Eastside Conditions Thread

[rod9301]

Skied Esha peak couloir#1 in Sunday.

Grueling approach, made longer by mistakenly going on the summer trail instead of the road??? Which added half an hour to my 7 hour to the top of the couloir.
Winter snow in the couloir, about 6 inches. Skied really well.
Followed by wind affected snow, skied well again, followed by pseudo corn, skied well, followed by sticky mush, did not ski well.

Oh, and i found a log to cross the Creek, and got my boots wet (inside) on the way up.

Glad i did it, but i was hoping for steeper and longer.

Couloir proper was 600 ft and 40 to 45 degrees.


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[TEXASS]

I GOT OUT ! I can’t believe it. The Old Man skinned to the top of McGee.
Two days in a row !! Woo Hoo
I figured my physical injuries to my right foot , knee and hip would shut me down at some point. But no. Pops hung in there
Thanks PJ. Nat and Liketoride
I got corn turns. Sweet

[CS]

Love this shot. Way to get after it.

This thread is my favorite. Just a couple more weeks and I'm out there.

[rod9301]

Pajamas I'm guessing you were the crew that skinned up climbers left? A few friends skied Nevahabe ridge and found good corn yesterday ~ 1 from 12,500, i got turned around by an equipment failure at a pretty opportune time, so skied mammoth which was fun wind buff. Finally got to ski Mendenhall on Saturday, i underestimated the climb around the north side and dropped in late, conditions were great, overall not a smart decision to drop so late. A faster crew had skied it an hour earlier. Next time I’m on a very early start [l]

What time did you ski it?

And how steep is the couloir?

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[pajamas]

Nice Rod. such good terrain up in there.
Jack - we didn't ride Friday. it didn't seem like it would soften much.

But Saturday and Sunday on McGee was pretty epic with nearly perfect corn top to bottom.

[whatsupdoc]

Photos from yesterday on The Thumb:

We got an early start:


Getting out there:


It was super windy at Birch Lake:


Climbing above Birch Lake:


Climbing the upper face:



Summit:


Summit views of the Palisades:

[whatsupdoc]

Descending the upper face:



My partner chose a steep and tight couloir off the upper face. I went the easy way:



Good corn above Birch Lake:



Shuffling across Birch Lake on the way out:



Walking back to the car:

[Jack Burton]

We dropped at 2 on Saturday, i bet the two guys that we started hiking with dropped closer to noon. Given stories of wet slides I'll be on the predawn start program. I'll bet 45 degrees for the steepest turns, the soft snow was forgiving, i would have been puckered if it were real firm. Sweet on Thumb & Esha. A random shot between the Esha approach & wineglass was looking nice as well.

[AKbruin]

Great job, Jack, Rod, and whatsupdoc! Good to hear you're back, Texass. Pajamas, post some pics.

[pajamas]

no riding pics from Saturday. We dropped the whole central gully in 1 go.

[AKbruin]

I feel validated.

[whatsupdoc]

nice Jack, looks like good snow

[pajamas]

anytime AK

You can't beat the roadside this year, but I do appreciate these deep BC day trip reports.

We were on the eastside all last week and got out last Sunday and Monday, but ended up climbing the other days.

tues - windy and aft. dust storm in lone pine
wed - bulletproof and windy
thurs - fake out storm that came in way late and stuck around Friday morning
fri - nice day but cold

I have a feeling this thread will blow up this spring. the snowpack is so good.

Ohh - yes, the new guidebook discussion. I like it. But I got a pic cut too from the Hulk.

[BFD]

been a couple of weeks so imagine conditions might be better


typical conditions

what is that line lookers left?

not posting any names here on the internet. line was pretty minimal on our visit. must stop for any Eastside jong.

[JAREDS]

The chute goes, no worries.

For some reason this tour has become something of an epic for me in my head, so Chill Winston’s line from Feb kept me in the game mentally.
Went up little slide canyon, up over Eocene; camped just west of Avalanche Lake (should have stayed higher I think), got blown off the mtn and bailed down blacksmith canyon.
So stoked to get some quality time in the Mtns this weekend!
Can’t upload pics from TGR app on iPhone :/


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[meter-man]

BFD, that line is the North Couloir on Norman Clyde Peak.

[mr. hankey]

Great stuff here! Nice job on Esha Rod.
Looks steep BFD! well done.

Jack, great pics, makes me really wish i had joined you guys on Saturday instead I'll post some pics from our Nevahbe(?) trip from sunday later. I don't have any pics of Mrs. Burton skiing, but might have some good ones of "Mr. M"...

Doc, thanks for the great TR once again... Other than the great views, do you think the Thumb is worth the effort? right now it's lower on my list, but just wondering where you'd put it from your experience...

Great to see Tex and the rest of the old "splitfest" crew in action. Man i wish i'd have known, we were just one trailhead over at Nevahbe side on Sunday, would have been great to stop by and say hi. Some of those Splitfest trips bring back great memories. Was nice to run into BKnight done in Big pine as well...

