Last Thursday (July 6) Hiram and Folger looked like this from Ebbetts Peak (the road was passable in a Subaru Outback until a mile or so beyond the campground):

Most recent (May 4) Inyo County road report is here (along with a few pictures along the South Lake road): https://www.facebook.com/InyoCountySheriffsOffice/posts/770273289821907

In the spring of their last year, the old owner told me that the critical problem for them had been a new (or newly enforced) requirement that to keep their permit for winter operations they had to...

Sounds like a pretty good few days, even if you didn't get the whale. How'd you get from the North Lake turnoff to the trailhead? Was the North Lake road skiable? I'm thinking about heading that...

Me, too--and thanks tbc for posting the video.



And if the visibility is bad and usual landmarks invisible, the Wintoon hump was the site of a water tank once upon a time--it's on a very modest...

There were two snowmobilers relentlessly lapping the lower face of Echo (mostly up and down the fire area) for a couple of hours yesterday--maybe they wandered up and over there?

Thanks to all of Monday's avy reporters. It looks like 10-11 a.m. was the witching hour.

Maybe this is already happening but folks who were involved in or saw these slides would be doing a service by getting some information to SAC. Speaking for myself understanding actual local slides...

Yes, blower. Yes, right side up. Yes, enough of a sleeper that there was lots of empty space in the backcountry. Yes, a ridiculous good day.

Here's how the Halls looked on Sunday, midday.

197485

Spot on.

I'm 65; I'd like to still be skiing in the backcountry at 70, 75, . . .

I don't pass judgment on other people's risk tolerance. My tolerance, and my avy management...

I stumbled into telemark turns a few years after a mid-life introduction to cross-country skiing. My skiing friends were resort skiers. Ttips helped open the door to a larger world of telemark...

Yes--not fluffy any more and sometimes with a mild degree of inoffensive wind crust--but distinctly better than expected, especially on a day that was supposed to be a corn day, but wasn't.

What--no pity for an old man?

Does the cliff-lined bowl N/NE of Stevens Pk have a name? More important, does it have a graceful exit back to the Stevens parking that doesn't involve steep rock, brush, or both--or a car shuttle? ...

SAC says this morning: "Since Friday afternoon, the forecast area has received 3 to 5 inches of rain water equivalent with 2 to 4 feet of snow above 8,000'."

Pretty sure those are inches of water content--volume of snow is greater, how much greater depends on how heavy/wet the snow is.

Coming out of lurker-dom to thank whatsupdoc and the other posters in this thread. This is the kind of stuff that makes me think the internet is worthwhile after all.

Also, the common feature of...