Eastern Sierra BC 2022-23

[jindustry]

Spent a few days above Big Pine.

I turned around at the bottom of U Notch because it looked like someone punched through the narrow snow bridge that remains. The arrow points to what appears to be 2 similar-sized holes (dark spots) through the snow bridge under the bootpack. From the ski tracks, it looks like someone may have transitioned to downclimb and punched through on the way down.



If you're headed into the South Fork of Big Pine Creek, I think the guidebook directs you up this wash to the southeast of Alice / Slide. You may want to take the summer trail that's far lookers left instead of this wash. The creek is raging, and in a few days the snow bridges had visibly collapsed. I was able to tip toe through this route days earlier, but I'm guessing it's impassable around the corner where you can't see now.


Anything low angle is kinda suncupped, but steep stuff is still in good condition for June. Bergshrunds are starting to yawn though.

North Couloir of Sill


Saw bighorn sheep tracks near top of south fork bowl?


Onion Valley Road is still listed as closed on Inyo County's website as of 6/2, but according to a cop I ran into near the closure, it should be open any day now.

[enginerd]

Did the dunderberg to green creek car shuttle thing on Saturday. Virginia lakes road closed probably less than a mile from the end. Skinning from the closure. Green creek road open to the end if you have any kind of reasonably high clearance. You have to keep to the left side of the road (on your way in) to drive through the lake that has taken over the road about half way in.

Skied kettle e couloir and hulk n couloir on Sunday. There was not continuous snow until you were well up into little slide. Maybe 8200’. River crossing was exciting but we reinforced it. It’s much better but still thought provoking.

Kettle skied great. One band of completely dry brush and rock that you had to take skis off to cross above the couloir and below the upper snowfield. We dropped at 10am and you wouldn’t want to be any later.

Hulk left was a really nice line. Better than I expected. I was able to step through the bottom with skis on but I bet next week it’ll be a skis off affair. I dropped at noon and 1pm or even 2pm would have been fine … except for those thunder storms (which came on strong Sunday).














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[Dark Energy]

Way to keep getting after it Enerd! How was the creek crossing at the bottom of the Green Creek Couloir? BTW boot buckle harvest and replacement was eazy peazy. Thanks.

[enginerd]

Awesome, glad to hear it! The only time I think about those boots is when I lift my Quattro XT’s by hand. They’re def heavier than the mercuries but a great boot and I don’t really notice the weight when they’re on my feet.

It’s been such an amazing spring!!

There is a bridge across the creek downstream of the couloir. You can see it on CalTopo…or you can get distracted by some downed logs about 200’ upstream of the bridge and risk it


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[~mikey b]

so you like those boots?

[enginerd]

Yes, I like them. TLR is they ski well, tour well, aren’t that heavy and fit a low volume foot like mine.

Everything else is just details but since this is TGR and we are all gear nerds:

Cons:
*I think they have too many metal bolts on them
*too many complicated plastic parts on the tongue
*they should use an intuition pro tour not some thinned out special purpose liner that has the “intuition” name.
*the soles are definitely getting chewed up already - why don’t they just put a good vibram sole on there?
*the upper two cuff buckle wires don’t “click” into the last catches and the buckles don’t “click” into a forward folded position so to get full rom in walk mode you just end up leaving it all undone and have to stretch your pant leg over the whole mess. Just a little extra fiddle factor especially with the unbuckled power strap flopping around.
*had to add those butterfly wrap things to the back of the liner to improve heel hold (which is now fine)

Pros:
*Lower volume than any other touring boot I’ve tried
*pretty decent flex profile (still not as stiff as a real 130 resort boot like my mach 1 but decent enough for bc skiing)
*real elasticized booster strap
*great ROM when everything is unbuckled

Jury is out:
Walk mode seems very durable but it does need to be cleared of snow and ice at times to lock in. I’m a little nervous at some point I will find myself popping into walk mode because I didn’t get it fully locked/free of ice/snow.


