The ANTI-official 2009 Cali BACKCOUNTRY Conditions/Stoke thread

[powdherb]

I skinned up the backside of alpine yesterday. It sucked. That is all.

[kona12]

Thinking about just doing a quick morning run up Castle Peak this Saturday - anyone know what the snow is like since the hot

So - hows the coverage and what say the collective about the snow - will I find corn or crap

-jm

Is anything off of 80 even an option at this point? I have been out of the game and out of the mountains since April and was asuming everything off of 80 was toast.

I was thinking of making a quick hit in the morning and was thinking I needed to go 88....but if 80 is an option, much easier access for me! Any beta on 80 would be appreciated!

[~mikey b]

wet slide debris from Ebbetts Pass during the hot spell a couple of weeks ago

[SchralphMacchio]

quick update, dropped by Highland Lakes Road on my way home from Markleeville today. Folger is looking pretty good with a lotta snow, but you can't get much farther than Bloomfield campground without a high-clearance 4WD, which I do not have. I didn't want to get high-centered by myself out there, but it looks like Folger might be gettable. go get er!

[Zeppelinskier]

Be there!

[htek]

Is anything off of 80 even an option at this point? I have been out of the game and out of the mountains since April and was asuming everything off of 80 was toast.

I was thinking of making a quick hit in the morning and was thinking I needed to go 88....but if 80 is an option, much easier access for me! Any beta on 80 would be appreciated!

I skinned up to castle pass on Saturday - while a good workout and a good time spent toting around my 1yr old son; the snow is crap and is just about gone. Look elsewhere - routes on 80 are done.

-jm

[Telenater]

Is the snow holding up reasonably well down towards Mammoth?I'm hoping to take a trip out to Bloody Couloir on Saturday.

And if anyone is going to be down in the Sonora, Tioga pass, Virginia Lakes area on Thurs-Friday, and is looking for a partner drop me a PM. I'm free, but the folks I was planning on hanging with have dropped out citing work problems.

[~mikey b]

sonora pass with the family next weekend

[madturtle]

Not technically the sierra but...E facing runs on shasta were just silly good this weekend. Skied almost 11K' of possibly the best corn I've ever seen sun-mon.

I heard N facing stuff is not as good up there...bit of wind affect.

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

Is the snow holding up reasonably well down towards Mammoth?I'm hoping to take a trip out to Bloody Couloir on Saturday.

And if anyone is going to be down in the Sonora, Tioga pass, Virginia Lakes area on Thurs-Friday, and is looking for a partner drop me a PM. I'm free, but the folks I was planning on hanging with have dropped out citing work problems.

405 hit Bloody on Saturday - he can probably fill you in on conditions. I recall him saying it was great (although he made the mistake of booting up scree instead of straight up the chute).

If you are going to hit Bloody, try to get someone (or yourself) with a high-clearance 4-wheel drive car. You can knock off several miles of the approach driving up the dirt road.

[Dark Star]

Couple pics to share, and as Mad Turtle said, Shasta is just too good right now. I heard Brewer Creek is all time, and anything on the e-face is good. We skied the Trinity Chutes, which were 7k of absolute goodness. West Face is also super good.

Personnally, I couldn't be more stoked to "end" my season this weekend after Sunday summiting Shasta with my wife, and Monday being my 200th day for the season. Will probably keep skiing a bit, but I think the everyday thang is done...although Carson and Ebetts are still holding, and 4th of July bowl should be great when Blackwood opens. For anyone jonesing, Alpine in still skinable from the base, but nothing has been freezing at night....and Lassen road is still closed and "supposed" to open June 5-6.

What a great season, still some good snow to slide on out there...hope you all go get some and start sending the vibes for a rikter one next year...I'm hoping for 6-800 inches at minimum

[madturtle]

Haha, darkstar wish I coulda put a name w/a face sooner...or threw out the change for a nickle mantra...that was me and Mrs MT who's summmit pic you took and you were trying to bum a ride to town w/ . Looks like you and the Mrs got the goods either way. Great to meet ya.

