Gilcrest Couloir - A Nine Year Wait Ends!

I have been eying this particular couloir for nine years, ever since I climbed Gilcrest Peak "accidentally" with Truckee on a return trip from skiing Elderberry Canyon on Mt. Tom with Eric Wood when he was one of our residents. Looking for an easy ski on the drive home I drove up the road to Lundy Lake thinking I'd find something. Well, there was a nice peak with a broad ramp on the lower section, so off we went. One thing led to another and a few hours later we were on top of Gilcrest Peak at 11,575 feet. Looking down to the lake I noticed what looked like a couloir going all the way, but from up top I couldn't see it all so I skied down the east face, the way we came up. When I got to the car I looked back and saw "the line". It's the one on the "looker's" right that goes all the way to the (false) summit (picture taken April 2008):


So, after thinking and dreaming about it for these past NINE YEARS, I finally decided that the time and conditions were right. I was able to get Jon and Scott to join me. Jon saw the line last year on the way back from a Tioga Pass ski trip and Scott was just game for what I described as an unknown epic line. (Unknown is a bit of an exaggeration, but I've not seen it written up anywhere.)

We got to the Lundy Lake road a little later than planned (don't you always) and found that the gate was locked! What a shock! We really didn't want to hike the four miles to the lake, and we definitely didn't like the idea of hiking four miles out AFTER a big climb and ski. Just as we were getting in the car to find something else to ski, up comes the county road guy in one of those big snowblowers. He opens the gate and tells us to have at it!

We went up approximately the route I took nine years ago, around to the east side of then mountain and then up. It was surprisingly steep, enough to make me wonder what I was doing climbing it by myself that first time. Of course, I didn't intend to climb it that time, I just kept going "a little bit higher". Anyway, we reached the summit ridge around 2:15 and then continued up to he rocky summit before wondering where the entrance to the couloir was. We eventually figured out it was back down a few hundred feet f the summit plateau. The big rock buttresses that seemed to mark the entrance when we were looking up were actually about 1000' below us! It also turned out we had to ski one couloir for about 1,000' and then walk a hundred feet or less over to the next one that took us to the bottom.

We started our descent at 3:00 and found variable, but decent conditions. It was a mixture of firm windbuff, windblown powder and the occasional slick patch. Of course nothing like the ice ice I "enjoyed" for 3500' down Mt Marcy in NY. There were a couple of tight chokes which were a bit icy, but mostly the couloir was plenty wide and we could enjoy the turns. About half way down I realized I lost a basket on one of my poles (I was feeling off balance turning to my left). I have carried a spare basket in my repair kit for years, but of course it wasn't there when I needed it. But I was able to make a basket with a plastic lid to my "Zardoz Not Wax" container and duct tape. It worked pretty well! Between taking turns, the repair, enjoying the views and letting Scott take some pictures, it took us about an hour to reach the bottom and ski out the apron to the car.

It was a great ski and I felt great having the monkey off my back after all these years. Now I can't wait to go back and ski it with some fresh powder on it.

A picture of our route:


Here are some pictures that Scott and I took. His work can be found at TahoeLight.com.

Skiing Mt Marcy

My weekend partners (both "established" and online) all fell through, but I was not to be deterred and drove up to the Adirondack Loj to ski Mt. Marcy (New York's highest peak). The worker at the Loj excitedly told me it would be a great day to ski Marcy so I was stoked and tried not to be worried when I saw this at the trailhead.

Okay, maybe it was a little icy here, but surely it won't be like that for long! After carefully walking this section of road for ~1/2 mile, I turned off on to another access road that I could actually ski. Mostly. There were quite a few bare spots that I either walked across with my skis (and kick skins) or took off my skis. I finally got to Marcy Dam around 11:30. It took me over an hour to go just under 3 miles and 200' gain. Not good.

A guide at the dam warned me that I should reassess at Indian Falls, as it was getting late. I should have also picked up on the fact that he was taking his client in the other direction to find some corn in one of the slides.

But the day was beautiful and long, so off I went. There were a ton of people at the Dam, most seeming to head up to Marcy, but once on the trail I only saw 2 or 3 groups going up and a few more coming down. I started to wonder what I was getting myself in to, especially since the trail was narrow and icy. Oh well, it will soften up for the ski down.

The summit cone had a nice coat of snow on it, but unfortunately a not so nice coat of ice on top of the snow. Oh, back East when they say ice, they mean ice.
Summit cone:

But the view on the summit was wonderful. You can see some slides on Wright's Peak in the distance.

To my surprise there were three snowboarders and one other skier up there. The snowboarders and I did find some decent snow off the SE aspect of the summit, but only about 500' vertical. Then I cut over to the north face to see if there was any good snow there. All ice. When I say "ice", it was so slick that traversing across a moderate pitch my skis just shot out from under me and I quickly started sliding down the mountain. "Luckily" some rocks and shrubs were there to break my fall!

Here's what skiing off the summit was like:


The rest of the decent to Marcy Dam was mostly a scary snowplow down an icy trail.

A little ways above the dam the snow finally softened and I was able to enjoy the winding trail. I did try to go off trail once, but quickly found myself ensnared by trees and branches. Not like Tahoe, I mean REALLY dense trees and branches!
Here's the opening into the trees, it gets MUCH denser:


All in all, I'm glad I climbed the peak. I had climbed it one summer with my brother and father when I was 11, and since I'm out here to help my father recovery from surgery, it seemed a good tribute.

