Eastside Conditions/ Trip Report Thread 2018

[jorion]

Spent two nights in the Goethe Cirque this weekend with a buddy. We got our asses kicked just hauling our too-heavy packs up there. Friday morning was apparently boot top pow on the north facing aprons and nevé in the couloirs, per two guys we met on our way in. On Saturday it was baked on top of an ice crust. Near everything slid later that afternoon.

We were able to put skins on around 10,2’ on the way up, and the lakes were frozen over still. Yesterday we were able to ski down to within less than a mile of the north lake campground. Nice corn on the short north facing shots between traversing.

I’m not sure I’d want to attempt the same trip next weekend with how fast coverage disappeared in the 48 hours we were there.

It was a disappointing weekend in terms of skiing, but an amazing place to spend a couple nights.

[jorion]

Oh, and some asshole stole my friend’s approach shoes out of a bear box in the north lake campground. If you’re reading this, know that you’re a douchebag.

[BGnight]

Spent two nights in the Goethe Cirque this weekend with a buddy.

Funny, I was getting ready to do a solo overnighter at Geothe this weekend also, but due to obligations decided on a day shot out of South Lake. I was thinking the couloirs might have been bulletproof after hearing about a report on Darwin and finding what I found up high. Maybe next year given approach conditions. So weak sauce stealing approach shoes.

Nice corn slaying gimpy!

[JAREDS]

short trip to bridgeport this weekend. Got in late, and as per usual ended up just grabbing a hotel room rather than packing in the cold.
no snow for about an hour up horse creek, saw about 10ppl both on Sat and another on Sun.

Pic of our tent for scale (bottom left)


Morning - the sun was brutal, not a cloud in the sky. nights were cold, def a refreeze at that level but super rapid warming by 11am most aspects in sun were mushy. corn window was narrow.


cool ridge ascent across and on the other side of matterhorn, our high point at about 11,800'


looking across to Matterhorn and Ski Dreams, two skiers topping out.


Melting fast but prime conditions right now.

[Jack Burton]

Sweet shots above, i need to work on my photography a lot.

We followed AKB & Franz's Gibbs line on Saturday, we messed up our route finding in the AM, turns out we did not follow directions well, don't drive to the Gibbs Lake Trailhead before you read the approach directions! We did not top out but got high enough to get some fun turns, snow was variable with some transitioning hot pow and some clean corn and the surface was pretty smooth. All told a blast, will be back for sure, still about 2 miles out

From Gibbs you get a great view of a north facing Cirque on Lewis that's now on the "I want to ski there" list

[CS]

Finally got out and on skis over the weekend. Got a late start Thursday so I opted to crash up near Glacier Lake lodge and figured I'd have a look at Kidd Mountain in the morning. Well, it was toast and since it had been windy and cold all night I wasn't in a huge hurry to get going..... I got a nice and leisurely 9 am start. Figured I had all day and would just head up S Fork drainage and see what I could find since I'd never been up there. Well, not long on the trail and this guy came into view....



At first the idea of booting up and skiing it intimidated me...given my lack of being on skis this year and the late start, but the closer I got, the more I figured just start up and see how it goes and I can turn around wherever. And a breeze up high assured me nothing would be getting to hot and coming down on me as I climbed up.

Starting up



Mid way



Conditions ranged from great cramponing snow to wind crust to knee deep wintery snow and finally wind lashed frozen chunder on the headwall.

And the views at the top, well.....




As stated, the top, well, the top ski sucked. Cool temps and a nice wind kept it hard and rattly.




Scratching my way down to the couloir proper I find nice wind deposits here and there and more consistently as I dove into the narrowish confines...all in all really fun skiing and even some face shots from the upslope wind blowing the snow back into my face.

Turns started to actually be fun around here.




Mid way down




In the deep of it




All in all a fun line. Just a tad over 2k vert.

[ryaaaan]

somehow I had never skied the Eastern Sierra's before this weekend.... but man that place is wild. Saturday we skied the Dogleg Couloir off Mt. Scowden into Lundy, then Sunday we hit some fun chutes up by Four Gables Peak. great skiing all-around, already planning another trip down there...

[CS]

Figured I'd be a little more ambitious on Saturday so I planned to head up to Matterhorn and nab Ski Dreams. And after the scratchy skiing on Friday I decided a super early start wasn't necessary (bad call). So I started up at 720 and after about an hour of trail hiking ran into JaredS and his buddy who had meandered by as I was getting ready at the car. Good to meet you dude! It was soon apparent that today was much warmer and without that cooling wind.