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[~mikey b]

thanks

I’ll wait for some updates

I’m always leery of first gen items

[rod9301]

What boots are these?

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[enginerd]

Scarpa Quattro XT


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[rod9301]

Thanks.
Btw, my first ever dynafit boots, hoji free, 130 flex.

Went from zero g also 130, and I'm very happy. The hoji ski much better, and skin/walk much better, despite being 200g heavier, because of great ROM.

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[TahoeBC]

Great report enginerd! Were you part of the green creek shootout? If not I hope ya beat the crowd.

Since this is the eastern Sierra boot recommendation thread now, I’ll do a shout out for my Nordica Strider 130. First boot I’ve never needed a punch, best performance bc boot I’ve ever owned and all day comfort which I use at the resort also. Since Nov 9th I skied almost ever day, I love these boots and just bought another pair on discount for future use.

[enginerd]

Thanks.
Btw, my first ever dynafit boots, hoji free, 130 flex.

Went from zero g also 130, and I'm very happy. The hoji ski much better, and skin/walk much better, despite being 200g heavier, because of great ROM.

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Ha! Most controversial boot of 2023


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[enginerd]

Great report enginerd! Were you part of the green creek shootout? If not I hope ya beat the crowd.

Since this is the eastern Sierra boot recommendation thread now, I’ll do a shout out for my Nordica Strider 130. First boot I’ve never needed a punch, best performance bc boot I’ve ever owned and all day comfort which I use at the resort also. Since Nov 9th I skied almost ever day, I love these boots and just bought another pair on discount for future use.

Best of both worlds. Skied it early, got the shuttle service from the nice volunteers and joined the tribe for post skiing festivities.

Would have loved to join them all for the skiing too, but we were on a different schedule.


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[rod9301]

Failed mission on cats ears today.
After 4 hours of hiking and skinning, the couloir is finally visible and the lower 30 percent was really rocky. And a big bergschrund around the rocks.
We thought, not for very long, about skiing another couloir to the left, but it also had a big bergschrund.
We could've skied a face, but nothing looked as good as cats ears. So back to the car.
Btw, snow was fantastic above 11500. Firm with about an inch of fresh on top.
And on low angle the sun cups are petty bad.
Road still open only to the packing station.

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[sfskier]

This report is a bit late and beta not as much use anymore. I spent the better part of a week on the east side leading up to Memorial Day a couple weeks ago. Below is a little write-up and here are some pics:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/149099...h/52946495585/

Wed May 24: Skied Bloody Couloir solo. Long day, 10+ hours from car at Sherwin Creek road, though I was moving at a relaxed pace. It's a longer shlep than it seems. Three other small parties heading up and down the couloir at about the same time. Descended at just before 1pm, very nice skiing.

Thu - Fri May 25-26. I always like to spend at least a night at a high camp on the snow. I headed down to Whitney Portal and headed up the Meysan Lake Trail and spent a night at Camp Lake at about 11,200'. Was able to skin/ski a bit below 9,000'. It's an awesome location with myriad ski options on a variety of aspects around the basin up there. I had ambitions to ski one of the routes on Mt Irvine. But in the morning, at what seemed still early at like 8:30am, despite what seemed like a decent overnight freeze, when I transitioned to crampons to start booting up one of the steepish east facing lines, I immediately plunged my ax all the way up to the blade and a leg almost up to the knee. That was kind of a red flag for me, esp being alone. So I traversed all the way around to one of the north facing chutes draining to Meysan Lake from Mt Leconte/Mallory, and found nice firmer (and smoother!) snow, but turned around at about 13,000' as the peaks all got socked in above that with low visibility. Overall, I found on my whole trip that any slope that wasn't steeper and due-north facing had substantial texture/suncups. Overall it was still a fun little expedition, and the avy debris traversing/skiing on the way in/out was quite something. Definitely somewhere I'd head back to. On the way out I ran into a couple hiking parties in sneakers below snow line that asked if I thought they could make it to Meysan Lake. Uh... not likely.

