Results 76 to 100 of 258
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03-29-2021, 03:48 PM #76
Coverage is solid. The east face of the end is a little burned out so we chose to ski down a little lower and boot back up (snow) 350’ to the bench, then traverse across on skis. There was a decent amount of rock dodging and a little sidestepping required, but nothing awful. We might’ve been able to avoid the bootpack but it seemed like the better option maybe.
Horse meadow road was snow covered starting around 7400’ and I bet will burn out quickly, so that might be preferable soon. Or even now, I don’t know. Here’s a pic that sort of shows coverage below the end.
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03-30-2021, 03:31 PM #77
To add to the existing stoke. Finally figured out a winter camping setup that wasn't too heavy or cold. Was going for little slide --> backdooring the doodad, but corn on the S side was better than the windboard on the 'dad so we took the long way around horse creek.
The moon was bright
Gotta love golden hour in the sierra
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03-30-2021, 08:35 PM #78
Hell yes. I hope I can figure out a decent objective for camping when I finally have time for an extended trip in late April.
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03-31-2021, 12:09 AM #79
Just south of Grant Lake Marina is your most direct ascent
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03-31-2021, 12:35 AM #80
What’s the best way to approach Kidney right now? Around the east side of the plateau and up that drainage to kidney lake? Friend told me he usually goes up vbowl/coke chute but I’m not sure what’s a better option right now?
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03-31-2021, 08:14 AM #81Johnny Poppinoffastuff
- Join Date
- Jan 2013
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- Eastside
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- 387
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03-31-2021, 11:13 AM #82
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04-01-2021, 02:05 PM #83
Update on road status today: https://monocounty.ca.gov/roads/page...f7QHtW8R-0PCOM
County Road Closures
Information current as of: 4/1/2021
Seasonal Closures:
Virginia Lakes Road: Closed at lower parking lot - opening will begin 4/5
Saddlebag Lake Road: Closed
Lundy Lake Road: Open to the the resort
Rock Creek Road: Closed at Snow Park - opening will begin 4/12
Walker burger is open: https://www.facebook.com/VisitEaster...30255023653083
(of course, if we ski south of June, we'll stop by Enlosandes's and get pizza )
Edit to add: Nice pics Blaster! Makes me want to do an overnighter with my Megamid again. love that thing. I Just never seem to do overnights anymore, but maybe i'll have to do the first trip with Mrs. Hankey and my little sh*ts and introduce them to the Megamid
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04-02-2021, 08:28 AM #84
A little late to the party here, but a few pics from two weeks ago out of twin lakes. We were planning on two nights out on the snow. Got there friday (3/19) midday and debated skiing in despite some ominous looking clouds and wind. Drove up to the lakes from sunny Bport and it was snaining hard as we got to Arnett's. Now i used to just say fuggit and go, but now that we are all getting AARP discounts we decided the better course of action was a suitcase of modelos and a soak up at Travertine. Woke up to skin at dawn and found about 4-5" at the bottom with some locally deeper wind deposited spots. Should be interesting skinning.
Skied uneventfully up into Horse Creek canyon with no real objective in mind. Followed a solo track of a hiker who appeared to be a fukn manimal postholing at least knee deep through the crust layer all the way up into the canyon. passed him right at the entrance to the canyon where he informed us he had brought his crampons and ice axe to climb matterhorn, but left his snowshoes at home. Super bad call, and we assessed his summit chances at around -13%
Anyway, we put a camp up in the upper canyon, liked the look of horse creek peak, so we skied one of the north facing couloirs off the west shoulder of the peak. We passed on the upper one because of concern over windloading. The middle one was perfect (we called it the goldilocks couloir) -- a little sneaker entrance to skiers left allowed you to avoid cornice and steeper rollover entry and put a ski cut in. We dropped in 1:1 to perfect powder all the way back to the tents.
Sunday morning - we enjoyed the trip into spiller canyon so much we headed back up to the pass and cut a skin track up the big SE face of Matterhorn. Never climbed this side in winter, so we sort of guessed where we might get to ski dreams or E Couloir. We angled left near the top to go for the summit, but the new snow had plastered the slabs and it was turning into some spicy mixed climbing about 200' below the summit.
So we decided this isn't Chamonix let's just go ski powder. Traversed across to the E Couloir entrance. As usual, it looked very bony and uninviting, but as usual looks are deceiving and once you drop in things improve nicely. Many great powder turns off the top, then a short ski portage through the rockfall section, and then WOW best turns ever down the couloir to the apron. Skinned back up to the little col at the base of ski dreams and then dropped the long and perfect NE facing powder slopes right back to the tents.
packed up the tents with huge grins and started to grind out the ski back to the car with the pigs on our backs. Near the last marsh in the canyon, we came upon a group of three from squaw. One skier had injured an ankle below the West Couloir and the other two were trying to get her out before dark. They were pretty close to getting out at that point, but still looked like it was going to be a long day. I took her backpack down for her and we wished them luck. Hopefully everyone got out ok and only a little tired.
Great weekend. Bummed to be missing the current corn cycle but i'm stuck working.
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04-02-2021, 09:05 AM #85
Good stuff Chill Winston! Looks like an amazing 2 days.
I just got back from 5 days of skiing on the east side. We stuck to objectives from Mammoth north. Despite the meager snowpack we managed to find some good turns and ski some fun lines.
Day 1 was last Friday out of Twin Lakes. It had snowed a couple of inches the day prior. We started at around 7:15 AM and were surprised to be breaking trail out towards Matterhorn Peak. Conditions were soft dust on crust. We skied the W couloir off Matterhorn. It was a beautiful, sunny day. It got quite cold on the boot pack once we got in the shade with a moderate N wind blowing. The top 150 feet or so of the couloir was very wind hammered. But that gave way to predictable wind board, followed by nice pow in the lower portion of the couloir and the apron. The skiing was great all the way down to the flats. The exit couloir was untracked and quite fun.
