the 2013-2014 winter was relatively poor for skiing and many people said there was no snow in the Sierra. Actually there was quite a bit above 10,000 feet or so and another storm system brought a bit more on Tuesday through Thursday. By Friday it was melting off of the lower elevations, but Laura and I planned on a last gasp ski trip for the weekend.
Saturday we headed up to Virginia Lakes trailhead and loaded up our packs. There we saw a friend of Laura's who was also heading in but with snowshoes and hiking boots. We leap-frogged with them as far as Summit Lake. The ground was clear at the trailhead where we started walking in. It wasn't long before we had to cross some snow and our sneakers got wet. Quite a bit later we decided that the time had come to switch to skis so we changed into boots and started skinning up the valley. There were still a number of thin places and rock bands to deal with, but for the most part we were on skis from here on out. At the top of the pass we had to walk but then we were able to take off the skins and actually ski downhill. Not so easy with large packs, but a lot faster. At least until you hit a steep rocky bit. We put the skis back on our packs for some step kicking traversing and down climbing before we were able to ski some more. The last gulley down to the next drainage was pretty fun skiing. Then we had to slog up to Summit Lake. There we decided that if we went farther we would have to descend and climb again before finding more snow. So we set up camp and relaxed for the rest of the day.
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Since this was a trip with Laura we were not skimping on deliciousness. Happy hour started with wine and brie and gouda on flavored triscuits. I skipped the former, but the latter was most excellent. That was followed up at sunset with bacon wrapped sirloin and bacon mashed potatoes with pesto... Definitely not suffer-light.
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Sunday morning we got up and had a leisurely breakfast before setting off up a nearby bowl. The snow was pretty nice and the skinning went relatively quickly. Soon we crossed the boundary into Yosemite at the top and looked out over a nice view. We went up even higher onto another snowy face before switching into downhill mode and carving turns down the blank canvas. I managed to fall and scrape up some knuckles, but otherwise it went well. We leap frogged down the slope taking pics as we passed each other. Then back to the bowl we skinned up for more skiing. That was so much fun we went up and did it again.
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On the way back to camp we stopped at the Summit Lake outlet where a small bit of open water made for some interesting reflection pics. There was plenty of daylight left, but the snow was starting to get mushy. We took the time to dry out everything and relax. We had more brie and gouda and crackers this evening as well as some lentil and sweet potato curry I had dried the previous week. That night I woke up around midnight and tried out the new camera for night shots. There were some different modes that I wanted to try - but unfortunately the incomplete manual only told you how to select them, not what they did or how to make them work... more experimentation is required.
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Memorial day we packed up slowly trying to dry things first and then started heading back. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of skiing to be had, but the skinning went quickly enough. When we got to the top of the pass it was obvious that a whole lot of melting had happened since we hiked and skied in. We didn't even ski down the relatively short (and rocky) snow slope but just plunge stepped it. Then we switched into our sneakers for the relatively long hike out (complete with a few snow patches for some quality post holing).
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Once we were back at the Truck Of Fun we headed to the Mobil for a beer and steak salad (well some of us anyway). Then on to the S tufas at Mono lake for photography. I saw some osprey working on a nest so I took a heap of pics of them. Some turned out pretty nicely.
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All in all it was another most excellent trip out. I could do without the sunburn on the bottom of my nose and the bear cannister abrasion on my backside though. In fact I wasn't really happy with how my pack worked with the load I had - I guess it was a learning experience.
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