Eastside Conditions Thread

[whatsupdoc]

The chute was mostly really good corn. Some debris here and there to negotiate (which was the case on pretty much every line - everything seemed to have slid the weekend prior). The Baldwin cirque is rad and would definitely lend itself to skiing multiple lines when up there, but we opted to head out, knowing we had a big day planned the next day. Grade A corn on the way out as well.

B__ skiing:



AKbruin:



More skiing:





Hiking out:

[whatsupdoc]

Monday we went for the S face of Split. Started mega-early (hiking at 2:30 am), which proved to be just about right given the warm temps. We wouldn't have wanted to be much later. Skied around 11. We were all commenting that it was good we started in the dark, because the steep, dry terrain above the parking lot would have been demoralizing in the daytime. Hiked a couple of miles on a dry trail. Lost some time trying to find a good way to cross the creek. After some serious bushwhacking and engineering a makeshift log bridge, we were across the creek and not too much longer after this, on skis. Found snow at about 8k.

Sunrise:



AKbruin on the skin track:



Cardinal Mountain:



The upper portion of the N couloir for those that may be interested:



Booting:




Topping out:


Summit pano:

[whatsupdoc]

The down on split was mostly good corn, dodging the occasional debris. Probably could've skied an hour earlier for slightly better conditions. Once again, very good corn on the way out. Only a bit of mushy snow below about 9k.

B__ dropping in off the summit:



AKbruin:




B__:


AKbruin:




Turns on the apron:


AKBruin enjoying good corn on the way out:


Walking out:

[whatsupdoc]

Tuesday we did the Grand Central Couloir on Mt. Morgan North. Cool line. Good corn. Minimal walking on dirt to get to snow. B__ took off to ski radder lines (3rd Pillar). We were joined by somethingclever and his buddy. Waking up early once again was tough after the long day on Split, but was necessary given the very warm temps.

AKbruin skinning lower down on the line:




AKbruin leading the booter:


somethingclever topping out:


AKbruin:


somethingclever:


More pics from the down:

[whatsupdoc]

Wednesday my buddy and I skied Esha. AKbruin attempted the N side of Wood. Took us a while to find a suitable creek crossing. Found one near the pack station after looking around a while up near the summer TH with no success. Refreeze was quite poor that night. Even by 9:30 am the true E facing stuff was pretty cooked and heavy. Decent corn on the line on NE aspects. N aspects had a glaze crust. Good corn on the way out until about 9k after which the snow turned to mush.

Going up:






Summit pano:


Red and White Mountain:

[whatsupdoc]

Going down on Esha:





Skiing the mush:


Crossing the creek. I also opted for the straddle technique on the narrow and sloping log:

[hutash]

Way to get after it day after day. My thighs are burning just reading this TR.

[stoneman]

great stuff. thank you

[whatsupdoc]

Yesterday we did the E face of University. Once again, a very poor refreeze necessitated an early start. Temps were 46F according to the car's thermometer at Onion Valley at about 4:45 am. Despite this, we found pretty damn good corn up high. Sticky, barely skiable mank below about 10-10.5k on the way out.

E aspect of University:


Skinning near sunrise:


Booting:


Views from the notch:



Skiing:





Last night's forecast called for more very warm temps (it was 76F when we drove past the 203 exit to Mammoth on the way home) plus cloud cover. We figured the refreeze would be nonexistent. This and the approaching weather this weekend led to us driving home. Big props to AKbruin who decided to take a solo outing to the Lamarck area. What a beast! Can't wait to see those pics.

[B__]

A few more from Split with the Doc on the other side of a lens, and one of AKB in red.

[mr. hankey]

Wow you guys KILLED it! Great job. Thx for sharing.

[jorion]

Wow, such a dope series of posts!

Here are some pics of/from Ski Dream today. The clouds and wind kept it supportable for dropping in at 11. (I did not descend elegantly but a better skier would have ripped it just fine.)

Softened wind crust up high. Funnish slurpee snow down lower. Consistent snow for skinning from 7600'.

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

Wow - that is an awesome run of days. Nice work!

[AKbruin]

whatsupdoc is a damned machine.

me [before the trip]: "I was thinking of bringing some climbing gear for maybe a rest-day activity."

whatsupdoc: [silence]

me: "Are you bringing any climbing gear?"

whatsupdoc: "Nah man. I don't want to miss any ski days" [on his 10-day ski trip].

