Eastside Conditions/ Trip Report Thread 2018

[gimpy]

Sweet Abe thanx for the report. Rapping into solstice huh? I'm heading down w the gf for the weekend so I'll b in cruiser mode. Looks like solstice is off the list this weekend. Hah!
We are planning on being at top of Sonora bout 9 tomorow and am looking to set up a car shuttle at the hairpin if anyone is down. Fired up!!!!

[rod9301]

Went to ski Mt Dade, cats ears couloir yesterday.
Discouraging to see this after a 6 hour (leisurely) approach.



Looked good above the rocks, but it didn't look too easy to pick my way thru them plus I didn't like the exposure.


So consolation prize, skied two shorter couloirs a few hundred meters to the left.


Snow was good, powder heating up, with some avie debris for good measure.

Anything in the sun was great corn.


Then of course, the views.


You can put the skis on about half an hour from mosquito flat, but walking in shoes on frozen snow felt easy, so I put my skis on about 2 hours from car, which included walking on the road for half an hour to Mosquito flat.

All in all, 10 1/2 hours round trip, beat by dinner time.

Hourglass looked good, about 4 tracks from the day before.

Not sure what these peaks are, but coverage was good, even though you might have to pick your way.




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[bobz]

You can see that Solstice cornice in my Dana Plateau shot on the previous page.

[mr. hankey]

Nice job Rod, that's a long way back there! great pics. Rock creek is so friggin gorgeous when you get back in the circque. the flats on/next to the lakes kill me on the way out. just keep wishing for downhill

Gimpy, would have loved to do the sonora shuttle but i'm back in Sac now due to obligations to the Fam.

Skied Kidney chute and Dana Couloir today. Great corn in Kidney around 10 am and that seemed perfect. Some avy debris from before, but if you pick your line right you can avoid 80% of it. It was overcast today, so maybe if it were sunny the window would start at 9am or so. Took the right hook exist and skined out of the kidney bowl/cirque and up and over to dana couloir. Dana was pretty hard up high, but got edgeable and fun after 5-10 turns. not really corn yet, but it was ok.
Everyone and their grandma was out today. Coverage on top of the plateau was good - could skin from the car to the top of Kidney with maybe 1 minute of carrying in short patches. If you ski Dana or Solstice and don't go out through Ellery side, there's some rock traversing necessary. So a car shuttle from Ellery is definitely the way to go. Lots of tracks in Solstice, unknown and other stuff off that ridge. lots of lines i didn't know went.

top of Kidney, N face of gibbs to the right:

N side of Gibbs:

B from Truck E:



upper Kidney Cirque looking west. We skinned up on the right and on to Dana

Top of Dana Couloir:

B:


pics of stuff of the E ridge of Mt. Dana (solstice, etc)




probably my last day in the High Sierra. Plenty of skiing there still, but time to head north to hit the Volcano's in their prime. Sniff. Great stuff on this thread. Thanks to all that posted.

[rod9301]

Nice job Rod, that's a long way back there! great pics. Rock creek is so friggin gorgeous when you get back in the circque. the flats on/next to the lakes kill me on the way out. just keep wishing for downhill

Gimpy, would have loved to do the sonora shuttle but i'm back in Sac now due to obligations to the Fam.

Skied Kidney chute and Dana Couloir today. Great corn in Kidney around 10 am and that seemed perfect. Some avy debris from before, but if you pick your line right you can avoid 80% of it. It was overcast today, so maybe if it were sunny the window would start at 9am or so. Took the right hook exist and skined out of the kidney bowl/cirque and up and over to dana couloir. Dana was pretty hard up high, but got edgeable and fun after 5-10 turns. not really corn yet, but it was ok.
Everyone and their grandma was out today. Coverage on top of the plateau was good - could skin from the car to the top of Kidney with maybe 1 minute of carrying in short patches. If you ski Dana or Solstice and don't go out through Ellery side, there's some rock traversing necessary. So a car shuttle from Ellery is definitely the way to go. Lots of tracks in Solstice, unknown and other stuff off that ridge. lots of lines i didn't know went.

top of Kidney, N face of gibbs to the right:

N side of Gibbs:

B from Truck E:



upper Kidney Cirque looking west. We skinned up on the right and on to Dana

Top of Dana Couloir:

B:


pics of stuff of the E ridge of Mt. Dana (solstice, etc)




probably my last day in the High Sierra. Plenty of skiing there still, but time to head north to hit the Volcano's in their prime. Sniff. Great stuff on this thread. Thanks to all that posted.

Where did you park to go up kidney?

Never skied that way.

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[rod9301]

Nice job Rod, that's a long way back there! great pics. Rock creek is so friggin gorgeous when you get back in the circque. the flats on/next to the lakes kill me on the way out. just keep wishing for downhill

Gimpy, would have loved to do the sonora shuttle but i'm back in Sac now due to obligations to the Fam.

Skied Kidney chute and Dana Couloir today. Great corn in Kidney around 10 am and that seemed perfect. Some avy debris from before, but if you pick your line right you can avoid 80% of it. It was overcast today, so maybe if it were sunny the window would start at 9am or so. Took the right hook exist and skined out of the kidney bowl/cirque and up and over to dana couloir. Dana was pretty hard up high, but got edgeable and fun after 5-10 turns. not really corn yet, but it was ok.
Everyone and their grandma was out today. Coverage on top of the plateau was good - could skin from the car to the top of Kidney with maybe 1 minute of carrying in short patches. If you ski Dana or Solstice and don't go out through Ellery side, there's some rock traversing necessary. So a car shuttle from Ellery is definitely the way to go. Lots of tracks in Solstice, unknown and other stuff off that ridge. lots of lines i didn't know went.

top of Kidney, N face of gibbs to the right:

N side of Gibbs:

B from Truck E:



upper Kidney Cirque looking west. We skinned up on the right and on to Dana

Top of Dana Couloir:

B:


pics of stuff of the E ridge of Mt. Dana (solstice, etc)




probably my last day in the High Sierra. Plenty of skiing there still, but time to head north to hit the Volcano's in their prime. Sniff. Great stuff on this thread. Thanks to all that posted.

