Eastern Sierra Backcountry Thread 2020-21

[jorion]

Thanks for the kind words y’all.

Munkyman, my guess is that there could be fun skiing in two weeks. The storm a week prior really helped us out, as did the cooler temps over the weekend.

North of Mammoth is in much better shape than down south, and the east-facing stuff that’s not burnt out (ie up very high) seems not to have borne the same brunt of the winds that the north-facing stuff has.

I have low confidence, but I’d guess that skiing mammoth and north at elevations above 11k’ will be possible/fun for the next few weeks as long as there are hard freezes overnight. I’ve no longer been obsessively checking weather though, and it’s hard to gauge for me living so far away.

Dookey, I’d love to ski some patches with you guys, especially if you can teach me how to be more than a hack skier! I’m going to hopefully come up to the Sierra more often this summer to trail run, so if that happens I’ll see what you guys are up to and maybe get some multi-sport days in.

[munkyman]

Thx much appreciated!
I'm not in CA anymore so it takes some doing to get a trip planned, can't just load the car and drive up for a few days.
I'm guessing Lassen will hold out the longest, who knows?
Great photos, thx again.

[Fish Rider]

Any Sonora Pass beta yet? How's coverage and is there a creek/raging river to cross or "good" snow bridges still?

[~mikey b]

the snow bridge is gone

[Ottime]

I spent a week on the East Side last week and had an incredible time despite the meager snowpack.

After skiing the Hulk Tuesday (photos a few posts back), I drove down to June Lake to meet up with Canuck P, a ski bud who is posting up there in April and May after spending the winter living in Revelstoke and skiing Rogers Pass, the fortunate bastard.

Early Wednesday we drove down to Onion Valley Road, knowing full well that reports of conditions from down thataway were dire, but for us Bay Area peeps not getting much chance to ski south of Mammoth Lakes, we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to go somewhere a little farther flung. Plus we figured the road would be open to the top -- which was correct -- and that coverage seemed to be decent in general on high elevation eastern aspects, so University's East face might work. Or might be terrible, but whatever. You don't know if you don't go right?

We were rewarded with a pretty great day, all things considered. Coverage was generally pretty good and there was minimal dry hiking to get up onto the bench.

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Of course the flats were burnt out and there was much talus hopping. Spring sierra skiing 2021 everybody!

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But travel in general was pretty easy. What may have been a late drop normally was fine with the day's cool temps and a breeze.

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The snow was still a little transitional -- there seemed to have been more in the weekend storm than had been forecasted -- but it was pretty fun skiing. I'm not sure that the chute just north of the peak that we skied is the traditional line, but it was a nice line and the face below the summit seemed burnt, although it was hard to tell.

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All in all a pretty great day and better than we could have hoped for given the state of things this year.

You are animals. Or young and in shape. I skied that face in April in a low snow year a while back. But I skinned from the lot and skied to the car. Although the lower pitch about the lot was about as wet and sloppy as I’ve ever skied. That’s a solid day with a dry hike.

If I recall, there are several lines that drop to the upper basing that were quite good. Overall a super fun ski with some steeps and then a long rolling valley back to just above the car. Would love to get that zone in some year where the road opens but we get a few days of winter snow.

Edit: Jeebus , scrolled down. Y’all are animals. Thanks for sharing.

[whatsupdoc]

I had some time off from work at the end of April and beginning of May. The original plan was to ski the entire time in the eastern Sierra, but the grim snowpack had our eyes wandering elsewhere. After a couple of great days in OR (https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...-Thread/page82) the weather turned in the Pacific NW and we returned to CA.

I have been wanting to tour around the Goddard area for quite a while after reading a great TR here by Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...hlight=goddard

Mike Schwartz's site also has some awesome photos of touring around that area. We planned on an out-and-back over Echo Col as opposed to a big loop given the low tide conditions. I figured it would be easier to come back the way we came if conditions were difficult. I was fully aware of the low tide conditions south of Mammoth. I was hoping (perhaps foolishly) that there would be a little more snow west of the crest. We decided to give it a go. We understood that we could get turned around at multiple points. My biggest worry was that the south sides of the high passes would be melted out and unskiable.

