Eastside Conditions Thread

[BGnight]

(up high is looking good though). Again... WTF El Nino??

I dunno, Saddlebag area looked REALLY thin. Probably won't last through the first week of May

[jimw]

Yeah that's what my buddy told me too. You guys should probably just hang 'em up already.

[bodywhomper]

In my mind, the snowpack depth by elevation (warmer storms) is often a different issue than snowpack decrease as heading south (storm tracking).

[Ottime]

A few shots from Onion Valley/ University


The big fat East Face



The chutes I should have skied, northeast to northwest facing atop the drainage. The narrower one on the left I think wraps up behind the rocks.



Looking northwest from atop the east face



And north, behind Kearsarge Peak/Pass



And looking up from the Onion Valley parking lot, at a north facing gully off the University Peak ridge line.

[AKbruin]

The big fat East Face

Nice, C. The sky is so dark in this photo, it looks like you were space skiing.

[BGnight]

A little taste of Wednesday:

[TEXASS]

Looking at wahoo gullies at 7:15 Sunday morning. Things look fat. Above 10k
Skinned upper rock creek yesterday towards bear creek spire. Didn't make it up that but did make it all the way out there. Lots of snow. But way up.

[gnarbro365]

Lundy/Virginia Lakes Beta (4/6/16)

Virginia Lakes road is clear til about 1/2 mile from the lakes. Only a few burnt out spots on the road from there on. The whole area got pretty wind hammered throughout the season, but a decent snowpack still persists above 9,500ft on most E/N/W aspects.

Pano from just before Virginia Lakes proper (looking at the E face of Black Mt)



On Black Mt's SE ridge looking up Lundy Canyon towards Lake Helen Chutes


Skied the SE side of Black around noon. Anything above 10k and not truly S was crusty due to a bit of a breeze. Should be some good corn harvesting out there for a while.

[BGnight]

Funny, I'm somewhere in that last pic^^

Weird, it wasn't breezy at all up high across the canyon and everything was soft on all aspects even above 11k after noon. Of course if it the wind was out of the South it wouldn't have affected where I was.

[gnarbro365]

Funny, I'm somewhere in that last pic^^

Weird, it wasn't breezy at all up high across the canyon and everything was soft on all aspects even above 11k after noon. Of course if it the wind was out of the South it wouldn't have affected where I was.

Maybe 10-15mph. Enough to keep N facing firm-ish. We bailed by noon, and everything we skied (S/SE/E) was everything from corn to slush. Were you the one who skied the line far left?

[gimpy]

Lundy is the go to spot when winds are firing in that zone. I've retreated there a couple times when it's too windy on the plateau
Is there snow all the way down to Lundy off the back of black, south, excelsior etc?
B - is that pic your dore line? Looks like u nailed it in tasty shape.

[BGnight]

Were you the one who skied the line far left?

Yeah, I was the only one putting tracks in that zone. And yes Gimpy, it's the skinny chute directly under the space between the words "ridge-looking" on the picture heading. I then skinned up the lookers right side of the cirque on my second run.

And gimpy here's a pic to answer that question. The farthest gully back/west that sort of comes of Excelsior looked the best. Still a lot of snow. I think I saw JT's tracks coming down the gully into Lundy from the 1st. A good sized windslab on a SE slope cut loose and poured down that drainage a couple days later. The only real slab avy I saw.

[BGnight]

Looking at wahoo gullies at 7:15 Sunday morning. Things look fat. Above 10k
Skinned upper rock creek yesterday towards bear creek spire. Didn't make it up that but did make it all the way out there. Lots of snow. But way up.

I'm guessing that's where you're headed today?

[TEXASS]

No. I was worked from going all the way out rock creek the day before. I watched Mike fish today

[BGnight]

No. I was worked from going all the way out rock creek the day before. I watched Mike fish today

Haha, sounds like fun too. I waffled back and forth and almost went down last night (I actually packed my truck), but felt like things were going to turn into insta mank with the sun coming out and warm temps. I was guessing you'd have to get well above 12k for it to be good. Sometimes I wish it wouldn't snow in the spring.

[AKbruin]

BGnight- Cool video. The entrance looked sketchy.

TEXASS- Did you get a loot at Cat's Ears? I saw someone recently described it as bony, but I'm wondering whether it goes to the top?

[TEXASS]

I don't know the area well enough to say 100 percent to what I was looking at was cat ears but what I think was cat ears was not doable from the top but just below the ears it was nicely covered.
I will try to post up some iPhone pics. That's all u had for photos

We only got about 1k of riding but what we did get was bottomless

[liketoride]

The ESAC site has some pictures of a wind slab slide in the cat ear area that was skier triggered from 4-8

http://www.esavalanche.org/content/s...w-cat-ear-dade

[TEXASS]

Yikes. We were just leaving the car about then.

How's Dave ?

[LightRanger]

In my mind, the snowpack depth by elevation (warmer storms) is often a different issue than snowpack decrease as heading south (storm tracking).

Maybe/Likely.

But this season there was definitely a more northerly bend to the storm tracks. And it seemed like there were a lot more flows oriented S-N vs. SW-NE or W-E than usual.

John Dittli mentioned elsewhere on the internetz that his surveying showed something like 50% of normal lower down on the Eastside and around 100% and sometimes even higher up high west of the Crest. Only part of that can be attributed to warm storms...

[liketoride]

Hey Texass,

Dave is doing really well. The neck surgery/ fusion went really well. He feels great and he's totally bored being off work for the next few weeks.

He just got a new drone, a solo. Reading up on the features, downloading apps and learning all about it is keeping him somewhat entertained.

The new drone is really cool, it has programmable flight patterns: orbits, cable cam, and follow me. It works with an iPhone or iPad screen.

And you can use the Wifi feature with the phone/ GoPro to turn the video off and on or take photos.

I need to get outta the house this weekend and go snowboarding. I think it will be nice out there.

Is Sonora or Tioga opening soon?

[Incalescent]

Is it time to ride Gilbert?

[nickwm21]

Anybody know about how far you can drive up Laurel Lakes Rd right now?

[liketoride]

Incalescent it's totally time to ride Mt. Gilbert.

I would guess you can get most of the way up Laurel Lakes, at least past the switchbacks to park close to mostly consistent snow to start skinning.

There hasn't been a lot of low elevation snow this season and when I was at Mammoth three weeks ago there was 0 snow around town and it's been warm.

That's only a guess based on previous years experience, and my observations on snow levels this year.

I haven't been up there yet, I wanna go up Laurel Lakes. That's probably going to be some good skiing, riding up there.

[TEXASS]

I'm game for next weekend.

Woohooo. Gilbert.
I assuming you mean the Gilbert Direct route ?