Eastside Conditions Thread

[whatsupdoc]

Pinner is fat and good to go. Mendenhall goes without any down climbing or rope shenanigans but one of the chokes is getting a little tight. Some debris near the bottom. This was as of yesterday. Someone skied it yesterday.

AKbruin has been eyeing Mendenhall (and might be doing it today) so he might have more beta.

[whatsupdoc]

Some pics of Mendenhall and Pinner (from yesterday). Somethingclever also had a good recent pic of Mendenhall in his last TR.

[Skiwald]

Pinner is fat and good to go. Mendenhall goes without any down climbing or rope shenanigans but one of the chokes is getting a little tight. Some debris near the bottom. This was as of yesterday. Someone skied it yesterday.

AKbruin has been eyeing Mendenhall (and might be doing it today) so he might have more beta.

Thanks for the beta! Will report back if i make it down there this week.

[powdork]

Made it up to Crown Point yesterday. It was a stunning day from start to finish.
First light


First look at the objective


In case you did t know what it was called


The north couloir/bowl. AKA To Chug or Not (named after the huge wall around the corner (The Juggernaut))
edit-the juggernaut is across the valley. Peeler Pillar is right around the corner.


The best turns of the day


The corn below this was the sweetest I've had all year.


Reflecting on an awesome journey

[AKbruin]

Way to get your peak, Powdork!

Sweet photos, whatsupdoc. Super fun day!

Mendenhall was excellent today as of noon. The cruxes were a breeze. But things are changing quickly. There could be significantly more debris by tomorrow. My friends skied Pinner and said it was great at the top, crappy in the middle (presumably debris), and good at the bottom.

[Paul Blart]

You guys live one hell of a life over there on the eastside. Definitely need to make a few trips down that way once my schedule loosens up a bit

[LightRanger]

Damn dude. You're ticking tons of big ones this season.

[AKbruin]

I had a very excellent and good and fun weekend. I saw lots of friends, slept poorly in the back of my wife's terrible Subaru, socialized with ladies of the UCLA Ski Club in the hot springs, and skied awesome lines. It's now peak Eastside season, and we may have two more months of it.


Saturday (East Face of Morrison)

Whatsupdoc and WP. (Pink skis with pink bases are the best.)


Dhelihiker skied Pinner on Sunday.


We expected transitional corn but we got warm, shallow pow. It was actually pretty fun. You couldn't fully open it up but it was soft and mostly consistent. Whatupdoc.


The views were not bad. Still whatsupdoc.


Dhelihiker.


Dhelihiker again. There was a 200 meter section of boot- to knee-deep powder. It was a little scary (slide-wise) but excellent.


The East Face. It looks small and flat from this photo, but it's neither. We took the looker's left route instead of the route that goes up the chute. The scariest part of the weekend was when we traversed the steep face just above the cliffs in questionable snow. Other than that, it was fun adventure skiing.


Ritter and Banner from the hot springs.


This is the best night shot of Minimo I could manage with my point-and-shoot while not entirely sober.



Sunday (Mendenhall)

I've wanted Mendenhall for a while. And then whatsupdoc and I did Pinner a month ago and got a good look a Mendenhall, and it became a minor obsession.


I kept waiting for the weather, conditions, and work windows to align. Meanwhile, I was practically sculpting Laurel Mountain from my mashed potatoes.


Sunday, everything came together. I felt confident that the conditions would be okay after skiing Morison and BGnight was on board. BGnight, by the way, destroyed the climb while I was hurting. We left the trailhead at around 6 a.m. and descended around 11 a.m., which was perfect.


Mendenhall the is the most sustained steep run I've ever done. It was 40-50 degrees for the entire 3,500 feet of the couloir. It's a ridiculously rad line that lived up to the hype.


Conditions were excellent. There was about 6-4" of warm, soft powder that made for consistent hero snow. There was lots of sluff, but it was easy to manage and wasn't likely to sweep the rider. I'd say 85% of the couloir was excellent. The other 15% involved debris variability.


The infamous cruxes were fine. We had heard the day before that one of them involved a thin layer of soft snow on top of water ice, which frankly sounded terrifying. But they seemed soft enough to me. I didn't see or feel any water ice.


I tried to GoPro it, but all my video is nauseatingly focused on my boots. I have about a 1:2 success ratio GoPro'ing anything.


BGnight.


Skinning across Convict Lake is not recommend.


Morrison from behind Minimo. I was too lazy to take any photos, but the parking-lot beers in t-shirts after each day were nearly as good as the skiing.


I love the Eastside.

[LightRanger]

As said above, damn dude. Nice work.

My kids need to get bigger/more-manageable for higher hall pass frequency.

[SchralphMacchio]

#westbrookofskiing

Damn Frank, with all the ticks you keep notching, I get very concerned about your susceptibility to Lyme disease.

