This should be good...
.COLD AIRMASS FROM ALASKA AND WESTERN CANADA TO BRING WINTER WEATHER
AND UNSEASONABLY LOW SNOW LEVELS TO NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA EARLY
FRIDAY MORNING INTO SATURDAY MORNING. PERSISTENT AND INTENSE SHOWER
ACTIVITY WILL MOVE NORTHWEST TO SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE AREA ATND BEGIN
TO DEVELOP THURSDAY EVENING. SNOW LEVELS AT THIS TIME WILL RANGE
FROM 3500 TO 4000 FEET. BY SUNRISE FRIDAY MORNING...SNOW LEVELS WILL
QUICKLY FALL TO 2000 FEET OR LESS ACROSS INLAND VALLEYS. STRONG
SHOWERS ARE EXPECTED TO MOVE ONSHORE THROUGH MUCH OF THE DAY AND
KEEP SNOW LEVELS CLOSE TO 2000 FEET. BY FRIDAY NIGHT...SNOW
ACCUMULATIONS NEAR 2000 FEET WILL BE APPROACHING 3 TO 5 INCHES .WITH
CONSIDERABLY MORE SNOW POSSIBLE ABOVE 3000 FEET. TEMPERATURES ARE
EXPECTED TO BE IN THE UPPER TEENS TO UPPER 20S BY SATURDAY MORNING
ACROSS THE INTERIOR VALLEYS OF NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA.

AH YEAH!!!
That makes it really fun just to get to the lake, let alone getting very far up the access road.
Hey, I got a little confused reading your last post about the north road. Is that the main road up to the summit from the Lake, along what you're calling Boardman ridge? If so, I think I know of the road spur to the right? Is it beyond where you get into a large mazanita patch and open southfacing slopes? Since I only have a Subie, I wouldn't try anything risky once I got into much snow. I do know how hard it can be to turn around and not get stuck, especially in big deep ruts from some yahoo's Jeep. <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

If we don't hook up to ride by January, I will definately meet you out there on your vacation. Did you say keg?

Good things come to those who wait...
AT ANY RATE...AFTER THE SECOND SHORTWAVE PASSES THRU THE DISTRICT
THE WEEKEND WILL BE DRY...COOL SAT AND WARMER SUN AFTN AFTER A COLD
MRNG. FRI AND SAT WILL BE THE COOLEST DAYS WITH MOST MAX TEMPS IN
THE 50S OR LOWER 60S AT BEST. ON MON THE MODELS BRING ANOTHER
SHORTWAVE INTO THE DISTRICT FROM THE NW. THIS ONE MAY BRING A
LITTLE RAIN BUT NOTHING MORE THAN THAT. OVERALL THE DISTRICT IS
FORECAST TO REMAIN IN THE CURRENT PATTERN OF A FAIRLY DRY N-NW FLOW
ALOFT FOR THE NEXT WEEK WITH ONLY LIGHT RAIN EVENTS FROM TIME TO
TIME.

Hey Powderwhore, check this out
http://www.sonomawings.com/photo/hull/hullbrt.jpg
The West Chutes lie between 'timberline launch' which is Timberline Camp and 'lower launch' which is the lookout at the top of the West Chutes. You can see how the road cuts across the ridge after 'lower launch'. The little road to the right is just before 'lower launch'.
From the summit on the left you can see Sundream Bowl, next is Swallowed Hull Couloir, just under the snowdrift on the summit ridge is Meteor Bowl, and you can see the next north facing bowl - Hullafar Bowl. Corner Pocket is the thick woods coming out of the Hullbacks (the north bowl behind the summit) leading to the southwest corner of Hullafar. The Shaft is located out along the west ridge of Hullafar with an eastern aspect just after the 2nd section of woods ( out of sight in this photo). The Rock Chutes are located in Hullafar Bowl across from The Shaft with a western aspect. Boardman Ridge is the ridge that the road is on. You turn left lower down the ridge at the game refuge sign (M1).
This hang-gliding site has more photos - check em out!

This is Hull Mtn.
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 8&z=10&w=1
The summit is on the left with Sundream Bowl dropping off the south side (the picture is facing north), the next gully to the right is Swallowed Hull Couloir (there's quite a story behind that name), with Hullavator Ridge in between. Next on the south side is Meteor Bowl. If you keep going on the summit ridge to the right you'll be at the top of Hullafar Bowl, with Corner Pocket rising out of the Hullbacks on your left (see that skinny little chute through the trees...?). If you take that ridge to the north you will get to The Shaft facing east. Directly across Hullafar to the east are The Rock Chutes. Just on the other side of that lies O.B. Bowl (Out of Bounds Bowl).
Get a close up view - it's pretty cool!

jibmaster,
Thanks for all the beta. I figured I had to confirm your locations by ground truthing on Sunday. I thought I'd be disappointed driving up with only small patches on the south side. Got to drive way up, stopping where road crosses over to west side of ridge. Hiked up with my splitboard and a rock board, just in case. I was pleasantly suprised with 1.5 to 2 feet of base, even though it was rock hard. Hiked a little out Hullavator Ridge and dropped in down a little chute next to a large rock on the north bowl (what's the name of this bowl directly north of the summit?). Skinned and hiked out to ridge towards Hullafar bowl and out the ridge towards the shaft. Too shady and icy to ride so I took a nice run down Hullafar bowl. It was sweet. I checked out the shaft and rock chutes. That whole area looks amazing, expecially the east facing slope off the ridge to the Shaft. Took another run down hullafar bowl but stayed on the ridge longer since it softened up. Took a couple more short runs on the mellow ridges then hiked to the upper launch, switched to my rock board and rode down the road till I hit dirt. It was a great day and my subie took the climb in stride.

