Mega TR: Mt. Gould & Palisade Crest Tour
Dates: Monday, May 22 – Friday, May 26, 2017
Locations: Mt. Gould & West of Palisade Crest, Eastern Sierra
Skiers: Enginerd & UCL
Photos: As noted
Synopsis: With a great winter and a huge spring snowpack in the Eastern Sierra, Enginerd and I spent the early part of May pouring over topo maps and deciding where to plan a five day ski tour. We had originally intended to cross the range over a variation of the Monarch Divide tour, but ultimately the hassle of car logistics turned us towards a loop style tour starting and ending on the Eastside. With no shortage of terrain, it was simply identifying a zone we wanted to stay in for five days. As is the case, sometimes planning only takes you so far, as we had set out originally on a tour leaving out of Onion Valley, but a broken ski boot on the first day quickly changed our plans. Fortunately, some quick MacGyvering ultimately kept the train on the rails, albeit on an entirely different track!
Our original intended tour was to leave from Onion Valley trailhead and climb and ski Mt. Gould, and then head over the vicinity of Rixford pass to camp near Dragon Lake. We would then ski Dragon Couloir on Dragon Peak the next day, before heading further West towards Gardiner Basin. In Gardiner Basin, we intended to ski a combination of Mt. Gardiner, Mt. Cotter and Mt. Clarence King, before heading back over Dragon Pass to ski Mt. Gould again.
After packing up our 40L packs (going light as typical), we loaded the car and headed towards Onion Valley. It was sad to leave Sarah, Jack and Ben, but I was super thankful to have Sarah willing to watch the boys for 5 days while I could play in the mountains. Handling two, 14-month olds that are toddling around and getting into all sorts of stuff is serious business! Thank you Sarah!!!
Day 1 – Mt. Gould to Survival Ski to Bailtown
Enginerd and I drove up to Onion Valley trailhead and crashed outside by the side of the car. The next morning we woke up early and put the skis on the packs, as we started with a 10 minute dirt walk before hitting snow (which we booted for a bit until skins made sense). Enginerd ready to rock. Photo: UCL
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I hadn't been in the mountains since February. Despite being in good shape from pretty substantial training for a couple of half ironman races, the altitude was hitting me hard. I just kept it at a nice pace as we headed up the East face of Mt. Gould. Photo: Enginerd
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We got to the top shoulder of Mt. Gould and emptied out all of the overnight gear from our packs, deciding to ski down on the East Face which was just coming into the perfect corn window. I was pumped to get my first turns in after several months. Photos: Enginerd
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The East Face was excellent. Enginerd heads further down, with the Owen's River Valley (and Nevada) off in the distance). Photo: UCL
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Fortunately we had light packs, as I was moving slow on the climb back up, still adjusting to the altitude (Mt. Gould summits out at 13,012 feet). We got back up to the shoulder and re-loaded our packs and ate some food. Enginerd headed over to scramble to the top of the summit proper. Photo: UCL
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I chilled on the flank to get photos, and Enginerd grabbed some of me with University Peak off in the distance. Photo: Enginerd
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When you get over the first crest of the Eastern Sierra and get a good look further West, you quickly realize we had a great winter this year. The entire range is stacked with snow. Photos: Enginerd, UCL, Enginerd
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After taking some pics, we booted over towards the saddle between Dragon Pass and Rixford Pass, looking for the best way down towards Dragon Lake. There was a lot of rocks and buried talus. After finally deciding a good path down, we started to gear up to descend. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that my boot buckle had broken. Even worse, it was the critical buckle on the Dynafit Mercury that dictates whether you are in walk mode or ski mode. Without this buckle engaged, it is basically impossible to ski (definitely not any steep couloirs or faces). Photo: Enginerd
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After examining the boots, I realized I could at least jam in the buckle into the walk mechanism so I could ski down. Some duct tape and two voile straps would somewhat hold it in place. Photo: Enginerd
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We debated for a while what to do. It was clear the setup was not sound and I was not comfortable skiing our objective the next day, Dragon Couloir, with this as my boot. Given it was only the first day of the tour and we could quickly ski back down to the car, we decided to pull the plug and bail, drive to Mammoth and hope that I could get the boot fixed early the next morning before heading back into the mountains. So we bailed, which included Enginerd skiing the North Face of Mt. Gould. The portion I dropped in was breakable crust, which was a complete non-starter in my boot. So I just traversed back over to the East Face that was still nice corn, and delicately skied back down, linking up with Jon and heading to the car. We headed to Mammoth, got some pizza and camped out, hoping for the best the next day.