ski-mountaineering south Eastside

Good year for spring skiing in the high Sierra I hope.
Be glad to hear reports on snow + road conditions.

I'm planning to be around roughly like May 18 to June 4.
Focus mainly on south of Mammoth.
In addition to the many great single-day summits with descents, also thinking of making 3-4 day
base camp in South Fork Lone Pine Crk (SE side of Mt Whitney), or Rock Creek / Little Lakes, or perhaps
Anvil Camp (NE side of Mt Williamson toward Shepherd Pass) - (tho couple years ago got turned back on approach by flooded creek crossing).

Or repeat some fun fast-and-light tours . . . Rock Creek to Mammoth in a day . . . or the Paiute Pass - Alpine Col - Lamarck Col loop from North Lake.

. . . (also some Sport climbing on rest / weather days).

Be glad to meet other skiers to share stories + ideas + maybe do some ski tour together.
Send a message with phone + email to my MountainProject account.

Ken

Keep an eye on this thread for road conditions and snow levels .. have fun down there!

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/297470-Eastside-Conditions-Thread

Thanks a lot -- looks like where they're talking about stuff I want to do.

Sounds like fun.  Wish I had the knees for it.  

I sort of think riding a snowboard is easier on knees, because the two legs can work together against bad twisting forces.

Springtime ought to offer many favorable days for hiking up with a normal snowboard on pack.
. . . (while winter snowpack is more likely much better with a special split-board)

Ken

Snowing around town of Mammoth now -- unfortunately with lots of wind -- likely resulting into slabs with substantial avalanche hazard for a while.
. . . (so I might be doing more climbing than skiing soon).

I got to drive around to survey conditions this afternoon.
. . . (having trouble getting logged into TetonGravity forums, "Unknown Error" -- so for now I'll report here).

Here's what I found.
Mammoth Lakes . . .
* nice snow in the Sherwins, but not all the way down to Sherwin Creek.
* shuttle bus "orange line" no longer operating to set up "cheat" high start from Tamarack Lodge.
* instead opportunities to drive spurs off Sherwin Creek Rd to close to bottom of skiable snow.
* Bloody Mt: lower section of jeep road is snow-free about as high as many people would usually try to drive it.

Convict Lake:
* Mt Laurel -- Mendenhall couloir has continuous snow from top down to as low as I could see from Parking
. . . but two rocks showing high up obstructing . . . so likely snow less than a ski-length wide to try to pass those.
* mini Morrison / Mono Jim: Steep sagebrush thrash to reach gentle snow along E side if start from the Lake -- so if know how with appropriate vehicle to drive higher from E (? Tobacco Flat ?) likely better.
. . . or perhaps ?
* Mono Jim: There is a steep narrow N-facing snow chute starting from near E shoulder and finishing low near the Lake.
* Morrison - Mini Col : Descent N down from this pass does not look so promising lower down. Perhaps traverse (thrash?) West at the top of the lower steep slope to hit snowfield that goes low to around W end of Lake.
* Mt Morrison N summit : upper E face looks promising.

June Lake Loop
* road is open full loop.
* resort June Mountain ski trails no snow in lower half.
* Mt Carson perhaps skiable by starting up "Devil's Slide" (obvious low N-facing couloir), then perhaps some delicate booting to traverse W into bottom of snow bowl under the E summit.
* waterfall NW from Carson Peak above power plant is in substantial flow.
* Mt Wood perhaps accessable by snow in low NE gully near Grant Lake - (but there is a gap near top of gully, and perhaps lower snow is collapsing?) - get to it quick if want to ski Mt Wood.
* Mt Gibbs E gullies : upper two-thirds nice, but low East approach looks like a big thrash already.

Rock on June Lake Loop:
* Silver Lake quartzite slabs are snow-free (but perhaps some seep?).
* Rush granite crag snow-free and accessable by south log snag crossing, but not the north wading crossing.
. . . (of course the South access might become impassable when melt-flow increases later in the season ? or on a warm afternoon ?)

Hope the higher-altitude snow stabilizes soon.

Ken

Oh well, much that report no longer applies.
Last night it snowed down to 7000 ft.

But the wind-slab avalanche warning remains live.
Perhaps to be refreshed on Tuesday.