Nice job Powderwhore! The bowl on the north side of the summit is called The Hullbacks (they remind me of the Hobacks at Jackson Hole)
Hullavator Ridge rises out of Sundream Bowl on the south side. If I'm reading your post correctly you traversed out the summit ridge and dropped into The Hullbacks. There is always snow on the north side. Once Hullafar fills in the options become mindboggling. The snow falls on Hull so dense and wet it's always rock hard in the morning. I've gotten there too early before and you just have to sit around and wait. Better than too late though.
I will definately be up there during January with my friend sirjibalot. He's the guy that helped discover this place 6 years ago. And yes I did say keg.
Was Sundream all melted out? Did you see any animal tracks? When I was up there two weeks ogo I saw some rather large cat tracks. There is also the legend of the Hull Bear. We've seen his tracks many times coming up from the south side and heading across the summit ridge and down into Hullafar. I like skiing in a place that only has my tracks from last week and a whole story of animal tracks! I'll meet you there soon.

Lots of animal tracks. I did see some melted out tracks that were most likely bear tracks, but maybe cat, on the summit ridge. Sundream bowl is completely melted out. I was gonna stash a beer for you at the launch, but then I sat down and drank it. sorry.

After re-reading your descriptions I figured that Hullbacks was the main north bowl. And Hullavator ridge is not the summit ridge, but a finger ridge on the south side. And I'm guessing corner pocket is in the center of hullback bowl with a large rock outcrop and a nice little "chute" at the top.

The terraserver aerial is really cool. Thanks for posting.

Hey powderwhore, did you access Hull via Potter Valley? The last time I used Potter Valey the raod along the Eel River was from hell. So many pot holes and road cups(as opposed to suncups-the corduroy that rattles your vehicle to smithereens). I always enter and exit via Elk Mtn. out of Upper Lake.
Corner Pocket is located in the southeast part of the Hullbacks with that little skinny chute through the trees in the satallite photo. I think you rode down from the second little peak on the summit ridge into the Hullbacks-we call that Little Whitney. From the south side when you are in Meteor Bowl looking up, you can see this mini peak on the ridge. It looks like a miniature version of Whitney.

AHHH. Yes, little Whitney. On a powder day, that chute and rock drop looks fun. I think I looked down corner pocket, thinking the sun had softened the snow there, but it looked nasty, so I opted out.

The only time I go to the lake from Upper Lake is when it's really muddy after a rain, or if I'm with friends and were towing sleds or bikes. I was thinking of going home that way to see the mileage difference. The logging road along the south side of Eel River via Potter Valley has been open for a while and is much shorter and is really a good road. I'm sure from Napa, it's quicker to go Upper Lake.

Looks like the North Coast is getting some pretty good snow.
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?NLS
This site sits at 5100' just a few miles from Hull to the east. This is the elevation that you can usually drive up to. The summit is 6700' with that 5000' verticle uplift that the hang-gliders love so much in the summer. Sundream Bowl should be getting buried under several feet of snow! I can't wait 'till Tuesday!!!

Jibmaster,You know who nester is right?
Nice string you have going here. Almost you make me tempted to come check it out. 15 hr drive always seems to put a damper on my enthusiasm though. Especially when I'd have to drive by Adams, Hood, Jefferson, Sisters, Shasta, and Lassen to get there. I'm definetely interested in the south sister in the spring though.

Nester...Powderwhore...everyone...I have hit a snag in my system. Some dumb asshole drifed into my lane and nailed the front end of my beautiful Jeep. I will be out of the scene for 1 or 2 weeks. Nothing serious. Insurance should take care of everything. I will be back at Hull before Christmas and hopefully with a digital camera to post pics with my trip reports. Hull'd out I will be back!!!

Sorry to hear. I was hoping for a trip report, not a crash report. I'll post here or send you an e-mail if I go up there in the next few weeks. All next week I'll be at Kirkwood and surrounding BC.

Thanks powderwhore.