The man is hardcore. Anyhow, sick photos, buddy!

Incidentally, birthday trips to Ritter are now a thing. chill winston did it first a decade ago. I did it last year. whatsupdoc did it this year. Who is next?

[Piggity]

^u guys are all murdering it. stoke meter off the charts

[B__]

If anyone comes across a silver BD ice axe in VBowl or Third Pillar, it probably fell off my pack on Tuesday ...

[Ottime]

University looking way fatter than early April last year when I hit it. The entire bottom of the upper valley was burned out last year, with only strips of snow for the final 500'. Oddly enough, there was good coverage from the parking lot up until 11k, but then it was fairly burnt out.

[AKbruin]

Catching up on my Internet. Sick stuff, 406, dishwasher-dave, sfskier, B__, jorion, and mr. hankey. Glad to see so many people posting quality stuff here.

Fair warning: I’m about to post a ton of photos from last Saturday to Friday.

Day 1 (Mt. Aggie, East Face)

After a late start, B__ and I got to the bottom of Aggie around lunchtime, when corn conditions were perfect. Unfortunately, perfect corn makes for shitty skinning. While I flailed up the hill, however, B__ amazingly skinned straight up the 35-degree slope.


We turned around a little past halfway up before the corn overcooked. It was fine corn.


That night, we met up with whatsupdoc and BJ. We also saw a bunch of friends in Mammoth. Among those friends were the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Schralph Macchio, who were romantically shopping for his and her backcountry boots. (Congratulations again, Schralph!) We ate at the brewery, and I did the thing where I eat 3/4’s of my pizza and then save the rest for the next day’s backcountry lunch.



Day 2 (Mt. Baldwin, Southeast Couloir)

whatsupdoc seems to take a perverse pleasure in waking up early. In March we skied a south-facing couloir in Pine Creek with a trailhead car-bivy. I messed up the Daylight Saving’s time and woke him up at 2:30 a.m. instead of 3:30 a.m. as planned. He didn’t mind at all and, indeed, seem to appreciate the premature awakening. For Baldwin, whatsupdoc recommended a 4 a.m. wake up and 5 a.m. start, which ended up being perfect.

Approach swagger maximized.




whatsupdoc skins toward the couloir. The massive snow pack has made many couloirs less couloiry and more bowly this year.


whatsupdoc




BJ makes tele turns look ruggedly handsome.


Tiny humans.

[AKbruin]

Day 3 (Split Mountain, South Face)

Wake-up for this day was just before 1:30 a.m., which was painful. I felt slow, sleepy, and pretty much dragged ass the entire day despite my intake of multiple caffeinated Gu’s and a Red Bull along the way. If I were solo, I probably would have bailed. But that’s the benefit to having solid partners. They can haul your sorry ass up 8,000 vertical feet to 14,058’ for an epic day despite yourself.

As whatsupdoc mentioned before, it was a good thing we couldn't see beyond our headlamps for the first couple hours because we had a couple thousand vertical feet of rough, desert dry-hiking before we hit snow. With only our headlamps, it was just ten manageable feet at a time.


“This looks horrible. I don’t think we’re supposed to cross here.”
[Bushwacks in a conga line 15 minutes up a steep slope, looking for a crossing around 4:30 a.m.]
“Fuck. Shit. Fucking shit. Fuck. Fuck.”
[Hikes another 15 minutes through dense sage, willows, and alders, looking for any semblance of a crossing.]
“Damn it. Let’s just cross at that first place.”


whatsupdoc and B__ skin in the alpenglow.


Lack of sleep somehow makes whatsupdoc faster and stronger.


Here’s a photo of Split’s South Face I snatched from Summit Post. I assume it was taken from Cardinal.

Fact: Big mountains are rad, but the “14er” is an arbitrary designation invented by the Colorado Tourism Authority to impress east coasters, who are limited to 6ers and 5ers. And the Nepalese are like, “14ers? We’ve got a bunch of 26ers, a handful of 27 and 28ers, and even a 29er.”


whatsupdoc




BJ


This was fun.


From left to right: Cardinal, Split, Tinemaha, and Birch.