But I will be VERY happy to return home and ski some fine Tahoe and Sierra snow!

Night Skiing in NY

Bridger and I went night skiing the other day! We got up to West Mountain around six and met Robbie, his brother Will and their cousin, plus Dad's. We skied until around eight, then had dinner (second dinner for Bridger) in the nice restaurant in the lodge. It was pretty darn icy, but Bridger didn't seem to care.

S***y Mountain, NY

I got a "free day" while up in Saratoga helping my Dad recover from his eye surgery (still not sure how successful it was), so after emailing back and forth with "Freedan" from T-tips and doing some research, I headed up towards Indian Lake to ski the Slides . Dan gave me great directions, so I only drove past the trailhead a couple of times before pulling over and getting going. I started up around 10:30 and reached the bottom of the slides by 11:15, another 45 min's and I was up on top of S***y Mtn looking for a vantage for a good photo of the High Peaks to the north. Unfortunately all I could see was more trees all around me. So I made my way back to the slide, which wasn't easy to find from above, and enjoyed the corn. I did two runs on the main slide and one on a slightly smaller slide, but which was much less skied from yesterday. Each time I went above the slide and was amazed at how hard they are to see from above or the side. On my last climb I found an interesting frozen waterfall that I had to take a few picgtures of. After three runs and lunch I skied back out the the car thoroughly happy with my day.

Here is the slideshow:


And a short video of my skiing. First, skiing the trees to get to the Slide:



Here I am skiing the Slide, notice how well hidden it is:


(NB - edited to remove the name of the mtn since learning that one doesn't reveal "secret" slides when back East)

Skiing West Mountain in New York with Bridger 3-13-09

Bridger and I went up to West Mountain with his friend Robbie and Robbie's Dad Kurt. We had a delightful day. It was cold, but sunny and the snow was pretty good. Almost like cold corn. We skied from 1:30 until 5:30 with a nice break for hot chocolate (and beer).

Here is a little slideshow:


And here's a little video of Bridger skiing:

Donner to Donner March 6th 2009

I hooked up with Dave Sartoni, Kiwi Lynn ad four of Dave’s friends for the Donner to Donner (summit to lake) ski. Dave never skied with two of the guys and at the trailhead we found out they didn’t have beacons, which caused us some consternation. But we decided to go on anyway and to put them in the middle of us. The wind was pretty hard out of the west and at the top of Judah we discussed routes, eventually deciding that Eric and Paul would ski the mellower line below us and the rest of us headed out the ridge past the big bowl and cornices. The line I thought I saw down a “rib” didn’t look as safe as I had thought so after more discussion we eventually picked a line off the rib in to the next bowl. We hit some mild crust but it was a decent run (the snow was better were Eric and Paul skied). While we were skiing we heard and then saw a bit of the cornice ahead of us break off but it only triggered a little sluff.

From there we went back up and skied down along Eric and Paul’s first run and then cut over to the ridge to drop down to Donner Lake. There was a well worn track over there with plenty of skiers and boarders cutting over from the top of the Judah lift. We had a pleasant run down to the tracks, followed them to the right/east to the next tunnel and then decided to climb up to the ridge for one more short run. It was the best snow of the day, so I suggested that one group run the car shuttle while another (Me, Lynn and Scotty) do another lap. We skied further to the east, coming out on the east end of the tunnel before joining most of the other tracks. We only waited about 15 min’s to be picked up by Dave.

On the way home we had an interesting discussion about the decisions we made (not knowing ahead of time that Eric and Paul didn’t have beacons, continuing anyway, splitting up, the line we chose off Judah, splitting up skiing down Donner and climbing back up, then three of us squeezing in a last lap).

Some pictures courtesy of Davide.

Hiking along Mt Judah's Summit Ridge:

Looking at the cornice and an older fracture line (scary!):

Josh getting turns:
Back up at the summit



Eric checks out the snow:
A map of our route:


Helmet cam:

March Enters with a DUMP! 3-5- 09

Thursday March 5th - Bridger turns 5 - I've got the day off and we've had TONS of snow recently. I've been battling the crud that's going around, so I decided to take it easy and head to Mt Rose. Actually, I didn't think I'd get to ski at all because Dina was so sick last night I considered taking her to the ER. But a little Phenergan and Vicodin and she slept like a babe and felt much better this morning and gave me the green light. I made the boys' lunches and got them off to school before heading up. After just 2 runs in the Chutes I realized that I was going to get bored at the resort, so I took on last run down Ramsey's (to get to the car easier) and heaed up to Big Springs and skinned up to Hourglass. I hooked up with another solo skier I meet at the summit (Julius) and we skied two fun runs together before I realized I was feeling fatigued and headed over to proletariat for a run out to the car. Even though I tired quickly, it was great to be out in the BC again.

Here's my second run down "El Cap"



Skiing next to Hourglass

Bye Bye February

I guess this was a special weekend - it's the first time in a while that I haven't skied at least one day on the weekend. The conditions didn't look very enticing and I'm fighting a cold, so I just hung out around the house. I got some yard work done yesterday, it's feeling like spring. Today I wen to the St Mary's Health Center and spun a bit on a stationary bike and then swam for 30 minutes (and then steamed). It felt good to get some exercise, but an hour later I was wiped and took a nap. Now it looks like a nice storm pattern is setting up for the next few days. Hopefully I'll be able to take advantage of it Thursday and Friday (taking them off before going to Oakland for "camping" on the USS Hornet with Darius and the Boy Scouts and then heading to NY a week from Monday).