Wow! What a day. Left the house at 4 this morning for Hull. Drove up to 3800' just before the road angles onto a north facing aspect where the snow is really deep. Stepped out of the Jeep into 8-10 inches of slush and mud. It was raining. The lake looked like it got hit pretty hard with this past storm. Mostly melted but it looked like the lake had 3 or 4 inches (1800'). I was the first vehicle of the day so I was breaking trail with 5-10 inches of snow on the road above the wildlife refuge.
Slapped some *** wax on my skins and proceeded to skin up the slush and ponds of water. Never clumped. Further up the road the snow started to improve. The weather did not agree however. Super high winds that sounded like a freight train coming at you. Above Camp II the road becomes more exposed to the west and I just got blasted all the way to Timberline Camp. By then I really wished I had worn my Marmot fleece sweat pants. The cloud cover and the sun were competing all day. I actually got a glimps of clear blue ski every now and again.
But the wind was out of control. When I rounded the corner at Timberline Camp I could not stand up. I was hurled to the ground multiple times in several hundred feet of skinning up a flat road! I had finally caught up to the rising cloud layer and everything was foggy and flat light. No trees. No shrubs. Nothing but hurricane force winds. I couldn't see ***. The snow at this point was dry with a wicked crust that was making my acl a bit paranoid.
I skiied some north facing slopes off the road at Timberline Camp and headed back to the Jeep.
When I get down lower I start to run into a whole bunch of 4Wheelers. Every redneck in the hood was up there tearing it up. I must have seen at least 50 really gnarly redneck setups totally jibbing up a storm in the mud and slush. A few of them had snowboards. I've seen this before. None of these fools is going anywhere near the upper mountain. They only travel as far as their rig will get them. From where I parked it took me 2.5 hours just to get to Timberline Camp. The summit is another 1/2 an hour from there.
A lot of the 4X4's got way up the road. Alot farther than I would have attempted. My Jeep doesn't have a huge lift so I usually call it a lot sooner than I would like. It's a trade off...do I want to winch my Jeep around all day or ski?!?!
Anyways I'm rambling...The keg arrives at Hull Monday night. I will be up there most of next week, and next weekend. If you got a 4X4 you need to be there!

Have any of you been to Snow Mountain during the winter to ski? I can see that there is tons of snow up there right now.

I have summited Snow Mtn. twice. It is pretty inaccessable in the winter. To get there you have to cross several streams and rivers which in the winter are roaring death traps. I haven't tried the several other opproaches. There might be a way to get close to the mountain in the winter but I haven't found if yet.
I'd love to try though! If there's a will there's a way. Also the terrain is pretty mellow up there. If I did summit in the winter, which could possibly be a multi-day trip, I probably would only do it once just to say I did it. Hull is much more user-friendly and so easy to access.
Let's go to Hull dude!!!

Greetings, jibmaster. I'm not too sure about this business of user names, by the way- it smacks just a little too much of "Top Gun"-esque call signs (Maverick, Iceman, etc). On the other hand, maybe you want to keep your true identity as secret as possible, since on this website you've implicated yourself in all manner of land-use crimes.

Anyway, are you coming skiing with us this week? If you'll remember, I called you last week about joining us in Tahoe. I talked to Troy last night and he said he'd try to get a hold of you as well, but I thought that, since you don't have any sort of voice mail technology, this might be the best way to contact you. If you get this message any time before Wednesday, why don't you e-mail me and we can discuss further- arrhenius11@hotmail.com

I'm assuming you know who I am, even without proper name usage, but if you need a hint, it's Kenny, dumbass. Hope you can make it up the hill with us.

Hey dumbass, I mean Kenny! I'm going to be up at Hull for a few days. We're leaving tonight. Sorry to not get back to you. I got the Jeep back so I really feel the need to go wreak some havoc on the environment! Just kidding, you know I'm a tree-hugging hippie - right?

Hull giveth and Hull taketh away. Considering the odds against us, this trip was a success.
Drove up Mon. afternoon. Lots of snow. Took the Potter Valley way in. The storm was in transition, so had a high ceiling. There were lots of snow patches down at the lake. We hit snow line about half way up to Boardman Ridge. Finally winched the last hundred feet or so into a nice clearing at 4228'. We set up camp in about 6" of snow.
Woke up on Tue. morning to the same high clouds, a little wind and good visibility. The light was a bit flat, but at least we weren't socked in with fog. Once we left the road just below Timberline Camp the snow started to get interesting. High winds had sculpted the snow into strange shapes with pockets of boiler plate mixed with deep pow and firm windblown. I was hoping to get a nice descent of the West Chutes. Denied. Too exposed to the wind. The sun was nowhere to be seen. We could have used some sun to ripen the boiler plate into corn.
The other option was to hit some pow in the Hullbacks. There's not much verticle in the Hullbacks and is difficult to get out of. So we decided to grab a First Descent into an area below Rabbit Ridge. It's only skiable during low snow levels. Perfect day for it.
Just as Rabbit Ridge gets going, (and believe you me it keeps on going! It's named after the Energiser Bunny.), there is a large rock formation and one of the loveliest bowls I have ever seen. We scoped out this bowl last year but didn't have the right conditions to ski it. This is Tortoise Bowl. Almost 500' of verticle lies below you as you stand at the top. The funnel in the center is on your left and to skiers right it gets steeper and steeper. The snow conditions were difficult at best. Still the same mix. Dodging the boiler plate to catch an edge in the punchy pow and grab some firm windblown into more pow and ice. I enjoyed every single turn.
We traversed out to the right and caught the road just below Timberline Camp. A real nice tour. Also an excellent exit from the upper mountain.
We skiied down the road to our camp and proceeded to put a large dent in the keg. A couple bottles of wine later things started to get a little wacky. I managed to burn a large hole in my sleeping bag! With feathers flying all over the tent and snow starting to fly outside, we passed out.
Wednesday morning arrived to the tune of 6" of fresh snow and rain. A slow puking precip. that just pisses you off. Heavy fog as well. With about a 1 hour skin just to get to Timberline Camp and the barometer starting to drop, we decided to bail. Skinning in the rain is not as much fun as you would think. I also wanted to be able to drive out of there.
We had quite a time driving down Boardman. It had snowed all the way down to lake level. We had to winch in one section on Boardman and finally took a break at the lake. The road to Potter Valley was so bad we decided to take our chances with the Elk. That's when our luck started to change.
The snow on Elk Mountain was DEEP!. 1-2 feet on the road and we were getting first tracks in the Jeep. It had an ice layer that my light vehicle wasn't able to penetrate. I've been on Elk Mountain in the snow before, but had never needed the winch. We spent the next 3 hours winching the Jeep around every double fall line corner on the mountain. The gas gauge is resting on E and it's starting to get dark. We winched into the afternoon and evening. Then we winched some more. Then the winch cable come off the spool. Just when we were seriously considering spending the night, with one last boost of energy and will power, we reattached the cable to the spool and took three picks that pulled us out of the last corner and up onto the pavement at the summit. We just made it as darkness fell. What a relief! But wait! We are almost out of gas. Multiple hours of stressfull driving has left us as empty as the gas tank. We couldn't relax the whole way down the switchbacks. Coasted most of the way.
Finally we prevailed and represented as we pulled into the gas station in Upper Lake. I had 1/2 gallon left.
The Elk was not in a good mood that day. Even the Tortoise gave us some trouble. Hull denied our efforts and bitch slapped us with all that boiler plate. But we got to ski a new line! It was a successfull and memorable trip for sure. Can't wait for Saturday!

