Price Ridge 1/30/2009

The high pressure has returned, making for some great weather, but the powder is going to go fast! So I decided to go out to my old standby for retaining powder: Price Peak off the Tahoe Meadows. I was supposed to meet John Swanson(ER doc) and Janet (ER nurse) around 9:00 up at the Meadows, but I woke before 6:00 and decided to head up early and meet them out there. Yuki and I got one run in and a partial run off Chickadee Ridge before meeting them. We took one run together, straight down the ridge, earlier than usual and had great snow. Unfortunately Yuki disappeared on the way back up, just before he got to the top. I skied down and eventually found him (he found me). Then he refused to go up again so we skied down and toured out. I’m going to have to chose his ski days carefully.

Some photos (a slide show):

Waterhouse Peak 1-28-09

The sky cleared up yesterday and we're back to our lovely blue sky California (and Nevada) weather. It sure is beautiful, but we really need MORE STORMS!

Tuesday Justin Winter and I led a mid-day workshop on Wilderness Medicine and had a lot of fun building sleds and splints with about 25 participants. After demonstrating in the classroom we went outside and the participants built three sleds and "raced" each other. It was great fun!
Starting off inside:

Then building sleds outside and testing them:
We finished up around 2:00, not enough time to ski Heavenly (and use a lift ticket), so I went out to a the High Meadows Trailhead for a tour on my fishscale pattern skis. After touring out the snow covered fire road a ways I couldn't resist climbing up Trimmer Peak at least part way. The views were great, but since I started at 6500 feet, the snow was a few inches of "dust on crust". So I carefully skied back to the trail and then back to the truck.


Wednesday was another blue sky day and my workshop (critically reading the medical literature) didn't start until 2:15, so I left Harrah's around 7:00 and headed out to a "local's favorite" Waterhouse Peak. I've heard it holds great powder, but have never skied it before.

Looking across "Grass Lake" as I started out:

There was an obvious and well used skin track heading out from the parking area, but as I climbed I was getting concerned about how cut up and heavily skied the slope was. Up top I had great views all around: north to Lake Tahoe, west and south to Red Lake Peak, northeast to the Desolation Wilderness.

I decided to follow some tracks south, to the skier's right. They led to a less heavily skied area and I was able to then cut under a rock band (didn't want to ski above it!) to an incredible untracked paradise. The rock pillows were so numerous and inviting that I even jumped a few of them.

Looking back at the bowl:


I headed back up and after chatting with a couple, Jay and Christine, I skied through the glades to the left (west) of the heavily tracked out area. I didn't have to go far to get some untracked snow.
Here's a dead tree I thought looked interesting:
It was so good that I went back up for a final lap. I was warned that staying left would lead me away from the truck and make for a slog back. So about 400 vertical feet above the truck I contoured over and was able to easily ski right to the parking area.

I'd say it was one of the best days I've had out there!

These two short videos really don't do justice to the quality of the snow.

Heavenly Skiing 1-26-09

I'm up at South Lake for the Nevada Academy of Family Practice CME meeting and we got more snow! After helping with the suturing workshop this morning Jason and I went out to ski. We immediately headed over to Killebrew Canyon and found great powder. We spent most of day (afternoon) over there exploring and playing in the powder and fog. We hit some great steep chutes as well as nice phat powder runs!

Here are two brief videos of some of our skiing. As you can see, the snow was great, but the sky was pretty gray.

Publish Post

Incline Lake Peak

We FINALLY got some new snow! It's not been a big Sierra dump, but enough to lay down some nice, fresh powder on top of our dwindling base. Although I thoroughly enjoyed spending yesterday with the family and running errands around town (actually it was kind of nice to have a "normal" weekend day), I felt I had to get Yuki out in the backcountry before I headed up to South Lake Tahoe for the NAFP conference (where I'm teaching three days in a row).

We met Eric Martin at 7:00 at the Galena Starbucks parking lot and then drove up into the increasing snow. The snowbanks that usually tower up over the road are almost non-existent! But there were a few inches of new snow when we parked at the turnout above Incline Lake and it just kept increasing as we climbed.

It was very light, but on the northern aspects it seemed to already be bonding with the older layer and skied very nicely.

