Eastern Sierras 2010-11: The Eternal Stoke

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

Boom - thanks 213!

[ja_surf]

Beta shot from today


Link to big version
http://home.comcast.net/~tahoebackco...no/Virgina.JPG

[SchralphMacchio]

yes! was thinking of getting out there this weekend!

[ja_surf]

I was to, till I looked at the weather

[Franz Klammer]

Mt. Wood: East Face or Northeast Face (Hanging Gardens)? Anyone care to chime in?

[SchralphMacchio]

damn the weather forecast for Sunday is making me feel better about needing to take a day to do some work this weekend. A Ginny to Lundy day looks like a freaking incredible time with this coverage. So many options.

[Jbaysurfer]

Franz,

There's a shot about 2/3 way down the page on this TR that might help ya:

http://splitboard.com/talk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11073 from 4/16 though.

[Franz Klammer]

The east face of Mt. Wood was awesome. Thanks to the coverage in the protected northeast facing gully at the end we skied it all the way from the summit down to Grant Lake: http://goo.gl/maps/iBH0

Oh, and Sunday was superb. May powder day in a totally empty resort. What more would you want?

[SchralphMacchio]

Nice Franz, see you this weekend? Thinking about the Crest Friday due to all the Mini folks being around town, and then thinking about Tioga, Lundy, or Ginny on Sunday depending on conditions & access.

[Franz Klammer]

Nice Franz, see you this weekend? Thinking about the Crest Friday due to all the Mini folks being around town, and then thinking about Tioga, Lundy, or Ginny on Sunday depending on conditions & access.

I wish! Unfortunately, I am at a conference in Boston. I am also away the following weekend in Chicago. However, Hansi Hinterseer and I will be spending a fabulous Memorial Day weekend in Mammoth.

Now, here are some pictures from Saturday and Sunday.

Morning Wood:


Justin about to top out on Mt. Wood:


5,450 ft of corn:


Justin descending from the summit:


Turns further down the face:


Rode it switch all the way to the lake:


Another item ticked off the list (we skied the middle couloir):


Bonus resort shots from Sunday -- we hiked for 10 minutes so I reckon that counts:

[bodywhomper]

thread dripping stoke.....

[AKbruin]

Nice, Franz! Possible target for this weekend.

[213]

holy crap franz, talk about scoring the best of conditions in two mountain wonderlands! i'm in climbing mode, but whoa, maybe its still too early to begin the whimpering and thrutching with the last piece out of site below and the palms starting to grease off the knobs...corn sounds pretty tasty!

[AKbruin]

Missing from this photo: the Black Hawk helicopter on scene (and fortunately not used) and paramedics.


So, this weekend didn't go as planned. While skinning up a steep and icy part of Powerhouse, a ski buddy (and very strong bc skier) lost his footing, fell, accelerated at a ridiculous speed, and then slammed into a rock wall. It was terrifying, to say the least. Kind of a hard image to get out of my head. Anyhow, (surprising) the ski buddy is mainly okay considering the magnitude of the collision and that he pretty much had a large, skull-exposing flap on his scalp and left a ridiculous amount of blood on the snow. A few random thoughts in the aftermath:

(1) We had a Spot device and radios, which were extremely helpful in working with SAR. This event convinced me to buy my own Spot device.

(2) Switching over to boot crampons and ice axe, while not always convenient, is often the safe move. (Especially if you have shitty skinning technique like yours truly.)

(3) On steep, icy slopes, you have maybe 2-3 seconds to self-arrest in a fall. After that, you're simply moving too fast. A whippet might have saved him, but it's really hard to say.

(4) It's not a bad idea to break out the helmet on steep, icy ascents.

(5) I need to take a wilderness first aid course. One of the guys in our party had taken the first responder's course, and it made a huge difference.

(6) The search and rescue folks around Mono Country are awesome.

Stay safe out there, folks!