got any pics you guys wanna share? I'll put them on if you e-mail me smaller photo files. mike@thebackcountry.net I'm curious as others are of where you're talking about. Don't worry, I won't add it to the guidebook.



Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

Being the poor ski bum that I am, I still haven't caught up with all this new technology all the kids are talking about. A digital camera is next on my list. In the meantime I will try to transfer some of my negatives from all previous trips (El Nino was incredible!), onto disc. I would love to provide some visuals. Tell Roger to get up here with me. I bet he could get a hold of a digi.
I love this site. Keep up the good work!

Never a dull moment up there. It must really be interesting snow conditions. A crew is going up there saturday and sunday with sleds. They are staying at a cabin on the lake. I'm still getting pulled in several directions for the weekend. My better half wants to sit on a lift so we may be the dumb dumbs driving up to Tahoe. I committed to ride with her this weekend so......

Never fear, I will be up there at some point.

Mike, this isn't a Tahoe location. It's nestled in the coastal mountains near Clear Lake. Jibmaster is the king of the hill here, has named all the runs and charges the road approach like a champ (or so I read). It's a backcountry paradise for folks in the know, but conditions can be variable, at best. Thanks for letting us post on your great website and forum.

Saturday should be a great day at Hull. This last bit of precip. came in with a higher snow line. Around 5000'. The last storm had snow down to 1800'. You really don't need it to snow any lower than 4000'
I'm looking forward to good driving conditions and a bluebird day. It would be a nice change. Storm skiing at Hull can be brutal. Have you ever tried summiting an ice covered mountain in a hurricane? It's actually kind of fun - good practice. But the ski conditions can suffer in that kind of weather. The best days at Hull are all about corn. It's time for harvest!

Had a classic Hull trip. No driving issues, excellent 4wheeling, only used the winch once. Lots of mud - it's now plastered all over the Jeep! Anyways, the skiing was really nice. Not epic, but the corn was there for the taking. I summited twice on Sat. doing laps on Sudream Bowl. Pretty firm suncrust with that ice layer from a few days ago when it rained. Kind of crunchy turns with a really steep run that had some pow that you had to dig for.
The best skiing however was today. After the heat of yesterday had melted that crust into a nice slope of pure butter I dropped in off the summit and took Cable Couloir into Sundream bowl. Jump turns into the abyss with ice crystals falling below my skis as I made my way down to the rocks and trees at the apex of the chute. The snow soon turned to smooth epic corn.
After the last rock formation at the end of the bowl I traversed hard right, over the top of Porcipine Ridge and caught the top of Rabbit Ridge. I dropped into Tortoise Bowl. The snow down there was from God. I was late in the afternoon so the right side was super firm corn, and the left side was more of the butter. I couldn't decide which one so I kept arcing turns to ski both areas. Some 50 or 70 turns later I decide to hit a high traverse back into Timberline Camp. Made it just above and cruised on down the raod to camp.
This is an area that holds a lot of snow. It lookes like you will get stuck with a huge hike out of there. But all you have to do is continue traversing right and even snowboareders can escape with no hiking. I'm going to explore this area for storm skiing on Hull. I like it...I like it alot!

Glad to see you back in action jibmaster. We had a foot of snow up here the last two weeks -- dry as Utah powder too. Shame we all had to work. . . keep the adventures coming though.

What a great day. The snow line was still pretty low and the upper mountain was still deep enough to ski wherever. We parked the Jeep a 4600' and gained the summit two hours later. Really warm, yet the corn was holding. After a break on the summit admiring how filled in the Hullbacks were, we dropped into Cable Couloir. Took it all the way down below the big trees and rocks. The snow was incredible! Perfectly smooth corn about 1 inch deep with a real solid and firm base. Traversed out to the right across Porcipine Ridge and headed for Tortoise Bowl. What a treat. Every turn was perfect. The turtle knows. The snow was just so creamy smooth. There's nothing like linking jumpturns down a steep slope and have such consistancy in the snow from top to bottom. All 1400' was the same. South facing in Sundream Bowl to east facing in Tortoise.