However, the allure of the High Sierra is strong, so last Saturday we started very early (4:30 AM) from Lake Sabrina with enough food and fuel for 4 nights out. The plan was to try to make it all the way over the crest and camp at Helen Lake. Some of our goals were Mt. Solomons, The Black Giant, Goddard, and the S side of Fiske.

We started in shoes at Lake Sabrina. There was intermittent snow on the trail after a while, but certainly not enough to skin. We dry hiked past Blue Lake towards Dingleberry Lake. We lost the trail around here amidst snow. We transitioned to skinning just before Dingleberry Lake. We stayed high to the S of the lakes, where we were able to skin (for the most part). The terrain was fairly complex, with multiple granite bluffs above the drainage. There was a decent amount of skis on/off and a number of shenanigans, but we made it to Topsy Turvy Lake where we took a break, filled up some water, and ditched our hiking shoes.





After Moonlight Lake we enjoyed better views on our way to Echo Lake and Echo Col.




After another short break at Echo Lake, we tackled Echo Col. The snow was still a bit transitional and heavy. We were able to skin until the last couple hundred feet. The booting here was pretty miserable, fairly deep and unsupportable, especially with heavy packs. I was slightly worried about the snow warming up, but it was still only noon and we didn't have far to go, so we punched it up over the col. Getting over the col did require some rock moves. One move in particular felt pretty challenging in ski boots and with heavy packs, but our momentum pushed us up to the top of the col exactly 8 hours after leaving the car. I looked over the col and was very relieved to see what appeared to be enough snow to ski down the south side. This was the point of the tour that I was most worried about getting turned around. It felt great to see what appeared to be enough skiable snow to get to our destination. The opposite side had some easier down climbing, maybe about 100 vertical feet. We transitioned for the ski down the other side.


Skinning above Echo Lake:



Booting to Echo Col:



Stoked to be at Echo Col:



Beginning the down climb on the other side:

[whatsupdoc]

Skiing down from Echo Col to Lake 11428 was good corn. The skiing was enjoyable, even with the heavy packs.



Skirting Lake 11428. The slope we skied down is behind. It was thin but we were able to ski the entire way. We somehow managed to choose the correct route on the first attempt.



After Lake 11428 we skied down a couple hundred feet and were quite discouraged to get stopped by rock and talus. It was immediately evident there was no way to ski down this slope, and we'd have to down climb. This lower elevation S aspect was pretty burned off. Morale was low at this point, but we didn't have much of a choice. We made a couple of mildly tenuous moves down some rock slabs before we reached more secure talus mixed with snow (the climbing would have been completely trivial with shoes but felt kinda real in ski boots with heavy packs). After a few hundred feet of down climbing we reached the valley bottom and continuous snow. I was immediately dreading coming back up this slope on the way home.

From here we had about 500 vertical feet of climbing to Lake Helen (the slope we down climbed isn't evident in this photo, it's to the left of this photo):



Lake Helen was beautiful. It was extremely windy there however, and the lakes were still frozen, so we backtracked about a quarter mile and 200 vertical feet down the valley to our campsite. There was easily accessed open water here, which was priority #1. It was also less windy. We were both pretty exhausted at this point. We dug out our platform for the Mega Mid, dried some gear, made dinner, and went to sleep.

Day 2 dawned clear but breezy. We had a lazy start to the morning and set off with the goal of skiing the E face of Mt. Solomons.

Leaving camp:



Approaching Mt. Solomons:



Solomons went pretty smoothly. We transitioned to booting about half way up, and made out way to the summit. Views were outstanding. We also got our first view of Goddard here. The E slope of Goddard had a short section of talus we'd have to walk over, but the rest of the slope looked skiable. We were relieved to find this out.

Climbing Solomons (with the W face of The Black Giant behind, which we were planning on skiing in the afternoon):



More from the way up Solomons:



Hitting the summit of Solomons:



Summit pano from Solomons:

[whatsupdoc]

The ski down Solomons was awesome, great corn pretty much the entire way. The first couple of turns were steep and firm, but it quickly transitioned to money corn for the rest of the descent back down towards Helen Lake. We were stoked.