Okay, that's not really that funny, but it's the best I could muster. Thanks for the stoke all season long! This has surely been quite a season to remember for you.

[PowerWhore7]

Since we are talking mini Morrison....we hit the North face of mini Morrison last week after the storm cycle, good stuff pow top to bottom

[Ottime]

As said above, damn dude. Nice work.

My kids need to get bigger/more-manageable for higher hall pass frequency.

From my experience, much bigger. And don't you have twins? So maybe in a decade? Ah, the joys of fatherhood.

I have a hall pass right now but am still in Santa Cruz. Surf is pumping. Gonna grab one more session and get up to the crest tonight. Hoping I make it down the eastside before this weather comes in.

[LightRanger]

Yeah. 2.5 YO twins. Wouldn't trade it for the world because they're awesome. But I'm stoked for my single Eastside trip I'm planning next month. Maybe I'll get a Mammoth weekend in June too? Dunno.

That said, still skiing enough, generally, to keep me happy given current living situation and whatnot. Doubt it'll be a decade. Just another couple years when they're well-pottytrained and don't run in the opposition direction of where you want them to go and toward traffic.

[FormerKnuckleDragger]

Yeah. 2.5 YO twins. Wouldn't trade it for the world because they're awesome. But I'm stoked for my single Eastside trip I'm planning next month. Maybe I'll get a Mammoth weekend in June too? Dunno.

That said, still skiing enough, generally, to keep me happy given current living situation and whatnot. Doubt it'll be a decade. Just another couple years when they're well-pottytrained and don't run in the opposition direction of where you want them to go and toward traffic.

Mine are 4. Potty training is excellent. Not playing in traffic we're still working on. But they're at the point where they play together for hours, mostly unsupervised. Which means they're manageable enough to stay with Gramma for a long weekend. So of course we're headed down to do the Sawtooth traverse in a few weeks.

[AKbruin]

The Westbrook of skiing would climb like Kilian Jornet, descend like Hugo Harrison, and crash like the "agony of defeat" ski-jump guy in the old Wild World of Sports intro. I am more like the Michael Jordan . . . of baseball . . . of skiing.

Nice job, PowderWhore7. Mini Morrison in powder would be amazing. It's a gnarly little big mountain.

[pajamas]

sweetness fellas!!!

Nice line Powderwhore. Best to just boot up that line? Are there hookups at Benton?

[hardboiled]

Damn Frank (and BGnight), that's a proud line, nice work! yeah I'd say thin layer of snow over water ice in the crux of a 50* couloir sounds pretty terrifying... good for you guys to get it in good conditions.

[PowerWhore7]

Thanks fellas

We actually skinned 75% of the way, it was a little steep and one of the jongs in our crew had a hard time but it was totally manageable...



Nice shot of the line from Convict Lake

[SchralphMacchio]

I am more like the Michael Jordan . . . of baseball . . . of skiing.

Hah! But hey, you still got the call-up (skin up) to the big league fields, who cares about stats

[CS]

Duuuuuude. This.




As someone stuck on the westside of all this awesomeness, I very much appreciate the pics and reports. Thanks for keeping me sane this tax season!

[TahoeBC]

Feeling pretty lame not getting down there this year yet with how stoke filled this thread is, having a hard time motivating to get up at 4am and drive aways when I can sleep in an drive minutes to ski around Tahoe.

Thanks for all the stoke, I'll have to motivate before to long.

[BGnight]

Here's a little vid from Frank's and my day on Mendenhall. Stoked to finally do this line too. I always shied away from it for one reason or another. Glad Frank was so hell bent on it and invited me along.

[kidwoo]

Frank looks tired. You guys should chew more coca on these high elevation outings.

Thanks for the vid!

[somethingclever...]

Cool.

Here's a little vid from Frank's and my day on Mendenhall. Stoked to finally do this line too. I always shied away from it for one reason or another. Glad Frank was so hell bent on it and invited me along.

[drop'n'in]

My wife and I skied Birch Mountain and Independence Peak last weekend. Conditions were generally great, a little dicey up high. Some very rough wind scoured formations high on Birch, but excellent from 12K on down. We are old and live at sea level, so did an overnighter on Birch

The end of the road


A little sagebrush and willows


Then the snow


Skinning into sunset


More climbing the next morning, Tinehama in the background


Switched to boots and crampons at the top of the East Face


Skiing down








Sunday was Independence Peak. End of the plowed section on Onion Valley Road is 8,000. No bushwhacking, easy stream crossing, straight up the NE Couloir. Easiest approach I have ever done.


Dicey windloaded warm powder/mush at the top, so stopped at 11,000'. Excellent conditions on descent


Talk about skiing right to the car!


Looking back


More pics and story here:
http://fieldsdunawayadventures.blogspot.com/