The West Chutes were doable but would benifit from a little more snow. Still saw my tracks from last week. I'm sure Hullafar should be awesome right now. The north side is socked in pretty deep. Theses low snow levels make for a long approach but it opens up some really good terrain. Saw the herd of elk down by the lake in the morning and on the way out. It was a good day!

One of the best things about today was the fact that we were in the sunshine! All of NCal. was socked in with a thick persistant fog. From the Summit of Hull you can see Shasta, Lassen, the ocean, Mt. St. Helena here in Napa Valley as well as the peaks right behind my house. Today all we saw was a see of fog - Hull was an island. The Central Valley looked like a huge glacier. It was pretty cool.

Well I guess I'm computer-challenged. I got a few pics which will be up soon. Until then...

Went up Tue. with Roger. Drove up to 4500' - right at camp 1. Not a lot of snow left down low, but found some real nice butter in Cable Couloir. It was pretty windy so had to wait it out for a bit at the top. Sundream Bowl finally started to show signs of corning up. We lapped the south side a few times and went on down to check out Tortoise Bowl. The winds were out of the east so the Turtle was pretty firm still. The runnout for Tortoise Bowl was pretty grim so we traversed right and granola'd our way across the shrub back to Timberline Camp. I thought the West Chutes might have some cover but they were pretty shot. One of these days...!

The return to the Jeep was pretty funny as we tried to stick to the bobsled jeeptracks. Still a lot of skiing to be had up there. Another storm would be nice though.

Sorry to have missed you powderwhore! I didn't know until the last minute that Scott only had a hallpass (Hullpass)<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> for Sat. only. I tried to rally and head back up but I flailed. Sorry dude. <img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle>
We will be up there for better days. After this dry spell Feb. owes us!

No problem jibmaster. We'll make it happen. I made it up sunday morning, started hiking around 10:00 after purchasing a lift ticket from CHP on Hwy 20. Make it past the first patch of snow on the road, then didn't want to press my luck. You must be able to get quite a bit higher up the road with a Jeep, that's why I'm coming with you next time. After a long, but enjoyable skin up, I thought I'd try my luck on the north bowl and got a long run down. Followed the sunny areas so it was managable, but still pretty hardpack. Got back up to the ridge and scoped out hullafar bowl and the west chutes. Stayed on the south side for the corn harvest the rest of the day. Them damn jeepsters sure do mess up a good road run at the bottom.

Cruised on up to Hull this morning. Elk Mountain was deep mud and all sloppy - epic wheeling. Power sliding around the corners, trying to stay out of the woods. Was able to drive up to Camp I (4500'), tried to get a little further but was denied because of ice. Not much cover down low. All the south facing aspects were bare. Parked just above Camp I and skinned up. Snowing heavily the whole way. Just as I got to Timberline Camp it cleared up for a few minutes. I had reached the top of the cloud layer and for a while I was in sunshine with clouds below me and the view was incredible. Snow Mountain was enveloped in clouds and Mt. St. John was draped in a surreal glow of sunlight. I paused at the summit woods above Rabbit Ridge to wolf down a sandwich behind the cover of some pine trees...the summit of Hull was visible for a few minutes before the fog came back in and everyting went flat. The snow depth at the top was pretty good but couldn't see much because of the fog.

I dropped into Sundream Bowl and cut right early to gain the ridge again. Not much new snow. There was a little corn on top of an ice layer that sluffed off as I skiied down. Sundream was roller-balling on a thin layer of new snow. With no visibility I decided to head back down. Not enough cover to hit the lower slopes below Rabbit Ridge. So I cruised back to the ridge and went to check out the West Chutes. Still not deep enough. The road was hell to ski down.

It was good to be up in the mountains though. There were thousands of Robins flying everywhere. Make that millions. What a trip. It's quite a sight to see Robins flying around a snow covered mountain in high winds...

Jibmaster standing on top of Hull Mtn. Lake Pillsbury, Clear Lake - both under fog with Mt. St. Helena in the background

Jibmaster dropping off the summit ridge into the Hullbacks


Jibmaster cruising down The Shaft in Hullafar Bowl


The summit ridge with the Hullbacks to the left during El Nino in '98


jibC heading down through the burned out forest that is O.B. Bowl just the other side of Hullafar Bowl


Jibmaster skinning up Boardman to the summit just above Sundream Bowl with Lake Pillsbury socked in with fog.


Epic El Nino coverage looking up from Timberline Camp to the summit of Hull.


Jibmaster heading down through the stubbs at the top of Rabbit Ridge heading for Tortoise Bowl(just a few weeks ago).

_________________
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I had to add just one more...
This is my first Jeep before I drowned it in the river just below the mountain. That's my buddy sirjibalot welcoming the sunrise at the turn-around above the West Chutes.

The poofs of smoke/clouds on the left are from the steam vents coming from the Geysers area near Healdsburg.

