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


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[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.

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[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.

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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

[Island Bay]

Ms IB and I are keen to do an Eastern Sierra spring touring trip maybe in 2026. Is this the book to geek out on in the meantime?

https://www.wolverinepublishing.com/...4OuCJxjZhhM7jG

[Blaster]

Ms IB and I are keen to do an Eastern Sierra spring touring trip maybe in 2026. Is this the book to geek out on in the meantime?

https://www.wolverinepublishing.com/...4OuCJxjZhhM7jG

100%

[Island Bay]

Thank you [emoji120]

[~mikey b]

that’s the book you want

[Perlhammered]

Didn't see a 24/25 thread, so figured this is the right spot.Heading up to the Mammoth area this weekend for some touring. Given the amount of snow coming in, figure that low-angle and trees is probably our best bet. I've skied Bishop Bowl a couple of times and have that as a solid option, but any other recs for lower angle terrain as far north as Lee Vining-ish?

[Blaster]

Couldn’t find a current thread so bumping the most recent banner year.


Dana Plateau coverage. 500 ish vert walk to skiable snow in V bowl.


The cornice on solstice relatively small.

Good coverage in the saddlebag lakes area too.

[claymond]

Kindergarten chute a couple weeks ago. Had hoped to ski checkered demon but after scoping from the bottom and the top it didn't appear to go. Snow was great and we were able to drive to continuous snow at 8500 feet. Kind of ideal snow levels for those of us who make up for lack of fitness with 4 wheel drive skills.

The next day we did powerhouse, also great pow all the way through the lower choke. Always love being on the plateau!

On Friday we did Bloody. It hadn't been high on my list for some reason, but was pretty cool. The approach kinda sucked, too much snow to drive very far, not enough to ski out very far. The couloir itself was surprisingly good, chunky soft snow with a little edgeable windboard mixed in.

Sunday we attempted mini pinner. We were too late to top out. At 0900 we were about half an hour from the top, but the snow was already boot unsupportable. There was also water running below the snowpack. We called it. Right thing to do, but tough to be that close.

[fleaches]

Wineglass on Sunday. Dropped in at about 2pm and the upper slopes still hadn't softened. Middle and bottom were excellent though.


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[406]

Nice work! Thanks for posting.

[wordbird]

No pictures to contribute, but seeing lots of iffy lines that should be in with an "average" snowpack. Twin lakes is melted about 1000' above the lakes, lots of windfucked lines in Sherwin-Wheeler ridge area(but Wineglass couloir was somehow in this year, only good line i've skied this spring here). I think Buttermilk is a bit better. Found a new resource(at least for me) with recent satellite imagery, can save you from driving to completely bare lines in the future.https://sierra.report/conditions/sno...ellite-imagery