High Sierra Topix

Just got back last Friday from a trans-sierra ski tour by a rather unusual route. Started at Huntington Lake on the west side, toured through part of the Dinkey Lakes Wilderness, into Red Rock Basin, Reddy's Hole, Red Mountain Basin, crossed the LeConte Divide via a pass a little south of Hell For Sure above Arctic Lake. Up Goddard Canyon to Martha Lake, then Davis Lake, Wanda, Evolution basin, Darwin bench & Lamarck Col. Saw no one the entire 9 days until we met fishermen at North Lake. Started out on a foot of new snow over 3 feet of old at 7000 feet on May 18! Good snow and good weather almost all the way except for extreme high winds on Lamarck Col. Phenomenal amounts of snow everywhere, and it's still in good shape, which is great if you're hoping for a ski tour in late June, but not so great for backpacking plans. Here are some photos (more to come later) so you get an idea how solid the coverage is:

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Thanks for the sharing the pictures. Now thats a lot of SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Texan

Nice trip!

Mike

Wow, what a great trip Paul.
I love the way Evolution Creek is flowing will all that snow on its banks.
All that snow sure makes traveling through the area a whole lot quicker.

What a play ground for a man on skis!

RoguePhotonic wrote:What a play ground for a man on skis!

Playground indeed! You should have seen us laughing like fools as we skied across Wanda without our packs on the way to Muir Pass!

Those pics were realllly nice.

Really cool! I especially liked Darwin Bench because 9 months ago, I was camped in that clump of trees on the right side of your photo after crossing Alpine Col.

frikkin' jealous.How much preparation goes into a trip like that?Gotta have a lot of expensive winter gear...i snowshoe but would prolly have to get new skis n boots and tent etc...
looks so awesome.Cant beleive how much snow there is?

This is from "Sequoia-Kings Canyon" hikers forum. It was passed on to me, so sharing:

Just got back from teaching Mountain Education's "SAC-1" (Snow Advanced Course) over Cottonwood (11,160), Forester (13,180), and Kearsarge (11,712) Passes for 11 days (May 21 - 31).

Snow levels as follows: South aspects - 3 to 5' patches at 10,000 and solid at 11,000; North aspects - 3 to 5' patches at 9,500 and solid at 10,000; Eastern and Western aspects are somewhere in between.

The lakes are still completely frozen at 10,500. Snow bridges still exist over creeks at 10,200 (Whitney, Wallace) and 10,800 (Wright, Tyndall). Creek volume and flow rate are up twice of last year's at this time. Some drainages have more snow, while some have less, compared to last year.

Overall, there is about 2 feet more consolidated snow than last year. Temps are still cold, though it appears the thaw is starting. Snowing there now, however, with more on the way!

Will write an "After-Action" report for the whole trip from Kennedy Meadows to Kearsarge Pass shortly!


"Just remember, Be Careful out there!"

Ned Tibbits, Director
Mountain Education
1106A Ski Run Blvd
South Lake Tahoe, Ca. 96150
P: 888-996-8333
F: 530-541-1456
C: 530-721-1551
http://www.mountaineducation.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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