Incline Peak to King's Beach traverse

With crappy snow firmly in effect, Jeff and Sue instigated an SST for Jan. 22.

But Jeff didn't get clearance from his shoulder doc to ski, and Sue received an invitation to an art opening in SF that she couldn't refuse, leaving the planning for this one in a bit of disarray and definitely very last second (sorry if we missed you).

But Beth, Kim, Shaggie and I managed to rally and put together a good one. The traverse was easy, the snow actually supportable and pleasant up high, sticky but not excessively evil down low.

We started on the Mt. Rose Highway, traversed the saddle of Incline Peak, rounded Third Creek, dropped a corn lap in Second Creek, skinned back around First Creek to Rifle Peak.

From there, it was a fast traverse to the shoulder of Mt. Baldy & a fun descent to a neighborhood stroll through the King's Beach grid to our shuttle car, parked conveniently at Mike and Pam LeFrancois' house.

As Shaggy noted: "Very Euro!"

This went amazingly slick, actually, considering you can't see *anything* in KB from Baldy...just a sea of very similar-looking trees.

I was braced for a long afternoon of wandering around in the woods, but happily settled for a taco at El Mercado instead. Beth even made it home in time for Dr. Jim's b-day!

Does anyone know what this weird sign is about? It's just off the saddle between Incline Peak and Rose Peak and none of us has ever noticed it before.

A scratchy bit. We removed our skis--well, Shaggy ripped it :)

Map check.

Nice terrain on the backside of Rifle Peak. We figured out that this is likely the least dolorous route from Rose to Glenshire.

Google Maps link.

A few years back, Beth, Gayle and Virginia were attacked by a Blue Grouse when they did a similar SST traverse that stayed high all the way to Brockway summit rather than dropping into KB.

Lover's Leap to Emerald Bay traverse

Dave Campbell and his Yosemite climbing buddies Caleb, Clay and Lief decided that this monster traverse would be a good day, so he called in Rob, Shaggie, Jeff and me to fill out the group and dilute the split-boards :)

The plan was to traverse over Pyramid Peak, then roughly over or around Jack's and Dick's Peaks before heading out via Janine's or Maggie's Peaks. The actual route would depend on conditions and timing, of course.

A headlamp start was narrowly averted when we had to go back in the night for a pair of boots, but the hike began just as the sun came up.

The skin up Pyramid Peak went well. The 4K-feet and 3-miles didn't feel that big. Unfortunately, a skirt around behind the peak left us at an impassable cornice and/or cliff on the north side, so the lads continued up for a peak ascent and sketchy descent off the icy summit while Jeff and I bailed after he randomly tipped over while skinning over a steep, slick spot, dislocating his shoulder.

Fortunately, the joint popped back in when he rolled on it, so Jeff was able to mince his way back out over the excellent breakable crust and rapidly softening mank, tucking his arm into his jacket like Napoleon. The biggest exit issue was that I stacked and ended up with an ugly but harmless blue knot on my calf...

Ending the day early was a bummer for us, but it could have been worse. And since we shuttled the cars back, it saved the boys some SST conniptions at the end!

Apparently, the rest of the tour went well, with an exit by headlamp in the dark. Dave, Rob or Shaggie will have to post a map, since I'm not exactly sure where their route went.

Unfortunately, the shuttle vehicles were ticketed for parking in a posted area at the tour start that actually was the only UN-posted area we saw, so heads up next time!

Dave's pics.