[~mikey b]

'nater - we'd have to do some swapping around between kid skiing and big people skiing, but my wife and I are both looking for partners for the weekend - might be able to convince her to go traveling south...

[Telenater]

Mike,

Sounds good. I've got a firm commitment from a partner for doing Bloody on Saturday. We'll probably head down on Friday to get a little bit of acclimatization in. I'll keep you updated as plans evolve. I had been planning on heading down tomorrow afternoon and doing a bit at Tioga, but I'm just not willing to go solo especially with temps as warm as they're going to be.

[406]

Saturday May 23

Parked a bit low...next time I am renting a quad, so I don't have to hike the jeep trail:


A couple miles of hiking up the road, I considered my options...everything looked far away:


Still some snow back in there:


Topped out before noon and ran into a local at the summit and we skied the chute together:


Upper half had a few inches of winter snow from the thunderstorm on Friday. Lower half was perfect corn:


Scenic:


Man that is a fun run, excellent conditions and amazing scenery.

Local guy also gave me a ride down the road, which was really nice. He clipped his side wall on a sharp rock, so we did a tire change about 1/2 way down:


Nice view of my route from tire change location:

[skier666]

Heh.....I drove up that road in a X5 a couple years back. Figured its the burliest road an X5 has traveled

[~mikey b]

copy that 'nater - we probably won't go so far as Mammoth, but you never know. I might be able to go to Sonora Pass Wed for the day, but I have to be in town Thurs.

If anyone else is down for Sonora Pass this weekend, Krystal Kartwright and Owen are bring our junkshow up for the weekend. It would be cool to have some folks to partner up with so we can swap around kid skiing duties. We've got room for 2 more souls in the truck, but probably not in the camper.

[bcrider]

Nice recent additions yo!

Here's mine and powdherb's contribution.
[ame="http://tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160587"]Boat Taxi TR - Teton Gravity Research Forums[/ame]

[406]

Sunday May 24th
mavrick and I went exploring in the Mammoth Crest area. We followed some boot tracks up to the top of the ridge:


Mavrick topping out:


We started skiing around 11 and conditions were perfect:




gs turns in the bowl, I think it is called tj bowl?:




Got less smooth closer to the lake:


Fun area with lots of possible runs.

[BGnight]

Rode Diller Canyon from top of Shastina on Shasta Sunday. Great corn.
Diller on left

[tahoe2stroker]

anybody know if the woods lake campground over by round top is open yet? looking to make some turns this weekend.

[julesrules]

Throwing up a few photos here - hope to have a better TR later (lifestyle focused with some snowboarding thrown in). We hit up Sonora Pass (No Name) on Saturday and was at Tioga Pass (Mt. Dana) on Sunday. Awesome weekend...dirt bag camping on national forest land, natural hot springs, campfire dutch oven chili...and only one bloody injury, one ruined snowboard edge and one pull of a vanagon over a mountain pass.

Riding down towards Dana Glacier Canyon



Caravan parked for the evening

[~mikey b]

Owen and I at Sonora Pass last Tuesday - I think we went 15-20 minutes before he started to cry and skinned back to his mama at the truck.

[SchralphMacchio]

best picture in this ENTIRE THREAD!!!

Owen's gonna have that one printed out and taped to his dorm room door at CU Boulder and he's gonna get alllll the ladies

[julesrules]

Trip Report up at splitboard.com

Link here

Throwing up a few photos here - hope to have a better TR later (lifestyle focused with some snowboarding thrown in). We hit up Sonora Pass (No Name) on Saturday and was at Tioga Pass (Mt. Dana) on Sunday. Awesome weekend...dirt bag camping on national forest land, natural hot springs, campfire dutch oven chili...and only one bloody injury, one ruined snowboard edge and one pull of a vanagon over a mountain pass.