Mammoth Mountain reports a few inches of snow over the weekend. Gloomy skies dominated the Southland yesterday as the front passed through, bringing snow to the Sierra and possibly a dusting on the local mountains as well. Winter’s coming—and I’m ready for it. 
I was browsing the message boards at thebackcountry.net when I happened to see a new “North Peak” post. I clicked on it, thinking someone had posted a climbing trip report (North Peak’s North Couloir is a classic Sierra Ice Climb in summer).
Surprise: this wasn’t a climbing TR: it was a Sierra ski report—in July!
The photos are courtesy of SLT Joe, who skied not only North Peak’s right-hand couloir but also the notorious left couloir on 7/5.
Congrats to SLT Joe and his crew for getting out there and nabbing such a cool descent! I’ve got to award double-secret bonus points for scoring the left couloir (from the chockstone), which is I believe even steeper than the right-hand couloir (itself no slouch). I never would have guessed North Peak’s couloirs were skiable this late in the year.
Seeing these shots of North Peak rekindled fond memories of my own ski descent of the North Couloir. If you haven’t ski toured in the Yosemite area, I can’t recommend it highly enough. The skiing and scenery are spectacular.
As for North Peak, SLT Joe’s photos really capture how steep this ski descent actually is. The right-hand couloir is absolutely one of the Sierra’s spicier shots—reminiscent of an elevator shaft when you’re standing at the top staring down. As for the left couloir, check out the entire set of photos on Joe’s site, SierraFlow.com for more views of this eye-popping line.
One of the blogs I enjoy reading on a regular basis is SierraJournal.com, run by Matthew DiPietro, a Bay Area tech and communications specialist.
Matt seems to have a knack for finding interesting and news-worthy backcountry tidbits to write about, and does a far better job staying on topic than I ever could.
He also runs occasional climbing and backcountry skiing trip reports, like skiing Matterhorn Peak’s East Couloir.
Matt’s site used to be called sierra-alpinist.com, but he wanted to branch out to cover environmental and alpine news as well as offering climbing TR’s, so he nabbed the SierraJournal domain and hit the ground running.
From the mission statement:
Sierra Journal was born of a passion for mountain climbing, backcountry skiing and wilderness travel in the Sierra Nevada. Sierra Journal’s mission is to provide great outdoor-related content in the form of trip reports, mountain adventure narratives, environmental news, local and national mountain-related news, gear reviews, and other outdoor tidbits.
SierraJournal is one of a very few active Sierra-themed blogs I know about. If you haven’t already visited, browse on over and check it out.
When I skied Lone Pine Peak’s East Couloir this spring, I didn’t get a chance to take any scouting photos of the Northeast Face in its entirety.
Here’s a recent shot of the face from near Independence, showing the entire face and drainage right down to the desert—all 6500 vertical feet of it.
Looking at this view, it’s easy to see why I doubted the route would be continuous to the summit.
And this angle if anything de-emphasizes the actual steepness of the upper headwall.
I have to say I think this is one of the most aesthetic skiable lines in the entire range. Part of what makes the route so special is the unlikely connection between the lower drainage, the slabs of the northeast face, and then the (hidden in this view) east couloir to the summit.
In Lone Pine Peak, you get a huge summit descent to the Owen Valley desert in a strikingly short horizontal span—reminiscent of Mount San Jacinto’s Snow Creek Route. I’m going to have to repeat this one again. It was extraordinary.
The Mt. San Antonio Ski Hut crew are back to work this weekend and coming weeks, and still looking for volunteers to assist in carrying loads up to the hut, as well as extra hands while they’re repairing the hut.
I believe people who help out earn credits toward host usage, which means you get to stay in the hut in winter and use it as a backcountry skiing basecamp, so if you’ve got some free time and energy, RSVP to Gil and get your hands dirty.
Robert Bland and I will be installing the “dry” portion of the Hut roof the week of July 7th and are reaching out for some help. We need a minimum of 2-4 people to assist. The more people we have, the quicker things will go. We anticipate 2-4 days to get the job done.
Please email me if you are available to assist for a day, or more.
