Sierras Spring Break

Spring Break in the Sierras-

Becky and I have done a couple longish backpacking trips in the Sierras, the John Muir Trail and the northern half of the Sierra High Route, but we’d never seen the range in the winter. This seemed like it this was the year to get down to California and finally do some touring, but her nursing school schedule had us limited to only a handful of days in late March. Decided four days prior to spring break that a short time in the sun in the Sierras would still be worth it, so we scrounged what info we could and barreled down there.

I think we basically spent four days skinning around mouths agape staring at the lifetime of beautiful ski runs to be had in every direction. The Dan Mingori & Nate Greenberg Backcountry Skiing Californias Eastern Sierra 2nd Edition is a fantastic guidebook. I’d also recommend getting the supplemental app (you can buy it or rent it), being new to the area, it was cool to have the routes accessible on our phone while out touring.

Road access is pretty good right now, but it’ll get better. In late April a lot more roads are plowed out so anglers can start fishing at all the high lakes. Buttermilk Rd suffered some damage this winter, you may need a 4x4 for that one, but it seems like a lot of the other roads are paved the whole way.  Rock Creek is the only snowpark in the Mammoth/Bishop vicinity, and supposedly you can buy a day pass at the snowpark, but we couldn’t find the pay station maybe its there, maybe it would be better to get a pass at the ranger station.

Watch the overnight low temps- seems like corn o clock can be as early as 9am some days. Maybe wind is less of an issue later in the spring, but wow did we have a windy day and got totally shut down on finding soft snow in the alpine on one of our tours.

We didn’t check out anything north of Mammoth- given our short amount of time, we only managed to do a tour around Convict Lake/Mini Morrison, then Bishop Bowl near North Lake, Mt.Alice out of Big Pine, and McGee, just south of Mammoth. The locals we met on McGee said some seasons it never gets enough snow to be skiable, but this year it was fat.

Wish we would’ve had a few weeks to spend down there- skiing wide open terrain into warm sagebrush valleys is a trip.

Linky to photos here

New Years skiing

Link to all the pictures here

I had a four-day weekend and Becky was on winter break and the snow conditions were setting up to make for an epic weekend.

Day 1 - Bullion Basin.   Amazingly our group never saw anyone on the east side of the basin all day. No other ski tracks to cross, no competition for what pitch to ski next, just total solitude.

Day 2 - Mt.Snoqualmie.   Becky and I wanted to get back to town in time to watch the Peach Bowl, so we figured we'd just do a quick half day.  We climbed up the Phantom trees and upper south slope of Snoqualmie and had some amazing views and great snow.  We were shocked that the Slot Couloir hadn't been skied yet that day, but as a rule we always like to have a rope to ski-cut the top of it....no rope (and not enough time either) so some other lucky folks got fresh tracks.

Day 3 - Chair Peak Circumnavigation.   Back up to Snoqualmie with our friends early on Sunday.   The snow was even better than the day before now that the breakable crust at the lower elevations was covered with about eight inches of fresh snow.
As we approached Byrant Col, the weather socked in and we couldn't see anything.   We were concerned about stability and lack of visibility, so we opted to tour around Pineapple Pass instead.   Every time I pass by Melakwa Lake, I wanna camp out there and ski all the slopes in the vicinity.  It was a pleasant surprise to reach Melakwa Pass and see that there were only three sets of ski tracks out in front of us...plenty of room for fresh lines for all of us.  Everyone kept chugging along and we rolled into the Alpental parking lot with about fifteen minutes of daylight left before we would've had to click on our headlamps.

Day 4 - Chair Peak north slopes.  The crew from the previous days touring wasn't up for another day, but Ross and Bob hadn't been out yet this weekend, so I tagged along with them.   First lap was down the Snow Lake couloir, then back up the north shoulder of Chair Peak and down the main north slopes to the lake.   I was glad the day wrapped up around 2pm as my legs were beginning to feel like lead bricks after the previous days trips.

Wyoming road trip! Wind River range backpacking with the Tetons and Yellowstone on the drive home

Photo album here

link to the Hillmap page showing our route


For years Becky has been talking about the Wind River Range in Wyoming. She'd be out there to visit Cirque of the Towers before we started dating and thought the area was amazing. When brainstorming destinations for our end of the summer backpacking trip, this seemed like a good option - supposedly similar to the Sierras, but way fewer people, no permits and by late summer we'd likely miss the bugs and afternoon thunderstorms.

