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02-08-2018, 02:49 PM #1
Last Year Was Really, Really Good in the Sierra: A Memorial
So far, the 2017–2018 season is butt. Sure, I’ve skied a lot and had fun, but I can pretty much count the number of snowflakes that have fallen in the Sierra on one hand. So, like Al Bundy, I’m going to live in the past. Specifically, I’m going eulogize last season, starting with November 2016 and ending in June 2017. Updates to follow.
November
November was good as far as Novembers usually go. Pow was skied.
Skier: whatsupdoc
Bases were harmed.
But things were good for a normally ho-hum month.
Photo: whatsupdoc
December
December was also excellent. Tours were done.
Skier: whatsupdoc
whatupdoc and I did a 6,000’ Tahoe descent in which the middle 4,000’ was breakable crust.
There was even a not-quite-ripe-yet tour in the Eastern Sierra.
Rider: BGnightLast edited by AKbruin; 02-26-2018 at 09:08 PM.
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02-08-2018, 02:49 PM #2
January
Around the new year, it started snowing and continued snowing for two-and-a-half months or so.
Which was fun.
I shoveled this fucking deck so many times.
10-year-old girls hucked things.
By mid-January, things were getting deep.
The snowflakes were the size of silver dollars.
Skier: sierraskier
Once, I got tired of shoveling the roof and jumped off it.
January involved skiing copious amounts of powder.
Skier: sierraskier
Which was fun.
Skier: sierraskier
Things were good, and they’d get better.
The season really kicked off when whatsupdoc and I won Eastern Sierra lottery, scoring over 9,000 vertical feet of near-perfect powder on this very large and beautiful mountain.
Skier: whatsupdoc
Skier: whatsupdoc
Skier: whatsupdoc
Skier: whatsupdoc
Photo: whatsupdoc
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02-08-2018, 04:08 PM #3
February
The great amount of snow in January seemed novel; in February it became ridiculous. The dense snow slab on my roof, which is 20 to 25’ above the ground, broke off, bounced off the snow already piled up below, and crashed through my garage window.
And I became rather concerned about the roof itself, which we shoveled multiple times.
Mind you, this is what it looks like in the summer.
franzklammer paid a visit, and we began an Eastern Sierra weekend with mellow pow on Saturday.
Skier: franzklammer
But we finished it with an 8,000’ descent on Mt. Birch on Sunday.
Skier: franzklammer
Skier: franzklammer
We got 3,000’ of powder from the summit followed by every other possible form of snow below.
Skier: franzklammer
Back in Tahoe, it kept snowing, and I kept shoveling.
And it kept snowing. That deck rail is about 15 feet above the ground.
The houses and driveways on my street disappeared.
Again, here’s a similar view in summer.
Whatever. More touring in the Eastern Sierra.
Skier: whatsupdoc
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02-08-2018, 04:38 PM #4
March
In March, there was more snow.
But, mainly, it was time to ski corn in couloirs. And, man, March was great. We started with this 3,500’ Eastern Sierra classic, which had corned up perfectly for us.
Photo: whatsupdoc
Skier: whatsupdoc
Skier: whatsupdoc
We also skied this 5,500’ beauty, which we had spotted in January.
Skier: whatsupdoc
Photo: whatsupdoc
There was yet more snow back home.
But I neglected home repair to return to the Eastern Sierra to ski Mt. Tinemaha. Tinemaha is on the front left; Birch, which franzklammer and I skied in January, is on the right. I love this view so much.
This view of Tinemaha, taken from Birch in February, ain’t bad either.
Photo: whatsupdoc
6,500’ of descent, summit to sage.
This skiing thing is pretty fun.
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02-08-2018, 04:44 PM #5
Wow. Nice.
It's a war of the mind and we're armed to the teeth.
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02-08-2018, 04:51 PM #6Registered User
- Join Date
- Oct 2011
- Location
- San Diego
- Posts
- 263
Epic. Thx for posting. Heres to hoping for a miracle march on the east side
Sent from my SM-G955U using TGR Forums mobile app
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02-08-2018, 05:02 PM #7
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02-08-2018, 05:20 PM #8
Nice post and pics thanks!
www.skevikskis.com Check em out!
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02-08-2018, 05:33 PM #9Registered User
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
- Location
- Boulder
- Posts
- 332
So good! I only managed to get to the Sierra for 4 days last year, but I wish it was 100! Hopefully it happens again this decade.
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02-08-2018, 05:35 PM #10Registered User
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Location
- SF & the Ho
- Posts
- 9,307
Epic post/season. Where's your house?
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02-08-2018, 05:50 PM #11
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02-08-2018, 05:50 PM #12
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02-08-2018, 05:52 PM #13
moist eggsellent.
Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
>>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<
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02-08-2018, 06:05 PM #14
Haha. I had to drive past that property's multiple Trump signs every day in 2016. I don't believe in karma or meteorological retribution, but, well . . . there was a certain symbolism in the collapse of that building in 2017.
mcski: I live in the nosebleed section of Incline Village.
