TR - Another big first descent in 2006

**chill winston** · 06-24-2006, 06:57 AM

Silver Peak (8,424') - First Documented Bigfoot Descent

The Gear

The Objective

I have been eyeing the east face of Silver Peak for years -- waiting for the right conditions, ample snowpack, stable weather and sufficient self confidence to tackle this tahoe area testpiece. With my kids safely ensconsced in their beds at naptime and the wife having granted me a three hour window to play, I quickly logged onto the Central Sierra Avy Forecast and hoped for good news. The page hadn't been updated since May 2nd, so I ran a quick algorithm to calculate the historical snowdepth, average mean temps and wind speed to extrapolate today's forecast. Today's avy danger is (drumroll...) "Low" Game on!

Since I only had a few hours, this was going to be a trailrunning as well as skiing adventure. I grabbed my pack and ran out the backdoor.

After 20 minutes, I hit the ridge where I gazed over at the untold thousands of people skiing over at KT-22.

Why would all those people pay money to ski crowded packed down trails when they could be skiing the untracked right across the valley? Man I hate those resorts.

As the ridge turned north up towards Silver Peak, I was lucky to escape with my life as I passed through the dreaded Brambles Icefall.

Ridge gained. Phew.

Summit getting closer. Look at that MACKIN' snowpack. This could be one for the ages.

After the Brambles, the chossy scramble up the lower spire is the crux.

Objective danger lurks everywhere.

The summit. Notice the cliff band off the top to the snowline

TONY DUNGY!

A primo day in the rugged alpine environment. Lake Tahoe shimmers below.

From the top, the summit cliff band looked a bit more spicy than it did through the binoculars from 100 feet below. Definitely a mandatory rap. Alas, I had left my rando rope down at the house, and now I was facing a ski mountaineer's worst dilemma: I could either downclimb the face to snowline, or I could huck off the summit risking certain greivous harm. The first option was a non-starter. Everyone knows that if you don't ski off the summit, it doesn't count. And I hadn't waited years for this opportunity to be denied. So I put on my skis and started ripping right off the summit, gingerly stepping over rocky obstacles for about 50 vertical feet.

At snowline, I didn't stop to catch my breath; the adrenal glands were working overtime. I proceeded to arc monster bigfoot slalom turns down the face.

I paused momentarily at the headwall to assess the hazards, then schralped it. FKNA!

Then into the gulley, where I found at least another 200 vertical feet.

End of the line.