Eastern Sierra BC 2022-23

[~mikey b]

Virginia Lakes Road is open

[bobz]

That spot at the top of the Whitney Mountaineers Route where one briefly crosses the top of Whitney's north slope is notoriously icy, and numerous people have died sliding off from that area. I have a running club friend who did the Mountaineers Route two weeks ago, and turned back just past the top of the gully (Strava shows him making it to 14175') because they didn't feel safe proceeding further high on the north slope.

Why two out of two died is indeed a good question, and makes me wonder if there was a snow patch on top of the ice that slid out for both of them.

[whatsupdoc]

^^^ nice! N Gabb looks sweet


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[emcee]

dis you or anyone you know?

[sweatypowderpig]

green creek plus hulk left. I really enjoy having the summer trails dry, makes for super straight-forward approaches. None of that skis on skis off nonsense. There was legit pow in dunderberg n couloir and great corn on green creek and hulk. We also nailed the green creek exit with minimal schwacking for once.

Anyone ever skied those N couloirs off the far south peak of Mt Walt at the south end of little slide canyon?

[~mikey b]

Sonora Pass opening today

[~mikey b]

120 open to the park

[emcee]

I got out to twin lakes last weekend and we made some mistakes. I'm not sure where in the plinko machine of objective selection, route selection, approach etc we went wrong... I think it starts with this photo that my buddy dredged up out of his dad's old photo album:



he got in his head to recreate this pic his dad took with his bud in the mid 90s. "peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from god" so of course i was down to come along and re-create it. it mentions matternhorn and walt, so after a bunch of time on maps i guessed that this was taken from the viewpoint marked below-- a little knob on the north shoulder of Walt -- it didnt have a name on maps so, after this past weekend, ive been calling it Misery Knob and it lived up to the name



we approached from the north side and shot right up the chute drainage, which was first mistake as it was like a 3k 45 degree bootpack the whole way. fak



we descended a chute that we didnt hike up and got plinko'd out into some extremely cliffy choked out terrain. like 100 yard snowpatches and then downclimbing through boulder chokes with ice axes in rotten undercut snow. fak



last 800 vert of descent was completely melted out strep shitbush thwack, and after all that we didnt even get the shot right. FAK



i think we were too low and needed to be up higher at the top of one of the hulky couloirs in the background of our photo. we were too smoked from the unexpected schwack and infinity bootpack to head higher. does anybody think they know where that original old pic was taken???

i did, however, get to watch the motherfrikken aurora from my tent so karma can be kind

[~mikey b]

FKNA

[Blaster]

The weak refreeze Saturday made for an early start but wood had great corn around 9:30-10



A still lots of snow in the actual line and a whole lot more around Banner and north.


Sunday was a magical day where the wind kept the corn window open well into the afternoon.


Suncups are starting to show on flat areas but northerly lines were super smooth.

[rod9301]

green creek plus hulk left. I really enjoy having the summer trails dry, makes for super straight-forward approaches. None of that skis on skis off nonsense. There was legit pow in dunderberg n couloir and great corn on green creek and hulk. We also nailed the green creek exit with minimal schwacking for once.

Anyone ever skied those N couloirs off the far south peak of Mt Walt at the south end of little slide canyon?

Is there a summer trail that goes towards the incredible hulk?

Couldn't find it on the map.

Sent from my moto g 5G using Tapatalk

[TahoeBC]

Thanks for the report Blaster, felt those cool breezes today while mountain biking and was regretting not hunting for corn, back on the program for the rest of the week

[sweatypowderpig]

Is there a summer trail that goes towards the incredible hulk?

Couldn't find it on the map.

Sent from my moto g 5G using Tapatalk

Yup, you start on the Barney lake trail in mono village, then you peel off left about 2.5miles in at a big flat topped boulder, climbers trail goes across the creek on a logjam, then continues up the rocks on the east side of the mouth of little slide canyon, it benches out and then continues all the way to the hulk. Snow currently starts up on the bench in little slide canyon.

the climbers trail is marked as blue dots on CalTopo

[Blaster]

I love how cushy spring overnight trips on the eastside can be. Camping on dirt, running water so no need to endlessly melt snow, and still very nice corn on North aspects.

Tons of fun options around.

[~mikey b]

Saddlebag Lake Road open

you can skin to Greenstone and stiff from the dam

Conness and False White look phat