We took a short break and made our way across the valley towards the W face of The Black Giant. It was moderately windy with winds out of the W, so it became clear the snow would need a little more time to soften. About halfway up we took a break and killed a bit of time waiting for the snow to soften.

Skinning towards The Black Giant with Solomons behind:



Climbing The Black Giant. The slope was thin but there were actually a couple of continuously skiable lines:



Taking a break:



After a bit of time we finished the climb and enjoyed outstanding views from the summit.



Summit view:

[whatsupdoc]

We were rewarded by good corn most of the way down The Black Giant. The very top was still a little firm, but most of the descent back to camp was great corn.








Clouds had been building the entire afternoon. By the time we got back to camp it was overcast and within 60 minutes it was snowing. We got into the tent and waited it out. After a coupled hours the snow stopped and by the time we went to bed the skies were once again clear. It snowed 1-2 cm.

[whatsupdoc]

Our plan for day 3 was to ski Goddard. We knew it would be a long day, especially since we were camped just shy of Lake Helen. There were 2 logical ways to get there, Wanda Pass and Nietzsche Col. Wanda Pass could allow you to keep a high line and traverse across a slope to drop directly into the basin below Goddard. However, that slope faces SE-SW and we were fairly certain we wouldn't be able to do the traverse (we ended up being correct). We would have to weave all the way through the Ionian Basin from Lake 11592. We ended up going over Nietzsche Col, which was closer to our camp.

We left at about 5:15 AM. Waking up in the dark in a tent is never easy, but it was necessary given our long day ahead and the fact that the slope faces E. We made our way up Muir Pass and skied down to Nietzsche Col, where we once again started climbing.

Climbing to Muir Pass at dawn:




Climbing Nietzsche Col:




We skied down the S side of Nietzsche Col to Lake 11592, where we were fully in the Ionian Basin. The skiing was surprisingly good dust on crust.

The S side of Nietzsche Col. We were able to ski the entire way pretty easily:



From here we weaved our way through the Ionian Basin, past 4-5 more lakes. We did one additional small descent on the way there (there were lots of transitions this day). After crossing Lake 11591 we were below Goddard.

Making our way through the Ionian Basin:





We started skinning up Goddard. About half way up the NE winds picked up substantially. We didn't have a lot of time to kill since we were so far from the tent, so we continued on. We had to walk across about 80 feet of talus but the rest of the climb was on snow. The summit views were awesome.

Climbing Goddard:

[whatsupdoc]

More from the way up Goddard:





My buddy chilling below the summit of Goddard:



Goddard summit view:



The ski down Goddard was good. The top half was still a bit firm due to the winds, but the bottom half was perfect corn.

Skiing Goddard:






We were thrilled to have skied Goddard in good conditions, but we still had a long ways back to the tent. We reversed our course through the Ionian Basin, making pretty good time.

Skinning back across Lake 11591:

[whatsupdoc]

My buddy at Lake 11592, still stoked despite having to climb 2 more passes to get back to the tent:



We slogged back up the S side of Nietzsche Col. The climb wasn't too bad. A light breeze kept us from overheating on the sunny ascent.

Ascending back up Nietzsche Col:



Climbing up Nietzsche Col we got some great views of the other peaks of the Ionian Basin. The N face of Scylla certainly looks skiable in a better snow year. The Ragged Spur also hosts a rad-looking NE couloir that drops more than 3000 feet into the Enchanted Gorge. Maybe next trip...



The afternoon corn down the N side of Nietzsche Col was awesome. It was sweet to ski great snow back into the Evolution Basin.






From here it was one more short climb back to Muir Pass, where we enjoyed more good corn down to Helen Lake and our camp.

[whatsupdoc]

We decided to pack up and head home on day 4, despite having one more night's rations. Some of our other objectives (like the S side of Fiske) weren't skiable with the thin snowpack. We contemplated just playing around Muir Pass and skiing short corn shots, but we were both tired and the following day had been forecasted to be super warm before we left (which turned out to be the case, it was like 73 in Mammoth that day), so we headed out after 2 awesome days, content that we had found enough snow to ski on Solomons, The Black Giant, and Goddard. We made plans to rock climb a few days in Tahoe before the trip was over.

