I know it’s been a long hiatus from this report skiers and snowboarders, but we wanted to keep the pictures up as long as possible from the epic 2 days of backcountry powder skiing we had reported on at the end of February. Plus, there just hasn’t been that much to report. I presented “Skiing the California Drought & The State of the Backcountry 2015” in Mammoth Lakes this weekend at an event hosted by Community Skis and will post slides from it here now for your info-tainment.
Skiing California’s Drought & The State of the Backcountry
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- Mid-June 2005. An average year in the Sierra.
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- October 17 skiing ca. 2004
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- And 2011, the crescendo!
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- But then came 2012. How strange and exciting this lack of snow was. To be able to ice skate in January on Tenaya Lake?
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- My friend Jason and I went to this climb in Tuolumne on Drug Dome. He had tried a couple years prior from the Tioga Pass Rd. closure in the east. He got there after 2 days and the climb had fallen off. This time we drove up and walked 10 minutes to the base.
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- 2 great pitches of ice on Drug Dome on Winter Solstice. We finished so early we were able to climb the south face of Cathedral Peak in the afternoon!
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- And in 2012 we climbed a 13 pitch climb in Tuolumne on Clouds Rest that may be the longest ice climb in North America.
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- In 2011, Plake and I descended from the Black Divide 5000+’ into the heart of the Middle Fork of the Kings River.
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- In 2011 we took for granted the fat and generous snowpack.
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- In 2011 was one of the greatest bc days ever. First bc tour with my some at age 7 months. This was June @ VA Lakes.
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- 2011 was also the tragic end of friends Kip Garre and Allison Kreutzen on Split Mountain.
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- 2011 was the last time I had a chance to ski with “American Dave” Rosenbarger, who died in an avalanche this winter on the Mont Blanc massif.
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- Basics of the high pressure ridge that has been preventing storms from hitting the Sierra.
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- RRR has a Wikipedia page
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- Skiing the Drought is not so bad. We still found a lot of good days…
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- Palisades Sept 2014
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- U-notch 2014
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- October 2014. Nope, no snow yet.
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- November 2014, a little snow fell and melted off. Warm temps.
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- Not a lot of snow in “Movember”
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- Went to the desert in early December
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- Red Rock was climbing in the shade.
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- Staying strong for ski season with Jimmy
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- Short sleeves in the shade in December 2014
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- Not as cold as it may look…
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- This pitch was a little colder.
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- Meanwhile…
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- Whitney in November 2014.
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- First AR event.
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- December 2014
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- Getting psyched, practicing old school tricks like the backscratcher
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- …and the spread eagle.
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- freezing levels high, didn’t live up to the hype.
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- Glen and Kimberly Plake and the first bc day the season.
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- First bc day was actually out of bounds at Mammoth Mountain. It was legit though.
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- More snow at the end of it.
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- Powder day in bounds at June Mtn, Dec 2014
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- Snowpack at Red Cone mid Dec.
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- Chris Bentchetler and Kimmy Fasani on an avalanche refresher course end of Dec. Note that Lake George still not frozen.
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- Made it work… barely.
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- loving the Community skis
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- I like it a lot!
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- First trip to the Negatives end of Dec.
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- Cold and the ice skating in Bishop came in.
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- Gorge climbing was nice as it warmed.
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- Check the snow surface. The story was wind and sun and warm temps.
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- Climbing in Pine Creek was comfy!
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- You know it’s a drought year when Glen Plake calls in late January to go rock climbing, not skiing.
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- It all came to a head when I was able to drive up to Onion Valley trailhead at end of Jan.
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- Jay and Kevin, snow surveyors. The masters of all they surveyed. 2 tubes was overkill.
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- Strange tracks
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- French guy who biked from LAX to Onion Valley and pushed his bike half way up to Kearsarge Pass before bailing. Tried to cross the Sierra and almost pulled it off.
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- View to the pass
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- K Pass
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- Started to feel like the movie Groundhogs Day. It was playing out like 2014 all over again. That would have been optimistic.
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- This storm was disappointing too.
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- AR event after the peak of precip near 9k’.
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- Cool drought ice
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- Looking a little better but not great.
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- this line went down though.
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- Xtreme!
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- Believe it or not we only did a 50m portage from the top of June to here.
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- Linked it with a white carpet to another 50m portage.
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- finished with a 3rd 50m portage and skied the rest of the day.
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- Chasing Feb corn
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- Chasing feb dust on crust
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- Some good snow out there, but only an “angry inch” of it.
Then came the glorious 2 days of the season:
IFMGA Ski & Mountain Guide Neil Satterifled in the Virginia Lakes area 2/23. photo: Jed Porter
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- My friend Zak went to try to repeat our 2/24 day on 2/25 but the wind created a breakable windslab. I had to give him a bit of a ribbing for digging a snow profile in the middle of an avalanche path, but to his credit, he determined that the snow was unstable and chose not to ski this slope 🙂
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- I had to hightail it for work in Colorado for a couple weeks. The White Mountains on the flight to Vegas. The Sierra stayed good and the wind crusts faceted out, but it was not as deep on the shady aspects as it was just after those two post storm days.
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- Looking for signs of avalanches in CO.
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- We saw this one happen.
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- We saw this one soon after it happened.
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- V and U notch couloirs, March 8, 2015
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- Remember 1991 had a Miracle March that dumped 4-5 feet of snow.
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- Forecast models show lots of ridge blocking in the next couple weeks
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- Recently, chasing corn on SE.
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- E aspect corn
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- SE corn
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- Trying to keep OnTheSnow.com media folks, on the snow.
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- Sun effects on NE aspects in the Negatives
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- June Mountain near the end.
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- Last week on the Eastside.
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- Bottom Line: Even though this was the worst conceivable winter for backcountry skiers and riders, it still had some all-time great moments. We get used to those average years but it’s nice to know that your below average ones are still world class.
So, now what…
Well, if you want to milk what’s left of the backcountry season then you’ll have to use the Eastside roads to access the high country. June Mountain closed for the season on Sunday, so that is not a great option anymore. Once you get to a high trailhead you’ll want to embrace the adventure mentality. It’s like what my 4-year old learned at preschool, “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.” On sunny and calm days, the corn is shaping up on E-S-W aspects, wherever you may still find a vertical strip of snow. Best chance of that is near the Sierra crest or, better yet, leeward terrain just west of that ridge. In the absence of more storms, which are not currently even suggested in long range (16 day) models, shaded steeper slopes will hold snow for a while yet and they may ski alright with edgeable windcrust or facets on windcrust. A rogue squall here and there will freshen up the texture, fill in the gaps, smooth out the rough spots, and so forth. You’ll be carrying running shoes and ski boots a lot, so get used to that idea if you are not already from the last 3 drought years. Not the best time to be contemplating a trans-Sierra ski adventure, unless you want to multi-sport it. But keep your bases waxed and your edges honed for that spring system that gives a surprise epic spring powder day or two. Last year we enjoyed some of the best turns of the season in April and early May. If we are lucky in the weeks to come, we can finish off strong if not a bit too early.
This may (to our intense dismay) be the last bc snow report of the season. We’ll plan to update things as they change notably. And we hope they do for the best. Otherwise, we’ll start focusing the discussion more toward alpine climbers and backpackers (check in with our High Sierra Alpine Conditions Report) who are about to enjoy an unusually long and opportune summer.