We took two days to get out to Pinedale, the small town at the western base of the central Winds. The weather had been cold and wet on the drive out. We hoped that was the 'late summer snowstorm' the various guidebooks mentioned and that we'd have nice Indian Summer weather and no mosquitoes for our trip. The weather cleared out on the day before we drove to the trailhead and we could see the alpine was shellacked with fresh snow.

Day 1 was all on-trail, heading from the Elkhart Park trailhead to Cook Lakes. It ended up being a little confusing though with the multitude of trail intersections and signage that was either absent or tilted at 45 degrees. By early evening we were camped near Cook Lakes, looking forward to our first stretch of off-trail travel on day two.

Day 2 was almost all off trail from Cook Lakes to Indian Basin.  While researching various routes, we thumbed through the Falcon brand hiking and climbing guidebooks for the Wind River range and found them to be sorely lacking in the usual kind of trips that we like to do. Fortunately, I stumbled on to the 'Beyond Trails in the Wind River Mtns of Wyoming' by Nancy Pallister. This was what we needed.  A former NOLS instructor created a book with a ton of cool off-trail routes. We used her book to string together a couple off-trail sections with on-trail travel and came up with a 60 mile loop that was low commitment enough that we could get back to the car in two days or less if something went sideways on the trip. 

Traveling from Cook Lakes to Wall Lakes, over Wall-Island Pass and into the base of Indian Basin was fun...albeit slow going.  Lots of boulder hopping and a little lakeside scrambling. By dinner time we were at Lake 10,813. Finding a flat tent-site was a little challenging amidst all the boulders and hummocks.

Day 3.   We hiked up into Indian Basin proper, ditched some of our overnight gear and day hiked up to Indian Pass to get a glimpse over the Continental Divide. Tons of wonderful lakes in the basin...well worth the trip! After lunch, we gathered up our cached gear and headed on-trail into Titcomb Lakes Basin, allegedly one of the most popular destinations in the Wind River mountains.  It wasn't at all crowded, but after yesterday and not seeing anyone, it was still a bit of an adjustment to see other parties every twenty minutes or so. It was really windy that night and our poor lightweight tent did not fare too well until we lashed it down with some additional parachute cord.

Day 4.  Up early to tackle Knapsack Pass. We knew this would be the worst of the off-trail travel on our loop. Fortunately, the day before we met two nice fellows who'd just descended from the pass and they said there wasn't any snow travel involved...no need for our microspikes and self-arrest grip ski poles after all. The travel was easy until the last 200 vertical feet to the pass. The smaller talus and scree on the left provided a thin covering on top of rock-hard, old glacial ice (very slippery), and the boulders to the right looked somewhat precarious, but we scrambled up the boulders and were safely on the pass in no-time.  

Off the west side, there was a faint trail that made for easy travel down towards Peak Lake. We stopped early that day though when we found an idyllic campsite next to a small teal-green tarn and a perfect windbreak of small scrubby trees. The afternoon was spent napping in the sun and reading.

Day 5.   A few boulders to hop down to Peak Lake and then on-trail over Shannon Pass. We were now on the home-stretch of the loop and were well ahead of schedule. By lunchtime we dumped our packs at lower Jean Lake and spent another lazy afternoon in the sun.

Day 6.  About half the parties leaving the trailhead listed 'Island Lake' as their destination. We had yet to see Island Lake, so we detoured off-trail from Jean Lake over to Island Lake for lunch. It was pretty, but so were all the other destinations we'd see the past few days (we were so spoiled!) Fortunately, the labor day weekend crowds were long gone and it was rather peaceful. We figured we'd put in a few more miles and camp near Seneca Lake for the night as our weather radio had said the next day would be cool and rainy.

As we neared Seneca Lake though, we decided to put in a few more miles and make our rainy 7th day hike back to the car a little shorter. Funny thing was that shortly after leaving Seneca Lk we started to smell smoke, and then see plumes of it rising from the valley below us. This was the hottest, windiest day yet that week and it was clear a wildfire had started. Without having any details on it, we were reluctant to set up camp, so we kept on hiking towards a viewpoint called Photographers Point to see if we could suss out what was going on.

