It's narrower and steeper. The only part that might be easier is that it generally doesn't tend to form as pronounced of a runnel down the middle. That can be a real problem with the main chute, though on this day both chutes were runnel-free.



Chute #2, schralped! Go 'murica!!

[jimw]

At this point it was still before 2 PM, and I had signed up for the last boat taxi back across the lake at 4:45 PM, so I got to thinking... wouldn't it be cool to ride 4 chutes on the 4th?? Those Kook chutes looked good on the way in, they were right there on the way out, and again the timing with the sun exposure works out so that they are prime in the late afternoon, so...

Kook chute 1:





... and Kook chute 2:



4 chutes on the 4th! Mission accomplished.



But I still had to get back to the boat, and at this point it was already 4 PM. I was basically speed-walking/half-jogging the trail back. Somehow I managed to get to the dock at 4:45 on the dot, the last person to load up on the boat. It was awesome.





Super fun 4th!



Great start to the road trip



View of False White/White area on the way out

[~mikey b]

Very nice.

[pajamas]

damn you and your July turns Jdub

[96avs01]

damn you and your July turns Jdub

Agree with PJ. Sweet Hood TR on TAY too, slaying it in the sun (or clouds)...well done!

[406]

Nice work jimw!

[MTT]

Jimw,

Very Nice, thank you.

[somethingclever...]

This deviates from the ski nature of this thread but none the less seems like the best place to ask the question. I am wanting to take the family in for 4 days 3 nights somewhere off 395. My current idea is going from Convict Lake to Mcgee Creek. Or vice versa if that makes more sense for whatever reason. From skiing off those trailheads it seems like it would be manageable terrain in an awesome setting. It would also be a good look at alot of good ski terrain that is slightly deeper in than I have been in the zone. Mostly trail but some off trail thrown in as well to keep things interesting. Seems like more than enough time to be relaxed and spend alot of time fishing and just hanging out. Anyone done this? Not sure exactly how far it is but it couldnt be more than 30+ miles? Any thoughts? Other suggestions? Looking for good fishing, no national park crossings as we will have the pup, and relatively uncrowded. Thanks in advance for any info.

[AKbruin]

Rock Creek to North Lake or vice versa would be neat. It's a ski tour I want to do. I think it's about 30 miles and you'd be able to check out Muriel Peak, the backside of Humphreys, Feather, Lake Italy, and Bear Creek Spire.

If you wanted shorter, you could do a Pine Creek excursion to either Rock Creek or North Lake.

Convict to McGee would be cool. I'm interested to see where you'd cross over (presumably somewhere between Baldwin and Red Slate?).

Please post photos of your trip. I'd like to do a family multi-day hike down there as well.

[jimw]

My current idea is going from Convict Lake to Mcgee Creek.

I've contemplated this same route, or at least the McGee part of it, but haven't done it. Sounds like it could be cool. Post up some pics if you do it! From the map it looks like there's trail all the way to Red Slate summit from the McGee side. Not sure if there's trail all the way on the Convict side. There's an obvious pass east of Red Slate that follows the Convict Creek drainage. Plot it out on hillmap to get an idea of distance/vert. I bet it's way less than what you're thinking. But might have some off-trail travel, and honestly my concern with that would be the pup, if it's loose/sharp scree/talus.

[hutash]

This deviates from the ski nature of this thread but none the less seems like the best place to ask the question. I am wanting to take the family in for 4 days 3 nights somewhere off 395. My current idea is going from Convict Lake to Mcgee Creek. Or vice versa if that makes more sense for whatever reason. From skiing off those trailheads it seems like it would be manageable terrain in an awesome setting. It would also be a good look at alot of good ski terrain that is slightly deeper in than I have been in the zone. Mostly trail but some off trail thrown in as well to keep things interesting. Seems like more than enough time to be relaxed and spend alot of time fishing and just hanging out. Anyone done this? Not sure exactly how far it is but it couldnt be more than 30+ miles? Any thoughts? Other suggestions? Looking for good fishing, no national park crossings as we will have the pup, and relatively uncrowded. Thanks in advance for any info.

A start at Rock Creek makes sense, one of the highest TH in the Sierra. Lots of great skiing to look at. Not exactly isolated, but that that is the Sierra in summer. It is easy to come out Pine Creek, and makes a real easy family backpacking trip. Some fun peaks in the area as well, from walk ups to easy technical (Bear Creek Spire is a classic for a reason.)

Convict is a nice TH, but it is all up and a lot of work the first day.

Same leaving out of Mammoth. Duck Pass is nice and you can end in Reds Meadow if you so choose and take shuttles back to the car. I am not sure about pets on the Reds Meadow bus, best to check, but the Mammoth shuttle back to the TH allows dogs with a muzzle.

[somethingclever...]

I've contemplated this same route, or at least the McGee part of it, but haven't done it. Sounds like it could be cool. Post up some pics if you do it! From the map it looks like there's trail all the way to Red Slate summit from the McGee side. Not sure if there's trail all the way on the Convict side. There's an obvious pass east of Red Slate that follows the Convict Creek drainage. Plot it out on hillmap to get an idea of distance/vert. I bet it's way less than what you're thinking. But might have some off-trail travel, and honestly my concern with that would be the pup, if it's loose/sharp scree/talus.

I have found reference to corridor pass and it makes sense on the topo...looks like fairly easy 2nd class right over to the vicinity of the McGee lakes...that's a good point about being off trail with the dog...she does well but that's a fair amount of rocky walking

[BGnight]

If this materializes it could mean a really nice starter base for the southern sierra (above 10k) which didn't see much below Bishop last season.