There was decent skiing out of South Lake the past couple of days if you were willing to put in some effort, with skis on almost from the parking lot.  I saw one skier-triggered avalanche in a steep north-facing couloir, but things were otherwise pretty tame.  ​Some photos​​​

Well ... I'll guess after last night's and today's snow down to 7000 ft (and the radar showed the storm track surely including Bishop Pass), that some
"remedial" plowing will be needed before very many skiers can get their vehicles up the final steep (narrow-ish) section to reach the South Lake trailhead parking by the dam.
More white stuff arriving Tuesday.
I'll hope the Inyo country crews will be able to get it all open again for Memorial weekend -- but not counting on it being drivable much above Parchers most days before that.
. . . (note that unlike the Lake Sabrina road, South Lake is not a Calif state highway.
. . . . but alas Sabrina does not have the same quality of accessible skiing).

Been hearing the wind blowing hard in town of Mammoth most of the day, so I'm more thinking about winter avalanche things like "cross-loading" than about driving to high spring-skiing trailheads.
Cold temperatures running until at least next Saturday will not help consolidate underlying weak layers.

Ken

hi ken.  from what i've been seeing the last couple weekends high elevation north/northeast facing is holding nice spring pow, with variable and heinous conditions down low where unconsolidated snow is struggling to transition to spring corn.  my best suggestion until a hardcore high pressure system sets in would be to head for the highest trailheads available (rock creek, onion valley, highway 120(?)) and seek sheltered north-facing pow.  rock creek is ski-skin from 9.8k, and onion valley is plowed to 9.2k.  those seem like the best bets on the eastside south of mammoth at the moment.  the bloody couloir is probably sick right now, but it'll be a slog from the road closing.  convict lake roadside seems too low right now in my opinion.

good luck!  stoked to hear about what you discover.  

brian burke wrote: last couple weekends high elevation north/northeast facing is holding nice spring pow.
 . . .
good luck!  stoked to hear about what you discover.  

Well I love to ski powder, and while I was not expecting much on this visit in late May, I'd love to "discover" some.

But I'm not going to try for that without a serious consideration of winter-style avalanche hazard first.

What I saw in the storm reports was high winds from SW + W. Which tends to result in dangerous wind slabs on exposures SE + E + NE + N.
Guess what?
That range of aspects includes about 95% of the interesting skiing/snowboarding slopes (say 25-45 degrees) in the high Sierra south of Lee Vining.
. . . (also with winds this high, can get unexpected "cross-loading" on other aspects say NW near ridge crests or sub-ridges).

I think what makes the dangerous phenomena of heavy slabs on top of weak layers go away is either pressure or temperature (or the 3rd way). We're not getting enough additional snow in May for "pressure", so that leaves temperature, especially from sunshine.
Guess what?
High mountain weather trend for next few days (after tomorrow) is cold and cloudy.
. . . (with the slight detail that high winds tomorrow and fresh snow on Tuesday will generate new slabs).

still . . . While waiting perhaps for your "good luck" and to hear what you might "discover" for high altitude powder,
I've got some ideas:
* tomorrow try skiing some E + NE + N facing slopes where the slabs + weak layers have gotten "the 3rd way": Explosives.
* next drive south of Bishop to reach warm air and sunshine for rock-climbing.
* do some tours on skis only on gentle slopes not offering fun powder turns -- after the state + country road crews have finished re-plowing up to the high trailheads.

Happy to hear other perspectives and arguments.

Ken

sounds like it’s a great time to put some skis on, tour up, and evaluate the conditions! 

OK here's some observations from this morning out on Mammoth Mt with aid of lift ticket . . .
Patrol managed to get a number of releases of soft slabs all along the NNE "front" side of the summit ridge. Looked like 25-30 cm / 10-12 inch crown fracture depth on at least a couple of them. Some debris paths say like 25 m / 80 ft wide on popular off-piste runs.

Surface snow (where untracked) mostly soft but wind-packed to varying degrees - not fluffy. Some patches of hardpack. Overall variable consistency.
Underlying bed where surface had slid: Sometimes nice firm easy skiing, sometimes icy eroded.

Chair 23 and upper Gondola both operating.
Wonderful sunshine. Little wind (contrary to forecast).
____________________________
key Problem with using those observations:
The daily/weekly history of a ski-resort snowpack is completely different from most backcountry snowpack. Weak layers get packed and pressured fiercely and frequent by hordes of off-piste skiers. Serious slabs get broken up by explosives or other artificial methods.
Therefore the failure of the patrol's control work in the last couple days to trigger a slab release bigger and deeper and way more dangerous . . . does not imply that similar control work in real backcountry would not have triggered a nasty slide. Also the absense of activity on mid-elevation slopes at Mammoth Mt does not imply the safety of similar slopes mid-elevation in real backcountry.

Also say the Sherwins have much longer more sustained steeper slopes than anything on Mammoth Mt.

