TR Great Basin National Park

[Shredgar]

Fun was had. Stuff got skied. Here's a quick outline & photos.

We skied on Wheeler Peak Friday. The snowpack was fat. Past the parking lot we didn't see another soul.

Approaching Wheeler Peak via Stella Lake:



First descent was the first E facing Teresa Lake chute:



Then summited Wheeler. It was calm enough on the summit to light a match. Here's Wra enjoying a Camel at 13,000':



We skied the Wheeler NW face to the end of the snow. That's Wra disappearing in the distance. Imagine you're next:



We returned via the Stella gully on the right, the Teresa Lake Cirque is to the left:



Saturday we had a quorum:



& headed for Jeff Davis Peak:



Via the Wheeler Bristlecone grove & some of the oldest living things on earth:



We first skied the N face. Rob was smiling:



Then back up Jeff Davis to the Great Ditch:



Imagine you're first:



I've wanted that line for years. It was good:



Sunday we went into the Wheeler Cirque & skied the Wheeler Glacier & this cool chute. The skier way up high is Rob, in the middle is MC & Wra towards the bottom:



Lots of fun in the Great Basin.

[Jumper Bones]

Is Great Basin Nat'l in Nevada?

[Shredgar]

Yes

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[Jumper Bones]

Ruby Mtns? Near Elko, er what? Hmm, need to look at a map.

Easy to forget that NV is the most mountainous state in the union, and that some of those mountains can even hold a lot of snow.

Went to HS in Vegas, so I've spent some time there...

[gravitylover]

Wow. Nice work. I've always wanted to summit Wheeler. Drove past it a few times and drooled, now I know I was right.

[Lostinthetrees]

Excellent work!

I have visited the bristlecones located east of Bishop CA. I had not realized they were in Eastern Nevada, too.

Are they scattered across the high country in the Great Basin mtn. ranges of Nevada?

[Trackhead]

Imagine your second, third, fourth. It looks good at any perspective. Nice TR. Why ya back so soon?

[powstash]

We skied the Wheeler NW face to the end of the snow. That's Wra disappearing in the distance. Imagine you're next:

Imagine you're first:

I imagine I'm going to go outside and run myself over with my own car. Oh the misery of thinking about the fun I had this weekend (remodeling a house - tearing down an old 3 story chimney) and the fun you had. Best damn snowpack in years and it's melting while I'm sidelined.

</sniveling self pitty>

GREAT STUFF!!

[Particle]

ridiculously jealous right now.

[hoarhey]

Great stuff.

I was just thumbing through a book of US National Parks yesterday and saw Great Basin NP with a trace of snow, but I thought it looked sweet...

Thanks for confirming that it is.

[Xover]

FUGG!!!

looking at temps forecasted last week thought GBNP would be too warm so opted for sno-mo accessed High Uintas .... got Bald Mt., but not 3 days of loving goodness like that ... some ya win, some ya lose

[splat]

Love that coolie shot. Did the Bros make it in time?

[Shredgar]

Got the Bros on my return. What a cool ski. FKNA. Thanks Splat. They're mounted, tuned & skins are trimmed. The folks at the Black Diamond store were very interested. They'll lose their virginity soon.

The GBNP road was only plowed to the Wheeler Summit trailhead, not yet to the campground. Prolly another month of good skiing up there.

I had car trouble the week before & thought it was fixed but the drive down was an adventure. Nothing quite like passing a "100 miles to the next service" sign, at night, in a questionable car.

I was so hammered Friday afternoon. Between the drive, scrambling for a campsite, only five hours of sleep then eight hours on skis above 10,000', I was a stumbling bumbling mess. The walk back from the bottom of the Wheeler NW face felt like it took all weekend.

There's a bunch of good weird stuff along the road between Baker NV & GBNP. I've heard it called "fence art":



The alien ski ranger has lost his ranger hat but still has the skis we gave him a few years ago:



West of Delta UT is a strange collection of trailer homes behind a barb wire fence w/rambling fundamentalist writings on a sign by the gate. Seems like something out of Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven". I should have snapped a picture, next time I will. Good local color.

[Telegasm]

Sure wish I coulda been there, but I had to work.

At least my avatar was there!

[Shredgar]

Here's the story on the Bristlecone pines:

http://www.nps.gov/grba/bristleconepine.htm



The oldest tree, the 4,900yr old one they call Prometheus, grew in the bristlecone grove on the morraine at the foot of the big ramps in the sun:

[mall walker]

Bump. Anyone know what the snowpack is like out there right about now? The mrs and I might be heading out to GBNP for some camping and I'm thinking about packing the skis...

[sfotex]

I had a friend that was up this last weekend skiing and is going back again Memorial Day weekend....

[zion zig zag]

I had a friend that was up this last weekend skiing and is going back again Memorial Day weekend....

Do you know when they are opening the road to the upper campground?

[mall walker]

Good enough for me... I'll find space in the car.

[powdork]

Jeff Davis won't have nearly the coverage it has in this TR unless April storms really filled it in.
This was early April this year. The north face was what I hoped to ski but a wind event overnight had denuded it


The big ditch didn't go at the top or the bottom


A few more pics at the end of this TR - http://www.powdork.com/2016/mountain...o-repair-show/

[mall walker]

^ thanks for the info. Also your TR is awesome!

[raisingarizona13]

That place is on my (once I'm done with school) list. It looks incredible and since it's off the radar for the most part makes it even cooler imo.

[Soups]

Such a cool, out of the way, small NP. Worth the extra time to get there. The cave is gorgeous too. Baker is a cool funky "town"

[ryan14410]

I was there this past weekend. I thought I heard a lady who works at the visitor center say they were hoping to get the road open around Memorial Day weekend; I could certainly be wrong. There was plenty of snow where I went. Huge open face to a lake, chutes and couloirs. LARGE collapses on the flat approaching the lake; don't know what the slope would do. Was with my girlfriend, so the only skiing i did was split-skiing on the way out. We were down Snake Creek.

[zion zig zag]

I was there this past weekend. I thought I heard a lady who works at the visitor center say they were hoping to get the road open around Memorial Day weekend; I could certainly be wrong. There was plenty of snow where I went. Huge open face to a lake, chutes and couloirs. LARGE collapses on the flat approaching the lake; don't know what the slope would do. Was with my girlfriend, so the only skiing i did was split-skiing on the way out. We were down Snake Creek.

Photos of snow?