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02-08-2018, 06:19 PM #15
April
April flat out kicked ass. More touring in the Eastern Sierra.
Dhelihiker is unsure which way leads to fun skiing and which way leads to certain death.
Skier: Dhelihiker
He chose wisely.
Skier: Dhelihiker
BGnight and I also scored this super cool classic. It’s one of the coolest lines I’ve ever skied—it’s just so unrelentingly steep (42 to 50 degrees) for a full 3,000’ to the apron. Having toured the day before and not slept, I was stupid slow, but the snow was soft enough that one could enjoy the steep skiing without any pooh coming out.
Rider: BGnight
Rider: BGnight
Later, klar, freak, and CM came to California and made a TR. They brought powder with them. We skied Tahoe first.
Skier: freak
Photo: klar
Photo: CM
And then we went to the Eastern Sierra for a three-day tour.
Can you see the three Innsbruckers?
Skier: klar
I love this photo that klar took so much.
Can you find our campsite?
Photo: klar
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02-08-2018, 06:55 PM #16
May
But May . . . May might have been the best. There was no more powder but a lot of corn and a huge snowpack (and fewer homeowner concerns). So I headed back to (you guessed it) the Eastern Sierra.
This place, man.
Skier: whatsupdoc
It makes you feel small in the best way possible.
Not that access is always easy.
Split Mountain, another one that kicked my tired ass, was a highlight. 2,000’ of dirt hiking and 6,000’ of quality skiing (okay, maybe 5,500’ of quality skiing).
Skier: whatsupdoc
We skied from the summit (14,065’) of its south face, which was steep, littered with little cliff bands, and just a great ski.
Photo: Summitpost
Skier: whatsupdoc
Photo: whatsupdoc
About that dirt hike . . . .
More feeling small in the Eastern Sierra.
Another highlight was doing a solo overnighter to ski a couple classics. The first.
The second one was also a great ski.
Naturally, I came home to more snow.
But at least is was better than before.
And I took my 10-year-old for her first real tour.
She’s got oodles of backcountry style.
But then I went back to the Eastern Sierra to ski the chute in the middle of this photo.
Ridiculously fun descent.
Skier: Dhelihiker
Resort time! On Memorial Day Weekend, I took the kids to Mammoth, which had about 70% of its terrain still open.
Look at that May 31st snowpack!
We even threw in a daytrip to Death Valley.
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02-08-2018, 07:14 PM #17Registered User
- Join Date
- May 2010
- Posts
- 195
Thanks for bringing back the stoke AK! Last year was a real banger - got in descents of Giant’s Steps, Bloody, Mendenhall, 3rd Pillar, V Notch, and many more - not to mention about a million pow days in Tahoe. What a year.
I was lucky enough to move to Vancouver this winter, which seems to be one of the few places getting decent snow this year. Was hoping for an Eastside trip this spring, but it seems exploring interior BC may be the better option this year. Hope you guys get some atmospheric rivers and get the snowpack back!
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02-08-2018, 07:49 PM #18Registered User
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Posts
- 536
So much f-ing winning here, holy shit way to get it while you could!! Inspiring to say the least, with any luck, those of us below the 45th parallel will actually have a winter next year, thanks for the stoke!!
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02-08-2018, 08:53 PM #19
Wow, so awesome and so depressing at the same time. No doubt we will be reminiscing about last year the rest of our lives. Super stoked we got to ski shitloads of pow in the back yard together. You absolutely crushed it on the east side! Inspiring me to step it up...
I’ll add a few to memorialize the Winter of 2017: Snowmageddon
It was relatively dry when I left Tahoe in early January to go ski the infamous Japanese pow. It worked out
I came back from skiing 10 days of pow in Japan to this. Skier: AKbruin
There multiple times that it snowed so much, and the plows were so late getting around, that I just drove the sled right off the trailer and went for a spin around the hood.
Blowing and shoveling 3-4 times per day to keep up was common. At the peak the walls were so high the Honda could barely throw snow over the top.
We skied the shit out of Rose Knob Peak - skin track stoke
Late April, still skiing pow
May 12th corn harvest
Dhelihiker and AKbruin on Tioga Pass May 20th
Dhelihiker and I skied Lassen right to the car Memorial Day Weekend
July 16th
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02-08-2018, 09:34 PM #20
What an awesome season Frank. It makes me jealous you have this much dedication to get out after to it. A great year to make the push.
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02-08-2018, 09:47 PM #21
Insto hall of fame. Holy hell, what a ski mecca that place is on a big year.
Outstanding images, dude.
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02-08-2018, 09:52 PM #22
Nice photos, Frank. And what a season it was - I feel like maybe I took it for granted because of all the shoveling. Hope to get out there with you one of these days when we have more snow and try to keep up.
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02-09-2018, 10:07 AM #23
That is a truly awesome photo essay. What an amazing place. Thanks.
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02-09-2018, 10:22 AM #24
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02-09-2018, 10:24 AM #25
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