[whatsupdoc]

Great stuff here! Nice job on Esha Rod.
Looks steep BFD! well done.

Jack, great pics, makes me really wish i had joined you guys on Saturday instead I'll post some pics from our Nevahbe(?) trip from sunday later. I don't have any pics of Mrs. Burton skiing, but might have some good ones of "Mr. M"...

Doc, thanks for the great TR once again... Other than the great views, do you think the Thumb is worth the effort? right now it's lower on my list, but just wondering where you'd put it from your experience...

Great to see Tex and the rest of the old "splitfest" crew in action. Man i wish i'd have known, we were just one trailhead over at Nevahbe side on Sunday, would have been great to stop by and say hi. Some of those Splitfest trips bring back great memories. Was nice to run into BKnight done in Big pine as well...

The thumb is a worthy day. Depends on your priorities I guess. It’s scenic, a nice long day (if you’re into that) and an awesome summit. And you pass by some cool terrain that’s nice to scope out. But the skiing is super moderate and not very remarkable. There are many lines & peaks I’d put ahead of it but it’s worth the effort imo.


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[BFD]

BFD, that line is the North Couloir on Norman Clyde Peak.

thanks, hoping for a return, internet says not that steep sure looked steep.

[rod9301]

Skied Mendenhall today. Good conditions, except for The last few hundred feet, where it was mushy.

But damn, this was a long day. Booted up there couloir, it took forever. Boot penetration anywhere from 15 inches (hard going) to maybe a quarter of an inch(scary).
Eventually i put my crampons on.

7 hours to the top. I wish i could boot up faster, but it is what it is.

I always thought this line is scary. Today though, everything connected, so not scary at all

This has got to be one of the longest lines without a big approach.

Next time i will climb the ridge, looks a lot easier.

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[mr. hankey]

Rod, you're really gettin' after it this year !

[rod9301]

Once a week on the Eastside

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[bodywhomper]

Fucking awesome!!

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[mr. hankey]

Here’s some pics from Tinnemaha on Saturday 4/13 and Nevahbe ridge on Sunday 4/14:

Tinnemaha:
I’d scoped out the lookers left gully the weekend before with the thought that it was a bit less northerly at the top, and hopefully it had gone the cycle better.
The lowest left snow finger still got me within a 10 min walk to the car (add 5-10 more for the willow crossing).
first photo is from prior weekend, others are from saturday:






This is at the top of the “left gully” at about ~11,800ft. Looking over at a party in the standard route, the south side & summit of Birch in the background:


From there it’s either: a) wow, a cool and asthetic ridge climb with some good views of the steep drop off of the S side towards Cardinal, or b) lots of time wasted climbing over snow fins/mini ridges for 500+ft until you get to the final summit gully. For me it was both.



My beta pic from last week made it seem like I’d be able to ski back this way over the fins (if stable) OR I’d just ski from the top of the gully at ~11,800ft, OR just ski down the normal route from the summit.

Great view of Cardinal and it’s N Couloirs from the ridge:



Summit pano looking south to north (cardinal, split, Bolton Brown, Thumb, Tinnemaha’s summit ridge, Birch)


Split Mtn, Split Couloir, St.Jean:

Looking E/NE towards the standard descent (next gully over, on the left)


It all seemed great, but it wasn’t. And I was about to find out soon. I’d gone over my 11am turn around time by over an hour, and didn’t summit until 12:15 or so. Instead of skiing down from the top of the gully (~11,800ft), at 11 ish, where the snow was going to be excellent corn (thanks to Southerly winds scrapping the left side of the gully down to the old corn layer), I got summit fever and kept climbing. Not only that, I skied a slope blind and didn’t really test it. Dumb.
And I turned down an offer to ski with friends at Convict and instead did this solo…I was embarrassed and almost didn’t post this, to tell you the truth. But thought others could learn from my mistakes. You can read about it on the Avy thread: https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...-4-14-Tinemaha

The slide started at (1), I somehow escaped it at (2), and it stopped at (3). 3500-4000? Ft. below.




On Sunday I met up with Mr. & Mrs. Jack Burton, MadTurtle, and Mr.M to Ski one of the Navahbe ridge gullies:
Mrs. Burton:


Mr.M:







Monday/Tuesday I had Mrs. Hankey bring herself and our little turds down to the east side to show them what it’s all about over their spring break. Good times. Took them to some familiar places. Checked out the Mono lake Tufa towers for the first time. Kids really dug it.

[m51593]

Booted up there couloir, it took forever.
This has got to be one of the longest lines without a big approach.

Next time i will climb the ridge, looks a lot easier.

We did it last Saturday around the ridge and were saying the same thing -very long / took forever and had thoughts of next time going up the couloir. At least now we know that's probably not gonna be easier. Nice work!