We started with two mellower runs in the trees and then took our third (and my final) run down the steeper bowl. I stopped to dig a pit (and forgot to take pictures of it). The snow was about 5 feet deep at 8950', with 12" of light new snow on the top. Another ~12" down was a thin layer, probably an old crust and then down another ~12 inches another thin layer. Finally down at the bottom there is a good 6 - 8" of faceted sugar snow, but it's beginning to bond a little bit. I did two compression shovel tests and the first time it fractured at 16 taps, but didn't propagate, at the first layer I noted above. Even once I removed that layer I could not get the second layer to give.

Yuki and I then skied out to the lake and car (I let him pull me across the lake) while Eric joined Pierre who came up later.

Ruby Mtn Heli Ski

I went out to Elko and Lamoille in Northeastern Nevada this week where I gave a noon lecture at the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital to doctors and nurses (on the pharmaceutical industry and physicians) and then headed out to Lamoille to do some wilderness medicine training with the guides. When I got there on Wednesday afternoon they were out checking out the terrain and the helicopter, which had just arrived. The snowpack was thin, but was fun recrystallized powder. I joined the guides for their "guides meeting" where they discuss snow safety and operations and over pizza we discussed some medical conditions and some scenarios that they might want to be prepared for.

A good friend of the Ruby Mtn team, Colin, came in Wednesday night to spend a few days as a consultant (snow safety, operations) and he and I shared the beautiful lodge that evening (with some other guys coming in late). Thursday morning dawned warm and wet and at the 6am guides meeting there was a lot of discussion about where the best skiing would be and whether or not we'd get to fly (doubtful). But after breakfast in town (the tiny town that it is), the decision was made to fly and we loaded the helicopter.

We skied three runs before conditions really deteriorated, so while the three guests took one more run, I went with Colin and the guides for some avalanche training which was fantastic. Not only did it review material I've heard (and hopefully learned) before, but Colin presented it in a new fashion and taught a test (propagation saw test) that I hadn't seen before.

We had an interesting ski down to the Yurt where we piled in to Joe's pickup truck for the drive back to the Ranch.

After the guides meeting and another dinner of pizza and beer, I did some more wilderness medicine work.

After some discussion about the conditions and helicopter loads (a new crew of guests came in), we decided that I wouldn't go out skiing today. I was a bit bummed that I didn't get great skiing in, but it was fun to work with the guides and the snow safety training was phenomenal.

Good tour, lousy snow

We haven’t had snow in “forever” (since ~12/22) but I decided to take Yuki out for a little ski tour. It was just the two of us and we parked down at Tahoe Meadows and then headed up to Relay Ridge and Mt Houghton. I clipped Yuki’s leash to his pack and my waist belt and he actually pulled me pretty well. First he pulled me up the hill to the fire road and then I switched to “kick skins” and he pulled me along the road. I’d say he saved me about 24% effort. Once we hit the ridge we got blasted by the wind, but we continued on to the top of Houghton. The North Chutes were stripped bare so we went down to check out the East Bowl – hammered, so we continued to the East Chutes – the same. I skied down the first chute anyway and then we skinned up the bowl (stopping at the base while we were out of the wind for lunch in wonderful sun). Then we skied down one of the “Dog legs” in decent corn and traversed over to the fire road. I clipped in to Yuki for a bit and unfortunately nicked his rear leg w/my ski at one point (we glued and bandaged it at home).

It wasn’t great skiing, but it was a great tour.

It was still pretty warm when I got home. Warm enough to soak up some sun.

And a great evening to hit the hot tub with Treyson and Bridger.

Peter Grubb Trip

I went in to the Peter Grubb Hut this weekend with a group of ~10 first and second year medical students as the faculty advisor for the Wilderness Medicine Interest Group. I met the early group at the medschool at 8:00 on Saturday morning (the second group would come up after working at the Student Outreach Clinic). Yuki was loaded up with all the food for dinner, my camping gear and a Heineken mini-keg. He did great, the only time we struggled was traversing some slopes as we got close to the Hut.

After settling in and having lunch (and a cold beer) five of us went out to climb and ski Basin Peak. Much to our (pleasant) surprise we found early corn (Dallas called it slush) for a nice run down. Nice enough that Dallas, Yuki and I went up for a second run further over in the bowl.