The nice thing about the Split tour—aside from the radness of the tour itself—was that everything felt downhill from that day forward. The wake-up times would be later, the approaches would be shorter and less punishing, and every day afterward would be much easier by comparison.

[gimpy]

Twitch.......

[hutash]

You are killing it this season AK, I shudder to think what your vert. total will be when you hang it up for the season, if that even happens this year.

[jorion]

I have to point out that I also have a pair of zero g 95s, and the prospect of skiing something this steep on them makes my palms sweat. I'm sure you're a way better skier than me, but damn...

[AKbruin]

I have to point out that I also have a pair of zero g 95s, and the prospect of skiing something this steep on them makes my palms sweat. I'm sure you're a way better skier than me, but damn...

whatsupdoc (pictured) and I were both on the 95 ZeroGs. I think they're great in firm and consistent snow. If I were entering a steep couloir with a firm entrance, they're the ski I'd want. But . . . I used both my ZeroGs and my 109 fully rockered Synapses on my recent trip, and I greatly preferred the latter. The Synapses were just more stable and predictable, particularly on variable snow.

[rod9301]

I have to point out that I also have a pair of zero g 95s, and the prospect of skiing something this steep on them makes my palms sweat. I'm sure you're a way better skier than me, but damn...

Can you explain?
I've heard good things about the zero g 95.

I'm on katana vwerks and I was thinking of getting the zero for firmer conditions, even though the katana hold a good edge on firm.

[AKbruin]

Day 4 (Mt. Morgan, Grand Central Couloir)

Moved by Powdork’s motivational facegram hashtags (#skieverydamnday), I let whatsupdoc persuade me to try Grand Central Couloir the day after Split (last Tuesday). Meanwhile, B__ solo’d Third Pillar in extremely puckery conditions. (Those entrance photos . . . yikes!)

Crowley Lake at dawn. Wake-up time this day was 3:45 a.m. We ran into somethingclever and his friend J at the trailhead.


Confusingly, there are two Mt. Morgans, and they are less than eight miles apart. (We rode the northern one.) Eastern Sierra mountain-namers were neither creative nor industrious in their efforts.


Saturday's line on Baldwin.


Morrison's East Face in the background and Aggie's East Face in the middleground.


Red Slate's Northeast Face and death traverse.


Lightning Bolt off of White Fang on the left. Ritter and Banner in the middle back.


BJ


somethingclever


whatsupdoc


BJ


somethingclever knows how to apres-ski.


Campground sunset.



Day 5 (Mt. Wood, North Side)

With the temperatures getting crazy high, I opted to try the north side of Mt. Wood, which I hoped would be somewhat protected from the sun. I’ve been lusting after both its Z Couloir and North Gully all year. But there haven't been many windows for such north faces. My goal was Z. whatsupdoc and BJ, however, wisely chose Esha.

Another early start.


The North Gully is the massive 2,000 vertical-foot V-shaped bowl that leads to a series of 200’ cliffs. To get in and out, one needs to do a death-traverse above those cliffs. Z Couloir is the the line to the right that snakes through the cliffs.


I followed the Rakkup guide’s map, which departs from Parker Lake Road early on and takes one on a schwacky, boggy 2.5 mile approach, most of which I walked in ski boots. This might be the best approach in the winter with low snow cover, but I regret not taking Parker Lake Road past Parker Lake and climbing directly up to Z. Instead, the Rakkup map took me to a ridge just above Parker Lake requiring a traverse across about 200 meters of thick-ass bush (not the easily trampleable sage variety). So I opted to climb up the North Gully.


I made it to the death traverse in good time (8:30 a.m.-ish) and, with decent conditions, I could have topped out before 10:30. But I got crotch-deep mank that had not refrozen the night before. I carried on the majority of the way along the death traverse, staying high above the cliffs below. But it was consistently shit-fuck snow, and descending it as the day got hotter was not going to be safe. So I hightailed it back down my bootpack and away from the cliffs.


The positives from this experience: (a) I didn’t die; (b) I got about 1,500-2000 vertical feet of decent corn on the mellow slope below; (c) my happy-hour pretzel with nacho cheese made a fine backcountry snack.


#getwillowedwednesday


But, oh, north Mt. Wood, I will be back to ski you . . . probably next year.