Skiace
Member
We took the opportunity that a break in weather today provided to bag some fun lines off the Mammoth Crest today. There were 5 of us on this mission but only one had skied this area before. The Crest has the deepest snowpack in the immediate area, and stability is the most reliable here now. The ridgeline where we skied it is at about 10,300, with many protected north facing chutes that preserve snow well. We dug a pit on a similar aspect at about 10,000ft and found a fairly stable snowpack as expected. The wind has compacted much of this snow and the fresh 6" or so from Wednesday bonded reasonably with the solid base. We did manage to produce a failure about 4 feet down on a firm layer, which is interesting because a local friend who's riden this area extensively all year told us yesterday that he's never found bad layers in his pits over the last month. We investigated elsewhere and found that layer to be isolated. The chute we ended up skiing was wind packed and firm up top, but skied well after a turn or two.
The day began with a 2 mile approach along the cross country trails in the lake region near Tamarack Lodge behind the ski area. Skinning up (after leaving the groomers) on a beautiful sunny morning in the Eastern Sierra:
Our destination is on the far ridgeline, obscured by the large rock spire (Crystal Crag) in the middle here. The second half of the run would be off the head wall below and lookers right of the Crag.
Scoping lines on the way up
A better view of a portion of the Mammoth Crest. We aimed for a chute on the far right of this ridge, not visible around the hill in the foreground of this shot. But you can see there is a lot of fun terrain back here.
This was the first 25% of the prize after a 4 mile/2k vert skin (stolen from my buddy's Instagram):
Looking back at our tracks from the top half of our run:
We traversed and recovered to the headwall behind the camera for the final 1000 feet of descent.
Walking out at the end of the day:
http://i.imgur.com/ymI8tsW.jpg[img]
8.4 miles and 2,300 vertical feet round trip. I'm in the best ski shape of my recent life but I'm still beat after today. Tomorrow brings another storm with 18+ inches expected, while another probably bigger one lines up for Monday.
Edit: sorry for the large images, I guess FTO doesn't have a thumbnail bbcode. Posting from mobile so my options are limited.
The day began with a 2 mile approach along the cross country trails in the lake region near Tamarack Lodge behind the ski area. Skinning up (after leaving the groomers) on a beautiful sunny morning in the Eastern Sierra:
Our destination is on the far ridgeline, obscured by the large rock spire (Crystal Crag) in the middle here. The second half of the run would be off the head wall below and lookers right of the Crag.
Scoping lines on the way up
A better view of a portion of the Mammoth Crest. We aimed for a chute on the far right of this ridge, not visible around the hill in the foreground of this shot. But you can see there is a lot of fun terrain back here.
This was the first 25% of the prize after a 4 mile/2k vert skin (stolen from my buddy's Instagram):
Looking back at our tracks from the top half of our run:
We traversed and recovered to the headwall behind the camera for the final 1000 feet of descent.
Walking out at the end of the day:
http://i.imgur.com/ymI8tsW.jpg[img]
8.4 miles and 2,300 vertical feet round trip. I'm in the best ski shape of my recent life but I'm still beat after today. Tomorrow brings another storm with 18+ inches expected, while another probably bigger one lines up for Monday.
Edit: sorry for the large images, I guess FTO doesn't have a thumbnail bbcode. Posting from mobile so my options are limited.