When we arrived at the Point, we met several in-bound parties who'd stopped and called 911. We had a clear view below to an uncontrolled fire, crowning in the canopy a couple miles away.  Helicopters were orbiting regularly and Becky and I decided it was time to head for the car. Just earlier in the day we'd been joking about how we only liked doing high-mileage days when backpacking in our comfy, lightweight sneakers and now here we were, walking seventeen miles that day in our heavy, stiff, high-topped leather hiking boots. Oh well.

We arrived at the trailhead around 7pm, just as a ranger was stapling up a 'trail closed' sign. A few local wildland fire fighters were milling about and we all got a good laugh that Becky and I were scooting out just as the trail was being closed. The next challenge of the day was whether we could make it to Pinedale in time to score a motel room and a meal on a late Sunday night.  Fortunately the Sundance Motel had a vacancy and the Wind River Brewery stays open late, so burgers, beers, a shower and a clean bed were all found Sunday night.

Monday was drizzly and cool, as expected and we heard that the fire had died down overnight and they were able to reopen the trailhead. We spent the day doing laundry and figuring out the rest of our trip. Tuesday it was off to Jackson and up into Grand Teton NP for some sight-seeing and day hiking. Wednesday through Friday was spent in Yellowstone seeing all the sites - Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Yellowstone Lake, Old Faithful and a million small to large geysers, thermal pools and mud pots plus a bunch of bison to boot. I can't imagine what the summertime crowds must be like. Fortunately the crowds had died down somewhat by the time we were there and it wasn't too much of a zoo. Friday morning we got up early and did a little more sightseeing in the north part of the park before hitting the road and barreling through Montana, Idaho, and Washington to arrive home that night.

Cerise Creek, BC

photo album here

Becky's spring break had arrived and we had some skiing to do.   Unfortunately, I was sidelined with a cold that turned into bronchitis the week before.  We decided to stick with our plans to head to BC and just get in as much skiing as we could.
Keiths Hut is a first-come first served cabin near Mt.Matier and Joffre Peak.  We'd been up there a couple years before and mid-week there had only been a few people there- plenty of space in the sleeping loft for us to stay.   Turns out that Becky's spring break coincided with the local school spring breaks too- so many a student and teacher was up there as well.  When we arrived at the pullout along the highway we saw that eight cars already parked there meant that it was probably pretty busy, so we packed out tent just in case.
A couple hours of easy skiing up through the forest and we arrived- sure enough the hut was jam packed, so we set up our tent nearby- at least we'd have a nice warm place to have breakfast and dinner before heading out to the tent. 
The day we arrived it was overcast and snowing lightly- the previous week the weather had been clear and cold, and then had a day of rather warm weather which pretty much cooked all the powder into crust or glop.  We ran a few laps on the ridge above the hut...good skiing, not great.
Day 2 and 3, more snow, poor visibility, but we were finally zeroing in on the best place to play- a 1000ft slope on the side of Vantage Peak had 2-3ft of wind deposited powder, was steep enough to be fun, but still shallow enough to not have much worry about avalanches.  The wind was howling so much that every lap we had to break a fresh trail up through the powder to get to our previous high point.  Toward the end of day 3, Becky started to get a sore throat- a sign that my cold had migrated on over to her.
Friday was sunny and clear- a perfect day in the mountains, but Becky had a full blown cold at this point, I was still a little under the weather, and the previous three day storm cycle had us reluctant to race up into the alpine and ski anything all that steep.   We settled on two very nice laps of sunny powder above the hut before we packed up our gear and headed home.   Not quite the week of epic skiing we'd hoped for, but good enough.  

2015-16 season days 7-10, Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass

Chair Peak circumnavigation pictures
Arrowhead Peak pictures
Snoqualmie Pass pictures
McClellan Butte pictures