We still need some help for this weekend if you are available.
RSVP:
Gil — OffPiste1@aol.com
SMS Leader Alvin Walter sent me a few photos from his trip up the Sierra’s Rock Creek drainage over Memorial Weekend.
Alvin encountered ‘full winter conditions’ with up to a foot and a half of new powder.
Looking at all that gorgeous snow, all I can think is, where were you three months ago!
Sounds like those of you who braved the mixed forecast over the weekend got some excellent late-season skiing.
Farther south, people are reporting about a foot of new snow above 10,000′ in the Whitney Region.
With the switchbacks above Trail Camp completely covered, that’s going to be more than enough to abort summit bids for most parties. So, for the time being, expect challenging conditions if you have hiking or climbing plans in the Sierra.
As for skiing, it’s hard to say what you’ll find over the next few weeks. With such a wide variety of conditions across the range, from sun cups to ice to bare rock, that foot or so of new snow has a lot of work to do to make for sustainable skiing—especially when you factor in an unfiltered June sun. It may be that Memorial Day was the last big hurrah for Sierra Skiing. Or maybe there are a few fine stashes still waiting to be found.
THIS JUST IN: Climbing Mt. Williamson is still Hard.
Really Hard.
SierraDescents personally verified this yesterday, with an ascent and ski of the south-facing couloir between Mt. Williamson’s East and West Horns, accessed via the Bairs Creek Cirque. Ironically, I had no intention of trying this route this year, but a friend was interested in doing it. That got me thinking about trying to climb the horns, and ski the south-facing chute from the notch. Ended up doing it solo because of schedule snafus (more…)
Grab your car keys: Tioga Pass Road is open to Ellerly Lake and the Yosemite park entrance, coming from Highway 395.
Reports are that snow was very hard and frozen last weekend, with little softening, thanks to chilly temps (and even some rain). Mount Dana does not sound fun: rocky upper and too much bare ice on the couloirs below.
South Lake may have the best skiing until things soften up farther north. Sun cups are reportedly manageable in the area.
Horseshoe Meadows Road is now open to the meadows gate, with the campground roads still snowbound beyond. Haven’t heard anything about skiing here or the Langley region, except for this report of skiing Langley’s Northeast Couloir. Looks a little bare to me.
I’m debating the fairly crazy notion of a Bairs trip this weekend. Guess Birch Mountain didn’t beat me up enough—though it did take a full week to recover.
As for the local mountains, I haven’t heard anything. I do believe there’s still snow on north aspects, but no word as to whether or not it’s soft enough for good skiing.
Saturday I skied Birch Mountain with a group of skiers from the Angeles Sierra Club’s ski mountaineer’s section.
I don’t get the opportunity to ski in groups that often, thanks to my schedule and reclusive personality, but I do enjoy it, and it makes for fantastic photo ops.
The dynamic is also completely different when traveling with others as opposed to going solo.
I naturally try to go with the flow when I’m with others, which can lead to interesting dilemmas.
Birch Mountain is one of the Sierra’s true giants. It stands 13,665′ feet high, and the approach begins around 6300′, for a whopping 7300+ vertical feet of climbing.
Nonetheless, the approach is one of the easiest you’ll find from Big Pine south, with essentially no bushwhacking and no route finding necessary.
Our group planned a 6 a.m. meet time, which was obviously late to begin with for a day trip to the summit.
Some disagreement about which road to take tacked on an extra hour, so we didn’t get started until after 7 a.m.
This time of year, my primary concern (really, my only concern) is wet slides. Since we were ascending and skiing Birch’s southeast slopes on a warm, relatively windless day, I was worried that our late start would put us on the mountain when things got dangerously mushy.
As it turns out, that concern was unfounded (more…)
Today’s Notes from the Field come courtesy of my friend Bill, whose adventures on Mount Williamson served as an early inspiration to me on my own quest to ski California’s second-highest peak.
Bill has a thing for the George Creek approach, which appears here and there in the guidebooks, usually with a sly recommendation ala …for an extra-special adventure, don’t miss this unforgettable Sierra bushwacking classic… (more…)
