Night bandit

Dave, is that you?

Legend Tour

February 4 and 5, 2012: Last year, the snow was too good for stupid touring, and much of this year the snow has been too rare for any kind of ski-touring, so we thought we should double up this weekend.

On Saturday, our stratagem was to finally complete the Mt. Rose to Glenshire traverse of mystery and legend. Unfortunately, Rob picked up a savage bug from the little crumb-cruncher that put him out at the last minute.

Since he is the only one of the crew from Glenshire with a big enough shuttle vehicle for all 10 of us, as well as beta on the Rifle Canyon terrain, long trek out the road and locked gate, we thought better of going without him and chose to repeat the Mt. Rose to King's Beach tour.

This time though, we dropped a lap into Rifle Canyon and found breakable, but not brutal crust and much more extensive and entertaining terrain than we expected from peering down from the ridge. We also located another legend: the cabin that Glen Poulsen's dad built that everyone seemed to have heard of, but had never seen.

Participants: Jeff, FF, Sue, Susie, Shaggy, Kim; Beth and Starker; Ken and his peculiar-looking dog, Skeena; Dave and his zinc-oxide and fabulous sunglasses.

Beth's gear recommendation: colorful sunglasses!

The next day, Beth, Kim, Jeff and FF skied from Alpine to Homewood in a blasting, freezing, stupid, ridgetop wind.

Thank the gods that there were french fries at the end.

 
Beth's gear recommendation: anchor to prevent accidental ridge departure...

Squaw to Deep Creek traverse

With the most minimalist snow pack in recent Tahoe history, there hasn't been enough white on the ground this season for even a truly absurd ski tour until about a week ago.

So, once the new storm softness turned to mank and frozen crusts, it was definitely time to get after it. Mike was forgiven for bowing out, since his popped lung and cracked ribs still pain him. I suppose that's what happens when you insist perversely on mt. biking during what the calendar--if not the color of the ground--clearly indicates is ski season.

Jeff , FF, Beth, Starker and Kim car-pooled over to Squaw and skinned up the backside of Silver Peak, then dropped into Pole Canyon before skinning up the other side. To do what? Ski the sunny, proto-corn back into Pole?

Nah! After a very short lap in the sun, we dropped the shady slopes into Deep Creek, enjoying the longest sustained run of breakable crust any of us could remember. My legs still kind of ache remembering the energetic, extended jump-turning.

But what's worse than excellent breakable crust? That would be EBC through a cliff band and a tight dog-hair tree stand thanks to cavalier, irresponsible route-finding. Acting on a premonition, Kim very sensibly brought her crash helmet.

At least no one else had the bad sense to skin up the road, rendering the exit rutty and miserable for us--it was as smooth as it's ever been.

Beth initiated a new blog feature on this tour: gear recommendations.

Use the following link to shop for her choice du jour for this tour...skiing shin guards!

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.

Last Stupid Ski Tour of 2010

Jeff, Beth, Faerthen, Gregor, and Erica are off to the Alps at this very moment, gutting our stupid milieu for the season given the indecent length of their stay. But one last tour was had on Saturday (3/6/2010), from Steven's Peak to Waterhouse, involving a short car shuttle. This tour included two snowboarders, Rob and the stupid ski tour virgin Dave, and everyone would have felt bad for them if Rob hadn't picked the itinerary. Turns out there are several miles of rolling terrain between Stevens and Waterhouse, a temple of painful scooch. And it was Dave's first time on a splitboard too. But they both did an amazing job with the 38 transitions in route, and overall it was an excellent day. Unique, dramatic terrain, good snow and good turns. If we had only hit those microslot couloirs that looked like cliffs from above...

Participants on this tour were Faerthen, Jeff, Beth, Gregor, Rob, Dave, and Chris. Best of luck to the Euro travelers.

Best view of avalanches.

Off to Chamonix next week...probably won't be doing this. I wonder what happens if you trigger a slide on a climber below?:
Speed Riding - Antoine Montant - Can't Stop