Nevada Backcountry Ski Touring Thread

[Benneke10]

I know there are a lot of us here who enjoy ski touring in Nevada and I want to make a thread where we can post information, reports, and questions. I see people posting about Nevada outings in the Wasatch thread and I imagine it probably bleeds into the Eastern Sierra thread and others as well. I say it deserves its own thread. I looked and couldn't find an existing one, please let me know if I'm missing something.

[Benneke10]

I'll kick things off with a trip report. Skied Great Basin National Park yesterday, April 29. We camped in a quiet parking lot outside Baker and started hiking from Upper Lehman Creek around 7am. It was about 1.5 miles and 1000ft of vert gain before we could start skinning. We started in ski boots but if you're doing this later this spring I'd say starting in shoes would be worthwhile. Straightforward skinning to around 1000ft below the summit with a short section of firm snow above 12k, then we booted the last 800 feet or so mostly on rocks. Skied the south face at 11am which was 2000ft of fantastic corn.



We were able to piece together patches of snow to skin to just below the ridge around 1/3 of a mile SE of Wheeler peak, and we booted the talus back up to the summit which was very scenic but slow going.



We skied the NE from the top of Wheeler into the upper cirque around 1pm. The north ridge was windboard, and once we got into the cirque it was a mix of corn and mank. We skied a more direct NE facing line from the ridge that required some dry booting and traversing to get into the cirque, but you can ski in with continuous snow if you wanted.



Then we booted up the main couloir to Doso Doyabi. There was a ~80 foot dry spot at the bottom but otherwise it goes mostly clean. There are some fantastic lines to the west but none of them go clean to the ridge at this time. There was running water on the side of the chute halfway up which was very appreciated. We topped out around 3pm, the upper bit was a little firm and I was glad I had crampons on. I wouldn't call it corn but the line skied soft and fun all the way.



Exiting thru the ancient bristlecone forest was a treat.

[munkyman]

This is awesome, thanks for the report. Been meaning to get over there for years! Many flight paths go over this peak, it's a mind blowing stand alone range to look at from up in the sky...

[goldenboy]

Rad. We drove back home from Bishop to CO yesterday and couldn't help but stare at Boundary and definitely Great Basin and Wheeler. We were already scheming to possibly hit one of those the next time we visit the Sierra to break up the drive a bit.

[alive]

Awesome. Great pictures. The only time I’ve skied in the US was somewhere between Las Vegas and Wells, coming back from mountain bike, road trip back in 96? Something like that.
Pulled over on the side of the highway and threw on the old tele gear. Still one of the most memorable runs. Love that area.

[ex-powderbroker]

liked and subscribed

[criscam]

Nice Benne!


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[fleaches]

Long overdue thread, nice

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[byates1]

https://skiingthebasin.com/

[zion zig zag]

Damn, big day Benneke! Looks awesome.

[Boissal]

One of the most beautiful and unique places I've had the pleasure to ski! Massive shots, incredible scenery. Nice work sending the NE couloir, she's a beauty!

I'm shocked how much snow the place has lost in the past 2 weeks. I had plans to go back this year for a repeat of a glorious weekend I had down there a few years back, looks like I actually had more snow then than you did this year (when I skied the Doso couloir it was more filled in and went clean the whole way). The SNOTEL is certainly telling a different picture. Kinda glad I didn't go back, and even more glad I didn't try Ibapah again which is in a similar boat according the the sat pictures...

[MarcusBrody]

Awesome thread.

I'm in Southern NV, but haven't toured here yet. I moved from the Northeast a few years ago and finally did my Avy 1 this year up in Tahoe, so I hope to get out at some point. This thread will certainly be good inspiration.

[~mikey b]

good stuff

[crankplank]

even more glad I didn't try Ibapah again which is in a similar boat according the the sat pictures...

where do you get these sat images? I want to ride out there at some point.

[NBABUCKS1]

where do you get these sat images? I want to ride out there at some point.

I use this

https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentin...howDates=false

[Boissal]

where do you get these sat images? I want to ride out there at some point.

I have a Caltopo paid subscription, not sure if the free version gives access to the weekly images. It's really useful to plan stuff in areas that don't have a lot of traffic and no reports.

Sentinel works great as well, I think the images are from the same source. Caltopo has a ton of great functions in addition to sat images which is why I went that route.

[zion zig zag]

I use this

https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentin...howDates=false

I have a paid Gaia account and they have a freshsat/couldfree layer that looks like it's probably the same as this. Mine has an overlay that says the last image was taken on 4-30-23.

[0g]

Got to tag along for a few days of USDAbereallyintofighterjets Great Basin mission. Here's a few mediocre phone pics

We got snowed out on our main objective in the Schell's but still had a couple sick runs thru some Little Hokkaido low angle trees










I tried to get him to skip skiing for a day and go for Full Body Shampoo's in Ely but he wasn't having it




Onto the Toiyabe's...





Just a few more switchbacks









Back for Round 2 the next day










USDAbeabachelor

[dookeyXXX]

FYI:

https://www.nvbackcountry.com/



Wobby (whose site that is) used to post all kinds of Northern NV stoke in the Tahoe threads…

[~mikey b]

I thought he had a thread going

[raisingarizona13]

Nevada is some of the last great west. Ely might be the last great undiscovered western mountain town.

I love the idea of skiing out there. It's pure and rugged af. It's true adventure skiing where you get to really have that experience of being a pioneer which is getting harder and harder to come by these days.

That being said I may be too old for a whole lot of that but I sure love the idea of it all.

[MakersTeleMark]

Ely is a shithole, even by NV standards.

[~mikey b]

probably feels like home

[MakersTeleMark]

probably feels like home

It picked up dramatically after you left.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

https://skiingthebasin.com/

A.) Isn't Connor an old school Mag?

B.) Some of the photography on that site is A+. This fucking rules. https://threebrothers.exposure.co/parting-skies