[snowranger]

Good to hear your buddy is okay. That kind of accident is at the top of my list. I just bought a whippet because it is always at hand. You might consider ski crampons too.

[Skeeze]

That's terrifying. Considering I did Powerhouse last weekend having never skinned before, without any crampon/ice axe/whippet, or a SPOT locator, I certainly feel lucky right now. We did put on helmets before the steep ascent to the top and I was frequently thinking about how there was absolutely no way to self arrest in case of a slip.

[SchralphMacchio]

dang AK, what day was this? Glad to hear things didn't turn out worse. ++vibes for the injured guy. Would you mind elaborating about when/where the fall occurred? I topped out the Plateau via East Peak on Friday (ask me about the V-bowl hike), Sherwins & resort Saturday. I'm guessing if this was Saturday that you guys were skinning on a thin rain crust that refroze on Friday night from the cold winds. It started raining on the Plateau around 5:45 PM on Friday - not a lot of rain but it was definitely storming really hard over Mono Lake, the Whites, Darwin (see UCL's mega TR) and other places at times on Friday.

There should also be full 3G service in the Powerhouse drainage, right?

edit: btw, for you guys thinking about whippets, I don't think you have 2-3 seconds to self arrest ... probably less. The firmer the crust, the more difficult a thing it is to do and you'll rip your arm off if you're not ready for the stopping force. You're not holding it in self-arrest style like an ice axe so it's really easy to get the pick way above your center of gravity during self arrest. I've got firsthand experience with this, though thankfully not over exposed terrain.


also, there is some damn nice powder on top of death crust out there today ... the resort was $$$ yesterday. 4 to 14" depending on elevation and windloading. Not sure what the forecast looks like in terms of when this is going to glop up or how long it might take to corn. But there were face shots and small rock hucks going down inbounds on May 15th ... good stuff.

[Skeeze]

I didn't get any cell service with AT&T until the Plateau on Powerhouse.

[AKbruin]

This was Saturday. It was at the top of the mini-plateau, which is maybe 2000 vertical feet above the power plant. Three of the crew, including the guy injured, had climbed up Powerhouse and skied Third Pillar on Friday. They said there was light rain for like 30 minutes but conditions were otherwise ideal.

Yeah, no cell service in the drainage, but as Skeeze mentioned, you should be able to get a signal on top of the Plateau itself.

This is where the Spot came in handy. It takes SAR a bit of time to gather in Mammoth Lakes and then make the 40 minute drive to the Plateau. Then there is about 30 minutes of equipement gathering and game planning before they even leave the parking lot. So, the guy with the Spot was able to initiate the process early in our case. Three guys tended to the injured party while I jammed down, made the 911 call, and coordinated with the Sheriffs and SAR. But the nice thing is that SAR and the Black Hawk heli were already on their way. So the Spot probably saved about an hour's worth of the time. (Note: SAR said this was the first time somebody had actually used the Spot in an actual emergency.)

As for the whippet, it's hard to say. He said it probably would have helped. Not all skinning falls are instantaneous. A lot of times they start off fairly slowly.

Ski crampons also would have helped. That said, I had ski crampons on about 200' below, and I was struggling so much that I had already transitioned into boot crampons.

[jimw]

Glad you guys are OK. I know exactly where you're talking about. Skinned that area a few times but it's almost always sketchy in the spring, even w/ski crampons. Seems like it's often easier to just boot all the way to midway bench before skinning.

Also glad to hear that the Spot worked. I have one but have thankfully never had to use it in an emergency.

Re: whippet - definitely could have helped. Might not have... but certainly wouldn't have hurt! They have so many other uses too, that I always carry both of mine. Sometimes I get shit for it, but I don't care. They have helped me in similar slips while skinning, and are also useful when booting steep slopes, not to mention other non-obvious uses like scratching that impossible-to-reach itch.