_________________
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Headed on up to Hull Mtn. on Wed. with my buddy sirjibalot. If he hadn't've drove off with all the cameras I'd have some visuals for ya'll, but the jibber jibbed off with the goods. Oh, well. I'll get them soon. We did a Lewis and Clark recon jib that took us into some new terrain and what we saw was good. The drive up was sweet. Hit snow about 4000'. Just some patches at first but soon it turned to total coverage on the road. The Jeep rallied us up to just below Timberline Camp at 5500'. Once we gained the top of Sundream Bowl, we decided to drop it immediately. The sun was shining bright and it was going fast. There was a stiff offshore wind that required the use of much GoreTex. That's what saved the day really. The wind was pretty strong under a strong sun and they both did us a favor. The sun was so bright, and the air so clear. Shasta was a sparkling diamond to the north with Lassen proudly representing as well. The ocean was clearly visible above Mt. Sanhedrin. The trees seemed to have a light all their own. And the wind kept the corn alive.
After some really nice melted butter on the steeps of Sundream, we traversed right and caught a nice run down Porcipine Ridge. We summited and kicked back for a while. Hull is magical. It's hard to leave the summit on a sunny day! Here's the Lewis and Clark part...
We dropped the summit and headed for the long west ridge. I had never been out there before. The run down from the summit was real tricky. The conditions would change from boiler plate to punchy pow, wind blown, corn, smoke dry pow, mank, and then back to boiler plate with drifts that looked hard and packed but would explode into oblivion as you dropped it into the hard pack trying to pull a turn on the next drift that was solid as rock. The wind had turned the ridge into a confusing mix of 'what the Hull?!'.
We skinnned up to the top of the west ridge which from now on will be known as Hullawest Ridge. When we topped out we saw the Hullbacks from a completely new angle. There are some sick lines on the west side of the Hullbacks that beg attention. Same with skiiers right of the Rock Chutes in Hullafar Bowl. I got some exploring to do! Anyways, the top of Hullawest Ridge is real trippy. It's a huge snow field that stretches out before you and drops off slowly to the west. We took it all the way to the end of the snow field which drops off into a sweet tree run. Pretty steep. That's going to need a name for sure. We didn't drop it because we were confused by all the terrain that we saw. Looking north of Hullawest there are some west facing bowls that definately need to be skiied. An obvious opening in the trees. We decided to name those bowls the Best Western bowls. I hate to name a run without skiing it but the name seemed to fit.
From Hullawest you have a really nice view of the west face of Hull. Some really sick sh*t. Super steep micro ridges that drop over a thousand feet down the west side. Getting out of there is another story. Theres no traversing out of that stuff.
The terrain that really impressed me wasn't so much Hullawest itself, but what we saw from there. The west side of the Hullbacks and further down the ridge from the Rock Chutes was incredible. 500' shots of super steep chutes through the rocks with dog legs and cliffs to huck with a really deep snowpack. The West Face(not to be confused with the West Chutes), is so tempting. My next trip will be all about going beyond The Shaft in Hullafar and exploring the end of that ridge to see what lies beyond...

_________________
Coastal Crest Snow Patrol
http://www.zazzle.com/jibmaster
http://www.earnyourturns.com/3878/ccsp-guide-2-mendocino/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jibmaster/

Thanks for doing all the recon jib. I'm sure I will benefit from your explorations. Is the snowpack holding ok, or is all this sun killing it?

The south side is in need of a good cold storm. Cable Couloir was too thin to drop in from the summit, but Sundream Bowl is still packed in. The best part about all this sun is the fact that you can drive way up. With the short skin to the summit, that leaves much room for exploring the backside. The Hullbacks are really deep. Hullafar Bowl is completely buried. Even the west facing lines on the backside are ripe for the picking. The south side is over until we get some more snow. The backside bowls are where it's at. If you go up, check out the ridge between The Hullbacks and Hullafar. Take it all the way out. The topo and our visuals from Hullawest show the ridge getting real steep on the west side with rockstrewn slopes buried under a deep snowpack.
I want to head out past Hullawest Ridge and over the top of the Best Western bowls to Monkey Rock. The skiing is more mellow over there, but it makes for a nice tour. We got out to Hullawest from the summit in about half an hour. A nice mellow run back to the saddle and an easy skin back up the road to the ridge above Sundream takes about 1 hour at a relaxed pace. I'm sure if you hit the gas you could get back in much less than that. The topo shows some steeper lines coming off of Monkey Rock. Monkey Rock lies at 6300' just under the level of the summit(6800'). But it is a good trek about 3 miles. There is no better time than now to explore, seek and find more terrain. Hullafar Bowl is much closer though. I think the priority is the ridge beyond The Shaft.
Powderwhore- if you go up it's your turn to drop a first descent and name it! I'm dying to get back there. I promised Roger I'd head up to Tahoe with him next week to check out Mikes slide show at Squaw, so I will have to take a Hull break. Get up there for me and jib a recon trip. Lewis and Clark that ridge, grab a first descent and name it!

you guys rule. Especially want to ski Hullafar Bowl.

Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

mmmmm...tasty!!!
...MAJOR STORM WITH HIGH WINDS AND HEAVY MOUNTAIN SNOWS TO EFFECT THE
REGION WEDNESDAY...