Getting up the drainage and the days objective reveals itself.




Topping off the water.




A couple folks who planned to skin up and climb the N Buttress.




Almost to the base of the climb. Not sure if they were able to get it. It was around 1:00 when I took this pic




The line. It was clear I wasn't going to have time to get up there as it was roasting warm in the cirque and the snow was already turning manky.




It was at this point i realized I was still in touring mode on my binders and boots....whoops. The snow was ok, a bit thick and grabby. Probably perfect the day before.




Stuff stared to move a bit as I got onto a steeper pitch. I was eyballing this face on the way up but a super steep rollover above those rocks had me traversing farther over instead. Probably a good choice as you can see the point releases that flushed out over the little cliff bands.




All in all a fun day, even if the main objective wasn't reached. Was fun to go to and learn about a new area and how to better approach it in the future. Oh, and skinnable snow levels on both days was around 8500 feet, but that mileage will vary depending on drainage/aspect.

[CS]

Also..... I seem to have an issue with my skin glue. Pretty annoying since I just got them last year and the skins (BD Glidelight) have maybe 15 tours on them.

[JAREDS]

Sweet! Looks like a killer day. Great to meet you too. Saw your tracks on the way out. let's keep in touch! Hoping to get back out in May for another weekend.

[gimpy]

Drooool



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[bodywhomper]

That's the peak that caught my attention in your photos!

[rod9301]

That looks like Virginia peak.
Skied it about 8 years ago, want to ski it again

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[mr. hankey]

Awesome stuff here!

Nice job on Dundy S Chute gimpy. I was tempted to do that this weekend too. Still looks pretty good. Normal/SE side of dunderburg looked like it won’t connect in the middle by next weekend. Crazy how much different the snow line everywhere was this weekend vs, last weekend.

CS – that’s a sweet line on Kidd. Looked sketchy with hardly any boot penetration on the way up. Hopefully is softened. How steep was it? Props.

Jorion – I’ve never skied out of Sabrina/North lake side but that’s one of the places on the list. And who steals a shoe anyway? Gross (I pitty the fool that steals mr. hankeys stanky shoes). 

Jareds – dude you got some awesome pics. Perfect contrast and such, yada, yada. This pic of the sawtooths’s got it all – Megamid, snow, ski’s, and 360 degree views. Waking up to the Sierra – we’re so lucky.

Morning - the sun was brutal, not a cloud in the sky. nights were cold, def a refreeze at that level but super rapid warming by 11am most aspects in sun were mushy. corn window was narrow.


.

Jack – Yeah, I think we had the same thought about the N side of Lewis when we did Gibbs. Sadly never got out there, but some day. Thanks for reminding me. Seems like the list grows faster than we can ski it. guess that's not a bad thing

Gimpy’s got the right idea. She’s looking really nice and access seems perfect right now. Go get her!
Here’s some beta pics from many years ago. She’s got a nice sustained pitch, which SLT Joe/Joesnow makes it look easy:


Legal Warning - the above pics were posted for awesomeness and don't reflect the current conditions. pics from June 2006 bitches!

[mr. hankey]

Some other pics showing current snow conditions:
Sabrina:

Virginia lakes (South peak/Black mtn)

Dundy:

Buttery goodness:

[gimpy]

Ryanfaye- when u were on scowden, what did the south aspects coming from v lakes/excelsior look like? Does snow go all the way down to Lundy?

[chill winston]

Drooool



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Yes, the *original* Mono Cone! The great dripping virginia ice cream cone. "Sierra_Bill" on instagram hit this back in March and it looked $$$, check his insta profile for some nice pics and video. I like the ski in from VA lakes over to the ice cream cone and upper spiller canyon. Now if I could only justify that snowmachine to get up the road in mid-winter to save 6 miles....

[mr. hankey]

Gimpy, I skied gilcrest Saturday on my way south. Excelcior to the bottom doesn't go. I talked to a guy that did the E face and back up and over to Vlakes yesterday. he said it was good. You can just see a bit in the left of this pic.

Gilcrest SE Chute #2 and the cornfield above it delivered Sat. perfect corn top to bottom around 11. I checked out the N side chutes. still hadn't gone the cycle.


The choke was thin and will be gone soon:

Still 25 min walking distance to snow (as of Sat. Going quick).
Other news - V bowl is totally gone. 120 still gated down low as of yesterday. Monitor pass is open. Walker burger open . Mo mart opens I think this weekend for fishfest.

[AKbruin]

Stoked to see everyone getting after it.