Sat May 27. Rest day, resort skiing at Mammoth. Not remembering it was Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I had visions of a quiet spring day at the resort. Not so much. Had the feeling of one of the busiest resort days I've experienced anywhere in years. But it was fun, the entire mountain was open, and longest I waited for the upper gondola was about 20 min.

Sun May 28. Hooked up with my younger cousin for a couple days. We base camped out of Lundy. My goals for Sunday and Monday were to ski long due-north lines with snow as close to the car as possible. Sunday we headed to Crater Crest out of Twin Lakes. Great day. Probably 20 min walking from the car thru the neighborhood and some brush to hit snow at the bottom of the main gully. Summited to spectacular views of the Matterhorn, Twin Peaks, etc. About 4000' of excellent fall-line smooth spring snow all the way down. A very fun line. Then BBQ rib and chicken lunch in Bridgeport. A fine day.

Mon May 29. North face of Gilcrest. I've skied this line before and like it. It has a consistent pitch for >3,000' right down to the lake with some fun twists and features. Despite being Memorial Day, the snow still impressively went right to the water's edge. We didn't get quite as early a start and called it about 10,300' for close of 2,500' of great turns to end the season.

[bobz]

Onion Valley finally opened. We skied up towards University Col. Continuous snow from a few hundred feet above OV, and kind of decent, for June, below about 10500’. Higher up the fresh snow from the past several days is a lot of slop.

Tioga east still closed, apparently.

[bodywhomper]

Wet slide fatality in Hurd peak. Rip

https://www.facebook.com/10006916743...ibextid=qC1gEa

[Blaster]

Bumping the best thread out there.

Skied out of south lake Saturday. The road is plowed but gated at Parchers. Continuous snow from the far side of south lake with some pretty spectacular snow bridges.


Skied middle trident while waiting for Gilbert to soften. It had a spicy ice bulge that we gave an honest effort on the way down but ended up down climbing.


The north couloir on Gilbert has been on my wishlist since I first got the Greenburg guidebook. There is a solid snow bridge on the bergschrund which should last at least through next weekend.

We brought sneakers for the scramble to the summit, which in classic high sierra fashion was super fun.

There is still a massive amount of snow in the high country.

The couloir lived up to the hype. Steep and sustained, 50 to high 40 degrees through the top 2/3rds. Like a jabronee, I dropped one of my poles while scooting over the entrance cornice and had to make do with one the entire way down.

Got to love the aquamarine color.

No idea how I skied out of this one.


Back at south lake, we ran into a group of backpackers pulling the plug on their overnight trip less than 200 yards up the trail. Apparently a ranger in Kings canyon told them that Bishop pass was good to go.

Skied the north face of University sunday. Walked up the trail just over half a mile before switching to skins. The face itself was pretty darn smooth for mid June. Lots of folks bailing off of the PCT.

Forester pass still super snowy.


We were able to link north aspects all the way down to the onion valley campground, which is gated but open for walk-ins.

The irises blooming in the fields north of Bridgeport are off the charts.

Super sad about the accident on Hurd. RIP and stay safe out there everyone.

[PB]

Fabulous!

Caught the iris driving home last Saturday - truly stunning!

[406]

Awesome photos guys.

Any rumors why Caltrans side of Tioga not open?

[Fish Rider]

Anyone hit that peak by Yosemite north border named after a famous Swiss peak(MH) or 4 gables lately? Planning a Saturday morning pre-dawn approach at the end of the refreeze this week.

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[45hill]

Awesome photos guys.

Any rumors why Caltrans side of Tioga not open?

https://twitter.com/Caltrans9/status...atI14Cjug&s=19

[upallnight]

Got to love the aquamarine color.

What are we looking at here? Looks cool.

Skied middle trident while waiting for Gilbert to soften. It had a spicy ice bulge that we gave an honest effort on the way down but ended up down climbing.

That's a really tall ski carry!

[enginerd]

Nice Blaster!!


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[406]

anyone get out this weekend or see updates?