Eastside Conditions Thread

[SeatownSlackey]

My bedtime story for tonight. Sweet mutha fucking dreams.

[Franz Klammer]

My bedtime story for tonight. Sweet mutha fucking dreams.

My bedtime story for the last 2 nights because the Eastside crew is so small that even those of us who weren't there physically were there in spirit ... and there was almost live-tweeting of this descent from 3 different sources!

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

This is AWESOME! Way to score a big one in amazing conditions.

[TEXASS]

That's such a good line. Did that back in 2009 and although it was noisy snow all the way down I still had a blast

Hats off to you guys. Yuge Day

[hutash]

A 9,060 day? You guys are frigging animals. Most people don't do 10k of lift serve in a day. 10K on a helicopter day is big, FKNA!

Well played sirs, well played.

[bodywhomper]

Winning!

[tone capone]

Amazing ski day. Beautiful documentation. Thanks for the stoke!

[hoarhey]

Oh yeah!!!!!

[SchralphMacchio]

Yeah guys! Well played!

edit: can't wait to see vid of Kia's speedride of Tom!

[thebirdhunter]

Sick!!!
In the early 90s I backpacked up to the lakes below Mt Tom. Can't remember what they are called, Horton Meadows maybe??
Anyway one day we decided to summit Tom. It was a long busting your ass scramble. I couldn't imagine doing it in the winter.

Nice work!!

[TahoeJ]

Wow - that was awesome!

[406]

Awesome AKbruin, I have been wanting to ski Mt. Tom for years...such a cool mountain.

[AKbruin]

Thanks, guys. I'm looking forward to seeing Whatsupdoc's photos. While I was watching ten-year-olds bash gates at Sierra Ski Ranch, he turned around and skied Basin (5,000+) yesterday. Animal!

Beta for summitting Tom: I would skin up Elderberry and then boot up the most feasible chute on the looker's left (south) end of the headwall, from which it'd be a much more reasonable (but not easy) scramble along the ridge to the summit. But I'd want to do it in bomber conditions because those chutes are terrain traps and could have cornices. We followed the preexisting skin track, which, as I mentioned above, took us way to far north on the ridge line but also lead to amazing skiing. In any event, there are so many quality ski lines on Tom that you really can't go wrong.

[BGnight]

Beta for summitting Tom: I would skin up Elderberry and then boot up the most feasible chute on the looker's left .

Sick day!
I've always wanted to do the canyon to the south of Elderberry directly to the summit and ride one of those chutes off the top. I guess the best way to access that would be up the road to Horton Cr Campground (probably all snow now). Curious how Jim Morrison skied Tom a few days ago. He's claiming summit all the way to 395.

[meter-man]

Another way to Tom's summit is to drive up PC Road behind Tom, and skin up the back. You save about 2000 vert over starting from Rovana.

[smallies]

Starting to get warm and sunny up there.

[Jack Burton]

Wow - way to get after it boys

[whatsupdoc]

Just got back from 5 days down the eastside. Here's some pics:

Day 1 was Mt. Tom with AKbruin. He did a great job chronicling the day, so I'll just add it too was one of my best ski days ever. Here's my pics:

Alpenglow:


Views of the headwall:


Getting higher in the canyon:


Reaching the sunlight:


Skinning up the headwall:


Reaching the ridge:


Views from the ridge:


Contemplating skiing or the tedious climb to the summit:


We decided to ski:


Probably my favorite pic of the day, AKbruin descending the headwall on lap 1:

[whatsupdoc]

More from Tom.

AKbruin skiing on lap 1:


Our handiwork:


Dropping lap 2:


Turns on lap 2, also great pow:


Skiing out the canyon in mostly pow:

[whatsupdoc]

Day 2 myself and a different buddy went to Basin. We were able to drive the snow covered Buttermilks Rd to within about 1/2 mile of the main bouldering area.

Approaching Basin beneath the alpenglow:


Getting higher...:


...And higher:


Skiing. We turned around about 250 feet shy of the top of the couloir. There was a light to moderate SW wind that was moving a small amount of snow into the bowl all morning. As we got higher the patchier slabby snow became more consistent. We got to the point where there were fairly uniform 4-5 inch slabs that we could pretty easily hand shear from the soft snow beneath it. Decided to pull the plug. It's always disappointing to not reach the top of the line (damn, now I have to come back) but it seemed to be the right call. Skiing near the top sucked anyways, mostly breakable wind crusts:


More skiing:


The snow became more consistent below the large rocky moraine, and turns were better:


The whole bottom half of the run was excellent soft snow. Such a treat to ski all the way back to your car in the Buttermilks:

[whatsupdoc]

Day 3 a third friend joined us and we went for something smaller. Did Mini Morrison. Snow was excellent pow. Found pretty much zero wind affect in contrast to the day before. We skied a NE aspect (the book refers to it as the E face of Mini Morrison but it is more of a NE aspect).

Synchronized skinning up Old Man's Bowl:


Nice views of the Pinner on Laurel:


Lotsa pow turns down Mini Morrison:

[whatsupdoc]

Day 4 we were feeling good after finding little wind affected snow on Mini Morrison, so we decided to go up to Esha. Found plenty of wind affect up Esha. Snow was variable. Pretty good mostly soft up high (with some wind crusts here & there), crustier the lower down we went in the canyon, although nice soft pockets were out there. Once again we skied just shy of the ridge. Moderate SW winds all day were moving some snow. While breaking a steep skin track on the NE aspect, we encountered more slabby snow the higher we went. Wind slabs were thin (and probably of low consequence), but still concerning. Saw a shooting crack on about a 4-5 inch wind slab and decided to pull the plug about 50-100 feet shy of the ridge, thinking they would likely be thicker the higher we went. The truly N facing chutes looked to be total wind board FWIW.

Leaving from McGee Creek Rd in very cold temps (strong inversion was in place):




Skinning beneath McGee Mountain:


Following a skin track towards the McGee Creek summer TH. We went too high and had to lose a little ground getting back into the canyon. Oh well:


Upper McGee Canyon:


Approaching Esha:


Great views up high:




Breaking trail:


Skiing on Esha:

[whatsupdoc]

Skiing on Esha:

[406]

Wow, we to get after it.

[whatsupdoc]

Last day we went for something shorter and hopefully more wind protected. Skied Red Mountain's N Face. Wind was still howling up high. There were a ton of tracks but nevertheless we found mostly excellent soft snow and didn't cross too many tracks.

Skinning up high on Red Mountain:


Nice views of Morrison's E aspect:


Mt. Morgan North:


Nice soft snow up high:


Skiing on Red Mountain:



Back in Tahoe now with the weather coming in. I can never get enough of the Eastern Sierra. Can't wait to go back.