Eastside Conditions Thread

[AKbruin]

Some tree riding from Sat/Sun:

Sweet!

[smallies]

I really need to figure out the backcountry thing but I don't have any room in my car for skis and boots. I have an asym air I could cut in half (however the hell you do that.)

[~mikey b]

Start by cutting in in half the long way. Or cut it in half the short way. Or get some skis

[TEXASS]

Coverage looking up Onion Valley Road. Still thin at the bottom



Big Pine Creek Drainage



My riding pics are still waiting to be uploaded

[BGnight]

That's a long skin in! Did it look like they were still plowing BPC road and just hadn't gotten around to the last storm? That road is such key access on big years.

[TEXASS]

They plowed it to that first brown house right by the road. I don't think they are going to plow further until all these storms clear

[pajamas]

thanks for the reports gents. bummed we didn't get down there and meet up but Tahoe was too good to leave

looks like Kid is ready.

[smallies]

That stuff will all melt down and I will waltz right up in snowboard boots.

[PowerWhore7]

Low hanging fruit right from 395

[TEXASS]

Sweet looking run PW7 Batch Plant Bowls?

[PowerWhore7]

Mcgee

[LightRanger]

^^^ Was totally thinking that. Need to rent a place at Convict with a bunch of buddies. That'd be a good weekend.

[meter-man]

Spent the weekend in Virginia Lakes at the High Sierra yurt. They now have a second yurt at the base of Dunderberg too. http://highsierrasnowcat.com/

I'll get some pics up soon (I hope) or video (probably never), but suffice to say that the East Side is as stacked as it has been since 2011...or 2006. There was 60 cm of settled snow at Conway Summit, and 150-250 cm (or more) at 10,000.

That shot of McGee tells you all need to know -- even the big roadside shots are in.

[kidwoo]

Heh


Sweet

[Piggity]

Anyone touring this weekend?

[hutash]

I haven't seen the east side this fat in a long time. driving home Tuesday PM, there was still a lot of snow in Bishop, and snow on the group all the way past Lone Pine.

[Piggity]

Kinda broke for a hotel at mammy but should be packing the truck now. Backcountry kinda making me nervous for a solo mission, dam rich guy sport.

Still might make something happen this weekend

[enlosandes]

Excellent powder still to be had

[BGnight]

Excellent powder still to be had

Rad! I got that line in perfect pow at the 09/10 splitfest. It was so good.

Fyi, I found excellent pow and breakable crust in the Bridgeport area today (I topped out at 10k on my first run). Mostly excellent pow but up high looked much more wind affected and the crust I found at the top was of the not so nice, breakable kind. It's all kinda moot with another storm rolling in.

Saw two new ski tracks on Craters Crest on the way out. Judging by the tracks they were line shopping hard to find soft snow. I noticed anything in the open, due north was getting some crust affect, but the last line I did, which was NE facing and mostly in the trees was perfect top to bottom.

[AKbruin]

As of Thursday, I was planning on riding something around Tahoe. But then a friend sent this photo of Mt. Tom:


Plans changed. Whatsupdoc and I started skinning from Rovana around 4:45 a.m. with plans to summit. At 5:30 a.m., my right boot fell apart. Tragedy?


Nah. We're good.


I had heard of people getting lost and climbing up the wrong canyon, which didn't seem possible looking at a topo. Well, I can know see how that's possible. In the dark, we couldn't see shit. Luckily, there was a skin track all the way to the headwall.


I don't think I've ever had a 7,300' skintrack to follow, but we weren't complaining. The skintrack took us to the far north end of the headwall. We thought we could traverse the ridge (maybe even on skins) all the way to the summit. But the ridge was a mixture of crotch-deep postholing and steep, chunky scree. It would have taken us at least three hours of extremely unpleasant scrambling to summit, so we decided to abandon out plans and just ski the headwall.


The views were spectacular.


The snow was excellent and stable. Whatsupdoc.






Good lord, it was good.

[AKbruin]

But we weren't done. It was so good that we decided to take another lap on a different line. 6,000' of couloir lust right here:


Whatsupdoc.




Again, it was very good.


At the bottom of our second lap of the headwall, we realized we still had 5,800 vertical feet left to descend down Elderberry Canyon to our car in Rovana. I was expecting it to be mainly mixed conditions. It wasn't. Much of the snow was even better than on the headwall. There were a few crusty spots, some slide debris, and a tracked out choke, but 85% of the descent quality pow. Sorry, I was pictured out by this point and didn't take any ski photos.

A friend takes an alternative means back.


Whatsupdoc drinks next to a Prius.


The drive around Mono was pretty.






Per Whatsupdoc's GPS, we climbed and descended 9,060'. Of that I'd say 7,500 was excellent pow. All in all, it was one of the best ski days I've ever had.

[gimpy]

The stuff of dreams........wet ones

[claymond]

Fuck yes fuck yes fuck yes!

[meter-man]

Win!

[Zeedashbo]

Woah. Epic