A POWERFUL WINTER STORM WILL APPROACH THE REGION LATE TUESDAY
NIGHT. SOUTHERLY WINDS OF 30 TO 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH ARE
EXPECTED TO EFFECT THE COAST AND COASTAL HEADLANDS EARLY WEDNESDAY
MORNING. GUSTY WINDS WILL CONTINUE DURING THE DAY...AND LARGE SWELL
IN EXCESS OF 20 FEET WILL IMPACT THE COAST. PERIODS OF HEAVY RAIN AND
ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ARE ALSO ANTICIPATED ON WEDNESDAY AS A COLD
FRONT MOVES THROUGH THE AREA. THE SNOW LEVEL WILL FALL FROM AROUND
4000 FEET ON WEDNESDAY TO BELOW 3000 FEET THURSDAY...WITH 6 TO 12
INCHES OF SNOW LIKELY BY THURSDAY. ELEVATIONS ABOVE 4000 FEET MAY SEE
1 TO 2 FEET OF SNOW.

Finally got the pics from our last trip.

Jibmaster heading down Sundream Bowl


sirjibalot on Porcipine Ridge


After summiting again we headed towards Hullawest Ridge. This is sirjibalot on his way down from the summit


Looking back towards the summit of Hull with the Hullbacks to the left.


This is the West Face as seen from Hullawest Ridge. Check out that micro ridge in the middle with the drift.


These are the Best Western Bowls. Just north of Hullawest


The Hullback Chutes as seen from Hullawest Ridge


On the way back to Boardman Ridge we cought a nice glimpse of that sweet micro ridge going down the West Face.


sirjibalot represents on Boardman Ridge back to the Jeep.

_________________
Coastal Crest Snow Patrol
http://www.zazzle.com/jibmaster
http://www.earnyourturns.com/3878/ccsp-guide-2-mendocino/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jibmaster/

It was a great day at Hull last Tue.(2-24). We hit the window between storms and got a First Descent in an area we had scoped out the last time. We named this area The Hullback Chutes. This area is invisible from the summit. It lies on the west facing aspect of The Hullbacks(to the right as you look north from the summit). If you take the ridge between The Hullbacks and Hullafar Bowl out past The Shaft to the north and head out to the knife-looking ridge and drop into it on the left...your there! We were there, and it was good. Very good!!! There are three dictinct chutes to choose from. The first one is the longest and widest, the middle one is the steepest, and the last one is the most defined and narrow- shaped like a huge superpipe. We skiied the last one. This is how it all went down...

The drive up was epic. No issues on Elk Mtn. but when we hit snow just at Boardman Ridge the fun started. Tons of fresh snow from the night before. We got into more snow around 4000' and soon the road became solid white. The road steepens and we started to spin. My buddy Sirjibalot thought that we might be skiining from there. I thought not... I dropped it inot 4wheel low and hit the gas-fiiiirst, secoooooooond, and thiiiiiiiiiiiiiird!!!!!!! Just kept the pedal to the floor and was fishtailing up the road like a damn jibber! Every few seconds the big mudder tires would grab and shoot us up the road a bit more. I can't believe I kept the Jeep out of the woods.
I was satisfied with parking at 4300' in a nice clearing and flat area, so I decided to represent and dial in my parking spot.
<img src="http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic19612.jpg" border=0>

The next 2.5 hours took us to the summit. This is looking up at the summit from just above Camp I ( 5500').


When we got to the summit we found the south side not that deep but the backside was sick. Super dry powder that I just haven't seen on Hull in years. I can only remember 1 or 2 days that had conditions like this! And I've been to Hull well over a hundred times.
This is the summit ridge looking east to Hullafar Bowl


Sirjibalot heading down the summit ridge to Hullafar Bowl


We got to the ridge between The Hullbacks and Hullafar which contains one of my favorite runs - The Shaft. The Shaft faces east and The Rock Chutes face west in Hullafar Bowl.
These are The Rock Chutes as seen from the top of The Shaft


The Hullbacks from The Shaft with the summit



This is looking up the ridge from the top of The Hullback Chutes to the south, with The Shaft seen comming off the top into Hullafar Bowl and Sirjibalot representing


These are The Rock Chutes as seen from across Hullafar Bowl from the top of The Hullback Chutes. I've never seen them deeper. Look at the deep cleft in the terrain in the middle. The 'Y' at the top is the line. Nothing is steeper on Hull than The Rock Chutes



Looking out to Hullawest Ridge from the top top of The Hullback Chutes


First Descent - The Hullback Chutes, the north gully-Jibmaster and Sirjibalot(photographer)








We skinned up the first gully. What a good run.





We skinned up to the ridge in 30 minutes, and gained The Shaft in another 30 minutes. 15 - 20 minutes back to the summit. After our 2.5 hour skin to the summit from the Jeep earlier that morning and several 'lunch' breaks in between we were beat. Not the closest place to go on Hull but definately worth every hour. Can't wait 'till next week!!!

OH MY GOD. The conditions look all time. Those cornices are huge. Now I'm trying to figure out how I can get wed. off to get up there. Jib, I'm sure you're going both days. How could you not with these conditions. I'll call you if I can get a day off. Now it the time. Glad you got such a great day there.