Veronica (with some help) cooked up the chicken curry dish I brought in and we had a lovely evening with fine food and plenty to imbibe. After walking out to the meadow under a full moon and enjoying the views with everyone, Yuki and I retired to my "BetaMid" (floorless tent) where I was quite impressed with how well it did holding up to the howling winds.

Sunday morning we did a little beacon practice and then headed out. Again, it was a bit of work traversing out from the Hut, but once we got on the main trail Yuki just took off! He was galloping down the trail in spots!

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Lost Trail Lodge 2009

We took our second "annual" New Year's trip to Lost Trail Lodge (we didn't go last year because of the blizzard). We were accompanied by Hans Moosmuller and his boys Urs and Cedar, as well as the Brackney clan. The drive up on Friday was exciting, as we left in a rainstorm and by the time we got to Truckee it was snowing and the traffic as almost stopped on I-80. Luckily we all exited at "Central Truckee" and bypassed the rest of I-80 (it was still very slow going in Truckee). We got to the trailhead around 1:00 and Dave Robertson showed up with the snowmobiles to haul in our gear just as we were ready to head in.


The trail was very well packed down from the snowmobiles, so some of us skied and the others walked in. The snowshoes really weren't necessary even though it snowed on and off for the entire hike (4 miles). We made pretty good time, stopping for a snack half way and trying to get Bridger to sit on the sled that Yuki was pulling.

We got to the Lodge around 3:00 and had a late lunch of soup, cheese and crackers and then just settled in. We were joined by two couples (Kelly and Wayne, Erika and Jonathan) just as it started to get dark and the proprietors (Dave, Lisa and JP) started to worry about going out to look for them.

Of course darkness didn't keep the boys inside.

Then I took advantage of the great kitchen and made a five pound lamb roast with veggies and a smaller tri-tip. It was the first roast I've made and since it was devoured, I guess it came out okay.

After dinner, we all just relaxed and enjoyed the warmth of the fire and each other's company.
It snowed on and off most of the evening and in to the night, but Saturday dawned clear and Jeff and I went out for a little ski tour. We went up the drainage a bit and then turned off to the south and climbed towards the old "Wood Camp". After about a thousand feet we took the skins off, took some pictures and skied back to the lodge and breakfast. I was happy to have Truckee out with us (and Yuki) and to watch her enjoy herself in the snow.


Jeff seemed to enjoy the skiing.


The trickiest part of the ski: crossing the "bridge" back to the lodge.

After breakfast and a little relaxing the Brackneys and Fiore Boys got dressed to go out again and searched for the mystical ice wall. We didn't find it, but we did find a fun sledding hill.
We decided to give up on the hunt for the ice wall and just enjoyed some sledding. I quickly removed the poles that Yuki uses to pull the sled and viola, a play sled.

Before dinner Hans and I went back out for a ski run off the ridge in front of the lodge where he and his boys skied while we were searching for the ice wall. We enjoyed the view and great weather from the top.
We definitely enjoyed skiing down the steeper north facing chutes in some surprisingly good snow.

Looking back, we saw a beautiful rock formation.

Everyone enjoyed some relaxation, with the boys challenging each other and Kelly to chess matches.

Joy made a lovely sausage and bowtie dinner with a great salad and Anna baked scrumptious brownies for dessert.

Sunday morning Hans, Urs and I got up early and did a pre-breakfast ski on the slopes where Hans and I skied Saturday. It was 5 degrees below zero (F) when we left the cabin! The climb warmed us up nicely though and we thoroughly enjoyed our ski run down off the ridge and back to the cabin.

When we got back, Cedar had already started making a fantastic breakfast for everyone (with some help from Treyson).

We took our time packing up and had a pleasant hike back to the car with beautiful weather (quite a change from Friday - weather wise).
The departing group picture:

The Fiore's:

Bridger had fun catching rides from Yuki, and Yuki didn't seem to mind the full sled at all (he was pulling out our gear too - no snowmobile helping on the way out).

I don't think Jeff and Hans enjoyed pulling the sleds as much as Yuki did.

We got to the cars by 3:00 and had an easy drive home. As great as the trip was, it's always nice to be home!

Here's a slideshow of all the pictures and videos.