Also, thinking of skiing the volcanoes too.
When are you going?

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[mr. hankey]

Hi Rod, Sherpa1 and i were going up to Shasta this week, but it looks like bad weather Tuesday and high winds the rest of the week. We'll still probably go, but might change plans to do some lassen N side instead and watch the weather. I'll PM ya my cell and you can text me if you're interested.

For Kidney/Dana tour, we skinned from the regular Dana access parking lot at Tioga lake (right next to the bathrooms maybe a quarter mile before the park entrance). By the way, folks could do the same type of tour and do the N side of gibbs as well. You can go from the park entrance and go around dana to the south, ski Gibbs, then back up the same ramp from kidney lake and down Dana couloir. That looks doable, but the line looked really narrow down low.

[splitter]

Regarding solstice rap. Gear needed for anchor? 30m shoestring enough to get in?

[mr. hankey]

Regarding solstice rap. Gear needed for anchor? 30m shoestring enough to get in?

Since i didn't go up there, i don't know. Maybe someone that saw it from the top could could reply. The 2nd from last pic I posted is Solstice looking up at it after we skied Dana Couloir. Otherwise all i can tell ya is 2nd hand info. The rap line was setup by a guide out of Reno on Friday. She might have been guiding and maybe they were conservative and rapped it instead of skiing into it (It's always had a large cornice with maybe a 6-10ft near vertical ski in when we've done it in the past. That's the defining point of that route, after the drop and a few turns to avoid the rocks it's a big open field). But we talked to some folks from Tahoe on Saturday that took a look at it and passed on it as well. They said the anchor was still there. I'd think a 30M would be more than enough based on the route, but again, i haven't seen it from the top this year. Not sure if that helps, but there ya go...

Edit to add: for me personally, if it's that bad that everyone is passing on it or having to rap into it, i'm not sure it's worth it. you'd be spending a lot more time exposed on or under the cornice, etc. But that's just me. I'm a wuss

[splitter]

Not sure if that helps, but there ya go...

Totally helps. I’ll just stick to Dana couloir and false white this weekend

[bluesbrother49]

Did Solstice, Chute out and S Chute on Fri/Sat. Primo corn conditions, should be great this week. On Solstice, no rapp needed, I ended up dropping in the skiers left side, and my buddy actually found a new spot to drop in off the top of the cornice. Just got to commit, ran into a lot of people on Sat at the top and they all opted for going around to Dana.

[bluesbrother49]

Here’s some pics from the weekend...
Top of Solstice

Chute Out

S Shute

[CS]

Here’s some pics from the weekend...
Top of Solstice

Chute Out

S Shute

such a tease with those tiny little pictures. Looked like a fun weekend.

[TahoeBC]

Rolled down to Tioga today prepared to spend a few days but foot issues had me rolling back to Tahoe today.

Couple laps on False white, few pics for those thinking about headed that way

[gimpy]

Some pics from last weekend on Sonora and tioga. Recent snow has left snow surfaces mostly smooth and all day corn windows abound.



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[gimpy]

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[gimpy]

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[Vets]

^
^
^
^
Impressive!

[skier666]

I love the torture of this thread when I'm still injured and have way too many May obligations.

My guess is that people were rope training on Solstice. By the looks of those pics, I don't see the issue. Not that it looked this the one time I went up there solo from the Yosemite gate

June 18th, 2010

[mr. hankey]

Nice job BluesBrothers10!
Gimpy, that last pic is awesome. is that the hotsprings in bridgeport? (travertine? keep forgetting the names...). Looks like the Martians are invading

[snophoto]

Was up at the Summit Couloirs on Conness today. Firm approach in the morning, Summit Couloirs still very hard/ice at 11:30am. Snow down low is a pain in the afternoon. Saddlebag Lake Rd plowed to about 1 mile from the lake, but still muddy, icy, snowy.

[kb1dqh]

Hi TahoeBC - or anyone who knows - I'm headed up to Tioga this weekend. Hoping the road opens, but if not will go through Sonora coming from the Bay Area. We have 2 days to ski. Day 1 we're going to ski Dana Couloir / Ellery which I've done before. Day 2 I was thinking abuot False White, but I'm not sure how to find it / approach exactly. Is it off the junction campground and up the valley immediatly left? On googlemaps I see white mountain, not false white!

Rolled down to Tioga today prepared to spend a few days but foot issues had me rolling back to Tahoe today.

Couple laps on False white, few pics for those thinking about headed that way

[shakyknees]

Hi TahoeBC - or anyone who knows - Is it off the junction campground and up the valley immediatly left?

I usually start from the campground; cross the bridge and head up the side stream canyon; from there you'll probably have tracks to follow, and usually most anyway up is ok anyway, although you won't see the summit ridge until after climbing the lower stuff.

[TahoeBC]

I’ve never done it before so there may be better ways to do it, we went a short ways up saddlebag road then went up staying right of the creek and eventually crossed a snow bridge though a big meadow and contoured around the mountain till we went up a gully that was not to steep, we exited on the other side of the creek coming out at TPR, if I where to do it again, I’d go in the way we exited, gets you into the same meadow location.

[meter-man]

What Rod said about Rock Creek. Some beta shots from last weekend. Lots of unnamed treats back there, but they're dwindling fast!



























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