I was actually set to ski VA Peak on Sunday but had to bail when some work stuff came up. My buddies ended up skiing the southeast face. They said the east face was a little funky and wasn't softening enough. I always imagined getting to it from Green Creek, but they said it was easier from VA Lakes.

Jorion: Post some pics, man! Even if the skiing wasn't great, the area between Piute Pass and Goethe is amazing. Bummer about your partner's shoes though. Hard to imagine another hiker or fisherman intentionally stealing someone's shoes. From April 2016:

[BGnight]

Here's a bunch of pictures of Gilbert from Saturday. Such a cool looking mountain. There was settled powder pretty much top to bottom covering most the crust. The crust at the top was luckily not as hard as the rain crust in surrounding areas. Not sure if it was the same layer or not but the snow seem very well bonded to the crust compared to what I found on Thompson. Strange to have this line so good and Thompson so bad. Sticky snow getting back to lake with only a few good corn turns. I'm sure it's transitioned by now to good corn. Skating across South Lake was a new and fun experience on a splitboard (thank goodness for heel lockers). I felt pretty good going across it even at 2pm. I've never seen it so full!. Not sure if upper parking area is open but it was closed at Parchers. Sucked having to walk that steep mile uphill when the road/trailhead is completely dry. Was gonna ride Saturday but chose to honor some obligations and head home. And seeing how all my objectives were north facing, everything is a big gamble right now with the widespread rain crust:













I thought Thompson would be even better than Gilbert but it was not. Rain crust on the upper portions of all the chutes. I


Upper portion. Mike from TheBackcountry climbed this a couple days later. Sounds like he had to chop some cornice to enter. The top of this line is always really tricky getting up or down.


A little sample of the conditions:

[jorion]

Jorion: Post some pics, man! Even if the skiing wasn't great, the area between Piute Pass and Goethe is amazing. Bummer about your partner's shoes though. Hard to imagine another hiker or fisherman intentionally stealing someone's shoes.

I’ve got a bunch but they’re mostly on the proper camera I brought and not my phone. Not sure where my reader is and I’ve been trying to both physically recover and catch up with work.

I totally forgot that you were up there and had posted that pic a couple year’s back! I must have subconsciously been trying to recreate that photo since I took a similar one.

Here’s one from my phone of my partner coming back after having bailed on a line because of the icy rain crust.



I’ll be back this weekend unless the forecast is total garbage.

This thread in the spring is my absolute favorite part of TGR.

[gimpy]

Fkna!!! The tribe b gettin after it. Love it+++

Way to nail Gilbert in pow bg. Every time i go there to hit that line, I end up skiing corn on its backside and same with Thompson cuz north side usually bunk. Some day.....

Akb - We also bailed on Virginia on Sunday. I got a pretty good look at the east face from my line on dundy nw ramp and it had that darker sheen to it that resembled the blowed out rain crust. The se line looked good but if ima make the effort to go all the way out there, it's gonna b to ski the plumline. From same vantage I got a look at the green creek approach to it and it's pretty burnt. You would b walking on the trail for a ways as opposed to all snow from v lakes. A twin peaks exit to a car shuttle at twin lakes looks like a no brainier to avoid reversing course on the hill n dale approach back to v lakes

[BGnight]

Here’s one from my phone of my partner coming back after having bailed on a line because of the icy rain crust.

I'd love to see some high res photos from your trip

[Dantheman]

Finally got out and on skis over the weekend. Got a late start Thursday so I opted to crash up near Glacier Lake lodge and figured I'd have a look at Kidd Mountain in the morning. Well, it was toast and since it had been windy and cold all night I wasn't in a huge hurry to get going..... I got a nice and leisurely 9 am start. Figured I had all day and would just head up S Fork drainage and see what I could find since I'd never been up there. Well, not long on the trail and this guy came into view....

Yeah buddy. I need to meet you out there some day.

[CS]

Love this thread after a weekend. So many great pics and new areas to put on my list.

CS – that’s a sweet line on Kidd. Looked sketchy with hardly any boot penetration on the way up. Hopefully is softened. How steep was it? Props.

No, the hard stuff never softened, but for the most part the hardened parts in the couloir were smaller ribbons I used to boot up since they were less work. Most of the ski down the couloir was on nice soft snow. As for steepness...no idea. I just used poles the whole way and never felt I needed otherwise. There were only a couple steeper buldges and the only thing I can compare it to was the top of Ellery Bowl and it was definitely not that steep, maybe 40 in a couple spots.