So my own response to today's observations is that if that's what a ski-resort snowpack looks like, I'm going to wait for a few serious melt-refreeze cycles before I try poking into anything "interesting" in the backcountry.
____________________________
my story:
I started a bit late, since it was only late last night that I found out that the lifts start at 7:30. Arrived soon enough to find parking close by base of chairs 2 + 10.
. . . (other people started later: so when I drove out, both sides of the road were full of parked cars for a long ways above + below).
. . . . . (hint for the coming holiday weekend).
But late enough so I missed out on first tracks on mid-elevation off-piste. Then my tardiness was rewarded by noting that Chair 23 had just started, so did 2.5 runs there, first low, then one of the Wipeout Chutes, then way out to the NE side of Paranoid Flats leading into a long tour out toward the N down to bottom of chair 1.

Legs felt rather tired from the variable snow. Since I was planning on spring ski-mountaineering, I hadn't brought my heavier fatter winter soft-snow / crud skis which likely would have made it more fun.

Somehow the sitting + riding up chair 1 allowed me to think that I really ought to check out more of the summit ridge, so next I rode up gondola, then headed SW following some tracks, and another skier told me it was Daves Run. Consistent surface, easier to ski, so went back up again, tried to drop in closer to gondola, but pretty similar (so I missed Huevos Grande).

Then tried some mid-elevation off-piste, which I sort of think felt more consistent than the higher stuff - (and soft but surely not powdery). Too bad it was all tracked already.

Ken

I drove up to South Lake with no problems this morning, and skied 6-8" of fresh powder in a NW-facing couloir.  No avalanche problems, though there were definitely wet slides on east-facing terrain, and the snow was nasty and sticky by 2:00  PM.

Yes thanks.
Drove up there this afternoon (Tuesday) and the South Lake Road was clear and dry all the way to the highest parking.

Lower down on the road, the start of the Vagabond tour still had substantial snow.

Wind blew and blew all day.

spring skiing returns . . .
Got out today in the Sherwins above S side of town of Mammoth.
Started from the end of winter plowing (N37.6221 W118.9923) toward SW end of Old Mammoth Rd. Skinned up directly S (just W of Mammoth Rock) to reach the NW end of the Sherwin ridge (N37.6110 W118.9948). Ski down the same way -- gliding on snow all the back to the car (but not likely tomorrow).
Decent partly-transformed "spring" snow in the middle of the run. Still soft layer near top (but consistent, not variable due to wind). Mush toward bottom (I assume because no re-freeze that low last night). Perhaps 6 other skiers / riders had gone down it previous days. Later met a guy skinning up from same parking.

Ken

P.S. Giant fracture visible across Mammoth Lakes basin on NE slope SW above Crystal Crag.

observations driving around, etc

above Bishop:
* Wahoo gullies looking fat.
* main slope of Bishop Bowl looking very skiable (but likely not easy to appproach).

* lots of snow across to E on the White Mountains

around Mammoth:
* wide NW slope of summit of Laurel Mt fully snow-covered
. . . (a rare sight, since it's usually wind-blasted mostly bare) - (sign that the most recent storm around Mammoth came in with little wind.
* Mt Morrison E face looking rather snowy
. . . (I have a dream of skiing E face of N summit).
* snow covering most of the lower trails of the Mammoth Mt resort.
* upper slopes of Mammoth Mt resort got less than 6 inches over Sunday night -- bonded fairly well to firm non-icy base layer.

South Fork Lone Pine Creek - basic tour
Got out this morning into one of my favorite touring areas. Started from Whitney Portal 7:15. Hiked the Mount Whitney Trail carrying skis. First place traii was blocked by snow at 94160 ft  2885 meters -- but still lots of exposed dirt after that. Later continuous snow, and I just kept following hiker boot tracks, which sometimes deviated from the Trail. Could have put skins on, but the booting was easy, so I saved time by not switching. After a couple hours, losing sunshine, getting into flat light (and Sharon waiting for me in the valley after her bike ride). So I worked over to meet my usual descent route along the SE side of the valley at 9:25, up to about 10570 ft / 3222 m.

Skis on, boots tight -- next lots of 35-degree shots on firm surface slightly bumpy, down to 8800 ft / 2683 m.
Carried skis a short ways at the outlet of Lone Pine Lake - (saw boot tracks from a skier a few days ago who carried in exactly the same spot).

Then 15 minute steep mostly easy bushwhack down -- back to my car at 10:15.
Drove down to Lone Pine to meet Sharon and decide what to do for the rest of the day.

1700 vertical feet of high-quality 35-degree downhill for +2250 ft uphill non-steep easy.
. . . (and with better weather and more time could have gone up much higher with at least four more exciting skiing options).

Ken