[SchralphMacchio]

Ahh thanks AK for the background info. That all makes sense. Conditions definitely were pretty good Friday - all day corn window with refreeze starting around 3:30 PM ... though the dry hike to V-bowl and skin to the bench were brutally hot.

I'm not saying whippets aren't useful or a good added measure. I like mine and because it was stolen I bought another one. I use it all the time in the spring and if you're thinking about one, check them out. I'm just saying it's not like some fantasy tool where all of the sudden going up sketchy stuff instantly becomes safe with a whippet in hand. Just like any other tool it requires practice and thought about how it can/would be used in certain situations. Really nice for punching up a cooler while booting for sure.

[hardboiled]

dang, glad it sounds like things went pretty well after the accident. I usually boot that section too. skinning steep icy slopes spooks me, even with whippet and ski cramps. at least you were in a pretty accessible place (as far as eastern sierra bc goes). also good to hear about the Spot in action. I got one for christmas a couple years ago and wasn't really keen to add it to my pack but it sounds like it did its job in this case.

[BGnight]

Lol, I love that this thread is crammed with so much goodness.
My contribution:

I drove rughty and bs down to one of my all time favorite eastsliding areas to show them some classics. We weren't sure what to expect with the 4-6" we just received, but I decided high, north facing would be the primary objective since it was supposed to get warm. It seemed to be the right call as everything else became sticky, loose mank as the sun warmed things up that day. The new snow put all the corn on hold for the time being so you gotta make due.



camp:




We soon arrive at our objective (right).


Ken and Ben are stoked. There was a bit of apprehension as in the back of our minds we thought there might only be a few inches of dust on crust in the chute as the skin in showed no evidence of new snow. Apparently all the new snow had already froze so it was hard to tell how much came down as you were skinning on top of it the whole way in.


Once we got on the apron the snow started getting deep! One side of the couloir was deeper than the other and it varied from 3-18" of pow on top of the crust. Muuuch better than we expected even being at the bottom. The top 100' though was pretty variable, with a swath of frozen boot tracks/chickenheads and ski tracks with very little pow on a firm surface. I decided it looked scary to climb and unpleasant to ride so I just strapped in where the good snow ended. Ken joined me and bs continued to the top. Props to him for topping out and dealing with a steep, sketchy entrance.

Ben charging:




I lugged my slr up for the first time this season but didn't really set up for super good shots as it was hard to find a place on the side that was soft enough to take my pack off. I'm still not adept at knowing how to quickly set up for good shots. It takes practice. Plus, it's so hard not to just want to say eff it and just shred! :lol: Guys like bcd and Zach make that shit look easy! Still pleased with the results:














Shralped!




On to the kindergarten. Ken and Ben went up and checked out the entrance to checkered demon and said it looked pretty phat. I need to hit that one some day but really want to climb it first as dropping that thing from the top is super intimidating to me. I think Ben will post a pic of the entrance for those that are interested.

Ben/Ken riding down from the C.D.


Our next run


Ben. Top was a tad firm, but it became nice and soft not too far down:


gettin' to the good stuff:


Shredding!




Ken:






Such an awesome day with awesome snow! I straight ran outta the shade at the bottom of the run into the mank where I instantly went over the bars due to the sticky snow and broke the gopro off my head. I found it but it's still not working properly :nononno:
(it's worth watching the end of pov :lol

That night after some Mexican food we camped out with some cool skies treating us to a show :doobie:










We went up to Mt Johnson the second day but I didn't take any pictures.

Driving home we get the view that first made me fall in love with the Sierra when I was about 17 y.o.


Sick zone!:

[MapleLeafGillies]

Wow, sounds scary for sure. One other question - how did you evacuate the injured skier? Was he able to get out under his own power? Glad to hear everyone was okay!

[SchralphMacchio]

Nice BG! Been thinking about that zone for the week of Memorial Day (which I have off) ... heard the snowline is a bit high, so is access a complete PITA without a high clearance vehicle?