Becky had one week of winter break left before starting her next quarter of nursing school and I was taking a long 5-day weekend over New Years....fortunately the weather cooperated for us to get out four days in a row for a lot of good backcountry skiing.   We thought about doing an overnighter, but with the snow being so good at Snoqualmie and Stevens and after last season's terrible snowpack, we were more excited about just being powder pigs and hitting all our favorite old tours than spending some cold 16 hour nights in a tent.
First up was the Chair Peak loop...up down and around Chair.   Great turns as long as we avoided the occasional patch of wind slab and sun crust.
Thursday we drove up to Stevens and skied Arrowhead.   A very cold day with temps in the single digits.  More great snow, nothing affected by the wind or sun.   Some recent logging on the lower slopes had the benefit of turning a stand or small, dense timber into wide open cruiser slopes on the last bit to the car.   The Stevens Pass traffic was even worse than usual though...it took us three hours to drive home that night and I was ready to go back to the short one-hour scoot from Seattle back to Snoqualmie Pass.
Friday we had plans to do a big tour with a bunch of folks.  Late Thursday night we got word that all our friends involved with search & rescue wouldn't be able to join us- there was an overdue hiker on Granite Mtn and they'd join the search in the morning.   With our crew down to just Becky, me, and Kirsten we skipped the far-ranging trip and opted for harvesting more powder close to Alpental.  Despite skiing a southern apsect, the weak winter sun and tall trees preserved the powdery snow.   We skied three long laps, returning to the car at sunset and never saw anyone else all day. Sadly, the search over on Granite did not find the snowshoer alive, he was found Friday amongst avalanche debris from a slide the prior day.
Saturday, our SAR friends were available and Becky & I were all out of ideas on where to go, so our gaggle of ski buddies headed up for more of a silly, exploratory trip. We were pretty sure the strong east winds coming out of Snoqualmie Pass had wrecked the slopes of McClellan Butte, but we figured we'd get some exercise.   The low elevation snowpack allowed us to start sking right off of I-90 at only 1,400ft elevation.   We skied up the forest service road and entered the forest around 2000ft.  Up to about 3,200ft to take a look around and unfortunately the upper slopes didn't look safe, so we took two short laps in a low angle clearing and then bashed our way through the forest and back to the road.   While on the road, we helped push a 4x4 truck out of a ditch, and then everyone hitched a ride back to the cars to save their ski bases from being damaged on the gravel-studded icey snow next to the road.  I was using my beat-up old skis, so I went ahead and skated/shuffled back to the car.  And as all Snoqualmie Pass ski tours should properly end, we headed to Rhodies BBQ for pulled pork sandwiches on our way home.

Day 6 of the season- Snoqualmie Pass

pictures here


Last Saturday, Becky and I climbed up the Alpental ski area for a couple laps...the last day before the resort started to prep for opening in the coming days.   The top half was excellent, but the lower half was pretty marginal...still lots of creeks, rocks, alder, etc. The following day we toured around Stevens Pass...much better coverage but still rather short runs off of Skyline Ridge before we hit early season obstacles (creeks, brush, etc).
The past week, one storm after the next hammered the Cascades, and our dear friend Snoqualmie Pass picked up a ton of snow.  With the resorts up there now open, it was time to tour a little further afield and get back to some slopes that were never even skiable last year.
A trip report was posted on the Turns-All-Year website the day before for the Kendall trees area, so we figured that might be a rather busy spot, so we opted for some spots around Source Lake.  The snow was deep, and pretty light too...after last season it was wonderful to ski around Snoqualmie in deep, floaty snow. 
At the end of the day as we skied back towards Source Lake, we were surprised to see barely any tracks on the slopes that normally would be thrashed at days end... we guessed that a lot of folks didn't think the Snoqualmie backcountry was deep enough to ski yet.   The shuffle back out to the parking lot took a bit longer than usual as the downtrack wasn't really set in yet and there were lots of small ups and downs that required sidestepping and shuffling.
What a day though... we all know that El Nino years can mean a bad winter later in the season, but man..at least we've off to a good start at the beginning of the winter!

Baker backcountry skiing - first deep day of the season

Baker got hit with a big storm- all of a sudden the ski area, which hadn't even opened yet, had a deeper snowpack than it had all of the previous season.   

Since just about everything south of Baker had received rain instead of snow, it seemed like all of western Washington would be making a pilgrimage to the Baker vicinity.    Although the ski resort wasn't open yet, it was a given there'd be a few hundred folks skinning for turns this weekend.

It was a pleasant surprise that two old friends of mine, Ema and Murray, both who have kiddos now and I haven't skied with in ages were free this weekend.  So the old-school ski gang from Washington Alpine Club classes of the early 2000's carpooled to Baker for some turns.

Fortunately we had skis on our feet by 8am and got in a couple laps before the crowds arrived.   The snow was deeeeep, and a little heavy at times...those with skinny old rock skis had a hard time getting up to speed.  I was glad I gambled and brought my big skis-  hitting rocks was a non-issue.

Great to have a day of touring before Thanksgiving in snow that was deeper than just about every day I had last year.

Linky to photo album