Camp is packed up:



We were both dreading the scramble back up to Lake 11428 below Echo Col. Fortunately, we found a better passage on the way back up. We climbed a chute that was mostly snow with 3 easy sections of talus hopping. No tenuous slab moves in ski boots on the way back up.




We crossed Lake 11428 and skinned back up Echo Col. We were able to skin to the rock climbing portion at the top. We took our time and tried to enjoy our last views over the crest.




We carefully reversed the rock moves over Echo Col and skied good corn back down to Echo Lake:



We slogged our way past Echo Lake and Moonlight Lake to Topsy Turvy Lake, skiing good mellow corn on the way:

[whatsupdoc]

We took a break at Topsy Turvy Lake, refilled water bottles, and picked up our shoes. We skied down as far as we could (instead of maintaining a high line along the granite bluffs) and then transitioned to walking in shoes. This was tedious with plenty of snow still on the ground, but we eventually picked up the trail around Dingleberry Lake and followed a half snow/half dirt trail to Blue Lake. We took our last break here and continued down to Lake Sabrina and the car.






Despite the thin snowpack, it was a rad trip. We skied good snow pretty much the entire time and summited some amazing peaks. There were undoubtedly more shenanigans required with the thin snowpack, but it was worth it to get back deep in the Sierra. I'm already dreaming of spring skiing in the Sierra next season, hopefully with a lot more snow on the ground.

[mr. hankey]

That's a pretty big tour what'supdoc. Just read it and followed it on the topo while reading. Great stuff as always. That summit pano with the clouds (black giant if I remember right) is a beauty. Love the clouds.

I sadly pretty much check TGR now for the Oregon and PNW threads... just too lazy to do an overnighter deeper back in the Sierra, but man reading yours and Jorion's TR's make me really wish I'd have broken out the megamid and done so. Never been back there. Maybe next year...

[claymond]

Hell yeah Jorion. That's rad.

Whatsupdoc with the sickness as always.

This thread is the best. I love the Sierra

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[munkyman]

Whatsupdoc thanks this thread is total inspiration, awesome trip... !!!

[rod9301]

Great trip report.
I miss the east side.

Btw, doc, i think i met you a couple of years ago on my way to crescent moon, you just finished skiing it.

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[river59]

This thread really delivers despite the paltry snowpack. Way to make the best of it.

[whatsupdoc]

Thanks everyone.

Great trip report.
I miss the east side.

Btw, doc, i think i met you a couple of years ago on my way to crescent moon, you just finished skiing it.

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Yeah, I remember meeting you after the Crescent. The same buddy was with me then that joined me on this trip.

[jorion]

Super cool trip, awesome that you guys got so far back in there. I’m no Sierra expert but unless I’m confused, I think I’ve heard that the Goddard and Ionian basin zones are some of the least-visited parts of the range in summer, let alone with snow on the ground.

Even cooler adventure with the possibility that you’d have to travel 8 hours and get turned around at the col. Uncertainty makes eventual success so much more rewarding.

That couloir on the ragged spur looks incredible.

Thanks for taking the time to write it all out, the context makes it way more enjoyable than just seeing a few pics on Instagram.

[PB]

Truly inspiring! Really makes one glad to be alive.
This thread

[~mikey b]

headed to the east side tonight after work for a couple days

Mammoth tomorrow and unknown Tuesday - somewhere between Mammoth and Sonora Pass

[abcdethan]

At least on Friday Dana Coulior was in pretty poor shape. Firm with patches of ice. It was cooler after a hot week.



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[Skeeze]

Saddlebag Lake is the place to be on the Eastside right now. Skin straight from the car, perfect corn on all aspects, not even getting sticky on the exit.

Conness north couloirs don’t have an open schrund surprisingly, but neither go from the top. Lookers right had a few tracks, lookers left doesn’t look worthwhile.