Kids stoke is awesome! My knee is not good enough for a late spring tour with my kid this year (maybe a summer tour, though!)
For the sake of conversation, the trident chutes on mt Thompson are (looker’s left to right): Knudtson couloir, Smrz couloir, and Harrington couloir. There’s also the moynier couloir nearby. Still curious about the non-moynier couloir, though I’m thinking there’s an inside joke (or argument) involved.![]()
Thanks!
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Which book is that from? Lots of good detail.
My guess is the deal with the "Non-Moynier" is that it probably doesn't form water ice later in the season whereas all the other ones (trident/Moynier) do, so rock/ice climbing guides don't include it. But the Non-Moynier becomes skiable in the right conditions, and since it's so close to the "real" Moynier it's easy to confuse the two. But it sounds like the real Moynier is never skiable due to the chockstone. So in the eastside ski guidebook, they came up with the "Non-Moynier" name to distinguish it and yet also indicate that it's very close to the Moynier. Hey, it's better than some of the other names they came up with (like "Unknown chute").
I have this book:
It does mention the line but not in nearly as much detail as yours. There is an interesting story about it though:
We were out there a few weeks ago. Initially we were going to check out Gilbert, but got out there and saw a guy topping out in it so we went over to Thompson. Looked back over and the dude dropped Gilbert in what basically looked like a straight line. Then he skinned over and caught up to us climbing Thompson. Turns out it was Nick Russell (of course). On the way over to Thompson, we ran into a guy who had skied a SW facing line directly across from the Non-Moynier and he told us it didn't look filled in enough to ski, and showed pictures. So naturally, that's where Nick and my buddy Lucas went. I didn't even look at the line, I'm glad I didn't after seeing the POV!Hidden in the middle of the face to the right is a narrow ice couloir that is steeper than the ones to the left. The crux is passing a large chockstone two-thirds of the way up. the upper part of the couloir offers excellent climbing on steep water ice. John Moynier made an ascent of this gully in August of 1990 with Scott Andrews. They were so engrossed in the climbing of the final chimney, they hadn't noticed that a thunderstorm was building. As a blanket of dark clouds rolled over the slot at the top of the chimney, their ice axes began humming. The mounting flux of static electricity soon had the rocks of the chimney humming and sparks leaping from Moynier's axe. The pair dashed across the summit plateau and scrambled quickly down the north ridge. Just as they reached the relative safety of the glacier, lightning began striking the summit.
Lucas' POV of the Non-Moynier:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxavHl_HAmD/
Nick's POV dropping Gilbert:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxbCv3il3uo/
Thanks for sharing the IG posts. Now I see the moynier and non-moynier. The non-moynier looks fun, though short skis seemed mandatory.... :P
I did not know that moynier and fiddler came out with a new edition.
Here’s the original text:
From the original edition:
I have another old edition moynier book:
That describes another classic tour that has been on my list forever, “great western divide tour.” A coworker did it a long time ago (like 99 or 00) with her husband and some friends. They would tour half day and ski a large line near their camp every afternoon. Cesnalis posted some FB photos of some of the area recently. Anybody on here done this tour?
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any reports from tioga since opening to top?!?
I think Miles posted a big update on facespace
Powerhouse is burned out at the bottom, probably easier to go up the plateau, ski the steep stuff and climb back out .
Snow coverage is good by the gate and the restrooms, to go to either the plateau or Mt Dana.
After skiing the east chutes off the plateau, huge slog down, again easier to ski them, then climb back out. As v bowl is snow free
This is from this morning, i went by, but didn't feel motivated to ski.
Windy and grey. Snow was probably ok.
Saddlebag road unplowed.
North peak should be in good condition.
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We skied via powerhouse chutes and then all the way down to the plant on Wed and Thurs. Currently an easy 10 minute walk to Poole power plant. That tongue of snow is going quick though.
https://snowbrains.com/eastern-sierr...s-tioga-pass1/
Great day out.
Crampons needed?
Boot crampons stayed in the bag for that lap
Thanks.
How true about being there to get lucky.
I went in Friday, and it was windy, cloudy, and i was thoroughly unmotivated.
I guess after skiing so many days on the east side, i was feeling a bit burned out.
Going back there though.
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Recent Eastern Sierra Backcountry Reports.
Hope these are helpful:
June 6th: Mt. Dana → Dana Couloir → Power House Chutes | Tioga Pass http://bit.ly/2R0IzzC
June 5th: Power House Chutes - Tioga Pass http://bit.ly/2QWPTMz
June 4th: North Couloir of Mt. Emerson http://bit.ly/2QY3NOr
June 2nd: The Third Pillar - Tioga Pass http://bit.ly/2QYmYrA
June 1st: Zebra Chute, Mt. Emerson http://bit.ly/2QRC4yO
'on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me,....which is nice!
Ryan,
I've got your picket!
Shoot me an email.
I'm in Mammoth all of June.
contact@snowbrains.com
Thanks
'on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me,....which is nice!
Damn, great pics Gopher!
Dana couloir and ellery skied fantastic today. Dropped Dana at 12:30 or so. Minimal suncups skinning from the park gate and smooth snow in glacier canyon.
Apparently part of a big cornice in chute out fell at 11 today. Talked to some dudes who skied third pillar today and they said it was good.
I also skied some mellower stuff the last couple days since I’m out of shape and had only toured once in two months prior to the weekend. South Peak NE face still has snow to the road and good snow to the runout. Descended that at noon and it was pretty ideal. Friday evening did a quick run off of no name on the drive up. Skied well at 5pm with the cool air temps. There’s still lots of worthy skiing around. I’m really happy to have had a great weekend of skiing after work really making spring skiing impossible this year.
Ha. That was probably me and Skiwald (Team Incline). The cornice apparently fell into Ellery Bowl around 11 a.m. There are some car-sized cornices still hanging over Ellery Bowl, I wouldn't recommend getting too close to that side of the bowl, particularly as it heats up.
Booting to the top of Ellery Bowl around 8:30ish required a bit of front pointing. I was glad to have both an ice axe and whippet in each hand. You can see the debris from earlier cornice-fall below.
Edit: I thought this line was Liberty but was wrong. It leads to pain and misery.
I thought it was going to be ridiculously hot and sunny, but there were a few clouds and a bit of haze that kept things from softening early in the morning. When we dropped Third Pillar at about 10:30, the snow was mostly soft except for the middle, shaded part, which was firm but edgeable. The corn on the apron was excellent. (Thanks JimW and Gopher for the beta!)
Climbing back up.
We had wanted to ski the direct line on Chute Out, but there was a disgruntled-looking cornice guarding the entrance and threatening to squash any would-be skiers.
So we took the alternate entrance.
The snow was excellent until the very bottom, where it got a little sticky near the flats.
Ran into Jack Burton and his crew (and Jorion?) at the bottom for some beer, followed by a Jolly Kone stop. All in all, conditions are unbelievably good for mid-June (mid-June!), although I suspect they will deteriorate rapidly in the coming week.
Is 2019 a better ski year than 2017? I vote yes, but only by a small margin.
Last edited by AKbruin; 06-11-2019 at 10:17 AM.
Nice work! How was booting up third pillar? Steep af???
sproing!
Ha, it’s a small ski nerd world. Wish I had stopped to chat more but was in full get-home mode. That was me if you gave my two friends cans of deschutes. Thanks for the beers since I stupidly took an ice axe to one of our jlb crowlers while hastily burying them in the morning. Also congrats on a rad mission!
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