Last edited by whatsupdoc; 04-02-2021 at 03:49 PM.
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04-02-2021, 09:16 AM #86
More from day 1 on the Matterhorn:
Day 2 (Saturday) we stuck around Twin Lakes. It was a busy day, I counted about 15 people heading out towards Matterhorn. We made our way out towards Horse Creek Peak. The NW couloir seemed to go but looked super wind hammered and rocky. We decided to keep walking around to the NE couloir. After laying eyes on the line, we weren't really sure it went from the ridge, but we decided to give it a go since we had already walked past the NW couloir. After booting up, we realized that getting to the ridge would be sketchy at best. The top of the line had a bunch of exposed rocks with no clear path through. Plus the snow at the top was super wind hammered with a bunch of sastrugi, so we dug a little platform and skied from below the rocks. We were about 150 vertical feet from the ridge. The couloir skied quite well. Once again it was predictable wind board giving way to nice pow down low and on the apron. We skied good soft snow back to the flats. It was another enjoyable day on the east side.
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04-02-2021, 09:27 AM #87
More from day 2:
Day 3 we were joined by AKbruin. We started early up Bloody Mountain hoping to ski the S side as well as the Y Couloir on the way back. None of us had ever skied these lines. We ascended the Bloody Couloir and tagged the summit. Views were excellent. We dropped into the S face, not really sure what to find. The top 1/3 or so was still transitioning and punchy. The bottom 2/3 was better corn, although shallow in places. We all tagged a few rocks on the way down. We skied down about 1600 feet to where the terrain flattened and transitioned for the climb back out. We made our way to more of an E aspect on the climb. We managed to keep skins on the entire way (ski crampons were helpful) and crested the ridge near the start of the Y Couloir. We found the start of the Y and dropped in. It skied quite well, predictable wind board for about the first 25% giving way to nice soft snow the rest of the way down. It is a very aesthetic line, pretty plum and walled in the entire way. After a long descent we headed back down the road. We had to walk a few sections, but we were able to mostly ski, so it was an efficient descent. It was a memorable day on a classic peak.
Up:
Summit:
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04-02-2021, 09:32 AM #88
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04-02-2021, 09:41 AM #89
A couple more from Bloody:
The next day (Monday) was forecasted to be very windy. We still woke up early and prepared to ski. After driving to our destination for the day, it became clear that skiing might not have been the best idea. It was crazy windy down low, and snow was blowing around on all of the ridges. We decided to bail and did some climbing at the ORG instead.
Tuesday looked better for skiing. We went looking for corn in the Kidney Chute. We approached from V Bowl. We only had to do about 50 feet of dry walking down low. We ascended Cocaine Chute and walked across the plateau. Kidney skied well. The top 20% or so was still wind board, but the rest was pretty good corn all the way down to Kidney Lake. We had to do a short skin to get back around East Peak, but the out wasn't too bad with minimal dry walking on the way back (although N aspects down lower had a nasty breakable crust).
Last edited by whatsupdoc; 04-02-2021 at 10:12 AM.
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04-02-2021, 09:45 AM #90
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04-02-2021, 09:54 AM #91
Our final day, Wednesday, we skied The End on East Peak. It's an awesome line, long and aesthetic. We approached from Horse Meadows. We could drive within about 1.25 miles of the upper summer trail. It was a bit of a long approach but straightforward, we were able to skin the entire way without any dry hiking. No ski crampons were necessary, unlike climbing V Bowl in the morning. It was a long, hot boot pack, but we finally reached the ridge and skied at 10:30 AM. Our timing was right on. The skiing was very good, mostly nice corn. The bottom 25% or so of the line was a little mushy, but the rest of it skied great. Corn turns on the apron were also excellent. After some high fives we made our way out back to Horse Meadows. We were able to ski the entire way. It was a great ending to another excellent east side adventure.
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04-02-2021, 10:00 AM #92
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04-02-2021, 06:11 PM #93
Dude! Amazing photos! I've been wanting to ski the End and these photos do nothing to dissuade me.
Great TR winston. As I recall, it was pretty damn chilly around the time you were overnighting at 10k. Props.
Likewise, well done Jorion and Blaster!
It kind of seems like the collective Eastern Sierra slay session has started a month early this year.
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04-02-2021, 06:12 PM #94
Love this unexpected Friday morning East Side stoke dump.
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04-03-2021, 11:24 AM #95registered abuser
- Join Date
- Oct 2003
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- tahoe
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- 3,428
Fuk ya shredly humans!++++
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04-04-2021, 07:55 AM #96Registered User
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
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- central sierra
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- 571
Fantastic pics and trip report, whatsupdoc. Incredible trip. Thanks for taking us along.
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04-04-2021, 10:58 AM #97Rod9301
- Join Date
- Jan 2009
- Location
- Squaw valley
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Hey gimpy, of you ski only backcountry, how many days do you ski a month?
Since all resorts have been closed on France, bc is my only skiing, butt i can't seem to get more than 15-16 days a month, with rest days, minor injuries, kids duties, etc.
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04-04-2021, 07:14 PM #98
Rod, I don’t think you intended it this way, but that is an A+ humblebrag.
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04-05-2021, 12:17 AM #99
how is horse meadows road for the 4wd challenged (severely)?
powdork.com - new and improved, with 20% more dork.
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04-05-2021, 01:17 AM #100Rod9301
- Join Date
- Jan 2009
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- Squaw valley
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