Sunshine Ridge 2-24-09

I took the day off today and thought I had picked a great ski day since it rained like crazy down here last night. I was hoping to go to Sugar Bowl or Squaw, but unfortunately the storm was very warm and windy so by the time I left the house, my expectations were low. I planned to go to Mt Rose Ski Resort, but when I got there (~9:00) the Quad lifts and Chuter were still not running due to wind. So I headed up to the Big Springs parking area since I knew Ed was heading out to Sunshine Ridge at 9:00. I met two split-boarders in the lot and we headed up to the ridge and took our first run together. While they set up their boards I went down a little bit and dug a pit. The snow was pretty uniform and I didn't find a layer in the pit wall, but when I did the shovel compression test it failed at 28 on two tests with a pretty clean shear (but didn't pop). We stuck to mellow, treed lines, but the snow was pretty worked by the wind everywhere we went. I caught Ed and two friends, Chris and Ranbir, and skied the next run with them. We looked at skiing Benoit's Chute, but decided to stay safe and stick with the mellower terrain. Although the snow wasn't great (interesting is what Treyson, my 8yo, calls it now) it was a fun morning. We had beautiful blue skies and it was a very social ski; quite different from my last time in the same area where I didn't see a single other person.

Winter Wilderness Medicine - Lost Trail Lodge, February 6 - 8, 2009

This weekend was the fifth annual Winter Wilderness Medicine Conference and the third at Lost Trail Lodge. We lucked out big time with a little storming coming in Thursday and lasting in to Friday. There were nineteen of us (two canceled the night before) and I think everyone had a great time. We had six students who did a great job cooking and were STOKED for the skiing. Dave Sartoni, who teaches avy courses and guides for ASI and UNR, came to do our Saturday snow safety and extrication workshop. Most of us met at my house at 8:00 on Friday and we met Dave from Lost Trail at 9 to load the food and extra bags on his snowmobiles. We got in to the Lodge in time for lunch (soup, crackers, cheeses) and then Dave led a great beacon rescue session out in the meadow. After that, about half the group skied Friday afternoon, hitting the slopes to the SW of the Lodge. The snow was decent, but it was easy to hit the crust below the new snow. The slightest change in aspect to the south made huge difference. Friday evening we relaxed and socialized (enjoyed the wine we had hauled in).

Dan, Dave , Justin, me and two students (Mike and John) did a “dawn patrol” and skied the steep north aspect of the ridge in front of the lodge. We headed further up it than usual, trying to stay out of the snowcat’s area. It was great! Up top there was a good 7 - 10 inches of great powder. After breakfast, lectures and lunch, we all went out and hiked/skied up the Cat road about a mile. We then split in to three teams and built sleds and splints for our victims (who had to be hauled a distance). Every team did great. Then all the students and a few of the docs went up to the top of the ridge where we skied down the north side again. One of the students was a little winded, so we short-roped her with Yuki who had no problem helping her summit the ridge! We broke in to three groups and everyone found great snow and had huge smiles! Dan and I dropped in to a steep couloir (45’ish degrees), which was a blast. When we returned we had phenomenal appetizers, more talks and then a huge beef roast and apple and pear pudding with whipped cream. Nobody went hungry!

Sunday morning Dan, Dave and I got up with four students and skied another great run in the same area, finally under blue skies. I was on Justin’s skis (I had my “boundless”) and they rocked! We had a great breakfast, covered a couple more topics, I gave out first aid medicine kits, and then packed up and headed out as the skies clouded over again and the wind picked up. Yuki, how had been great the whole trip, helped again by pulling Dan and Karel each part way out - plus a sled!

A slideshow:

Some short videos:

Sled Building and Pulling:

Skiing under the clouds Saturday morning:

Skiing early Sunday morning:

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