Powderwhore, the conditions are insane. According to Snow-Forcast.com Hull got 40 to 60 inches of snow this past week!!!
With the weather going to a high pressure chain of events I will be up at Hull on Tue. morning and will be camping out Tue. evening with another shot at it Wed. morning. I got 4 First Descents in mind. The first two gullies in the Hullback Chutes, along with that micro ridge down the West Face. Not to mention that the West Chutes might actually be skiiable down to the road below that feeds a skin-out to Camp I.
If you can cruise up. I'll be camped on Boardman as far as the Jeep will take me. I got so many lines to ski it will blow your mind!!!

Headed on up to Hull Tue. morning. The drive up was sweet. No issues on Elk, but once I got to Boardman Ridge the snow started to cover the road. Soon the road became fully covered. The weekend jibbers had put some nice ruts in the snow so I was able to gain some traction. The snow was totally ice-boxed and firm as rock. I floored it and soon was in the ditch. No problem. I just shifted down and hit the gas. Once I hit the gravel below the snow I rallied on up to my parking spot of last week with about a foot of new snow.
It was a clear blue-bird day. The winds were out of control. I hit the summit around 2.5 hours later. Major winds from the north. The snow was DEEP!. My call last week of 40- 60 inches was correct. The drifts on the north side of the summit were 20-25 feet deep! With all that snow I decided to take advantage of the south side. However as I dropped into Cable Couloir I soon discovered that the winds and deep snow had completely devistated the bowl. The snow was hard as rock. The trees and rock cliffs had branchalanched onto the run and it was covered in huge ice chunks all the way to the bottom. Found a bit of butter in the lee side of the cliff and traversed my out to the right and headed for Tortoise Bowl. Same thing. I was denied. The whole bowl was covered in large chunks of ice from the cliffs above. I thought about heading back up to the summit but the winds were too brutal.
I cruised across Boardman Ridge to check out the West Chutes. No go. Dammit! I couldn't believe that with all the new snow there was nothing to ski. So I took the road down to the Jeep.
The next morning I awoke to a high cloud layer and high winds once again. Thinking that the clouds would be my friend and hold the corn, I headed on up. About half way to Timberline Camp the north sky was thickening with a black, dark looming snow storm. I watched as the ridges behind Mt. Sanhedrin were swallowed in the storm. Just as I was skinning up the drifts above Timberline Camp the storm cell hit. It sounded like a frieght train. The winds were insane. A loud roar and the snow started to hit me like bullets. Mt. Sanhedrin disappeared. I thought "**** the summit!". I took cover around the east side of a large drift and prepared to descend. I can only imagine what it would have been like on the summit! Everything was rock hard. I skiied the ice back to the Jeep and warmed myself with a few cold beers.
Sorry no pics this time. Next week will be better.

Hit Hull up for some corn on Wed. the 17th. No action shots 'couse I went solo but I got some nice pics of Hullafar Bowl and O.B. Bowl(Out of Bounds Bowl). I was able to drive all the way up to Timberline Camp. The east side of the ridge was still deeply drifted in and I was able to skin all the way to Sundream Bowl. The south side was still pretty deep. Cable Couloir was dry off the top but it was still skiable from off the ridge. I booted up to the summit and headed for Hullafar Bowl.
This is the Hullbacks from The Shaft

This is looking down The Shaft with the Rock Chutes

The Shaft was epic corn. It was just softening up at 9:30 in the morning. I cut left to catch the top of the ridge again and see what The Hullback Chutes had to offer. They offered up west facing ice, so I took the ridge back up and headed for the other side of Hullafar Bowl. When I got there I took a look down O.B. Bowl. What a sight! About 800' of pure butter. You gotta hit this up first thing in the morning. It's east facing. I thought it might be too thin, but it was DEEP!
The top of O.B. Bowl

The bottom of O.B. Bowl. Drop this just after sunrise and take it all the way to the tree farm.



Looking across Hullafar Bowl from The Rock Chutes across to The Shaft.

The Rock Chutes were just getting the sun so I dropped the right line - the thin line. Down near the bottom it's only a ski's width wide. You can see The Shaft across the bowl.


The Rock Chutes were super firm corn. Ice crystals falling away as I gripped the slope.
Looking up at The Rock Chutes


After two weeks of record breaking heat Hull still represents!
The Rock Chutes from the middle of Hullafar

The Shaft from the middle of Hullafar

Hit Hull up for some corn on Tue. I drove up to Timberline Camp and found the only snow to be seen was the large drift on the road -north facing. I loaded the skis and boots on the pack and proceeded to hike up to the summit. The north side still has excellent coverage. The drifts on the ridge were still there even though you can't see them from Timberline Camp. The north-east sides of Porcipine and Rabbit Ridges were still well covered as was part of Sundream Bowl. I skinned over to Hullafar Bowl and found all the west facing lines melted out. The Hullback Chutes and the Rock Chutes were not in good shape. Anything with a north-east aspect was still drifted in deep.
I dropped into O.B. Bowl on the other side of Hullafar and skiied some epic corn. Lapped it twice and headed around Hullafar to The Shaft. More butter and creamed corn. The Shaft will be the last thing to go on Hull. Headed back to the summit and booted down from the summit to the ridge above Sundream. There was still a good amount of snow for a nice line down to the rocks at the bottom.
It's been a good season at Hull. Thank you Hull Mtn. for all the snow and all the good times. I'll be back!!

Way to go jibmaster. For a thread about a small hill on the coast range, it's about ready to pass the Tallac thread for number of reads. Not bad.

And way more replies. We have a winner.