Crystal Basin Get Away

Discussion about winter adventure sports in the Sierra Nevada mountains including but not limited to; winter backpacking and camping, mountaineering, downhill and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, etc.
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Vaca Russ
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Crystal Basin Get Away

Post by Vaca Russ »

We know of a bunkhouse hidden deep in the Crystal Basin. A winter visit here has become an annual pilgrimage for us. Normally there are multiple feet of snow. The snow prevents a drive using the backcountry roads that are not plowed in the winter. We must ski or snow shoe the over 5 and a half miles across a dangerous wilderness in the dead of winter. :D

Here are some of our past reports.

These two reports were from the era when it used to snow in the Sierra:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7559

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8826

This report is from a dry last year:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10455

This year there was even less snow. We were able to drive all the way to the gate.
1 Gate.JPG
Here is a compare and contrast photo.
2 Flag.JPG
The weather was GREAT the first two days. On Saturday we hike off into the woods to find an old aircraft wreck. Here is a link to that report.

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=12373

We then hiked over to a local creek.
3 Sport Creek.JPG
4.JPG
5.JPG
We took advantage of the sunny and warm weather. It was “shorts and a T-shirt” (or even less). :D :eek: :paranoid: \:D/ :littledevil: :D
6.JPG
7.JPG
We did find some snow on the hike back to the bunkhouse.
8 Sport Snow.JPG
The weather turned Saturday night / Sunday Morning. We even saw a little snow.
9 Snow Deck.JPG
This was the outside temperature when we got back to the car.
10 Temp.JPG
We had a great time (as usual). It is rather depressing and a bit alarming to see that “no snow” is becoming a norm.

We hope you enjoyed our report!

Thanks,

-Russ
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"...Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host and then a master?"

Kahil Gibran.
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