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...

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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.

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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.

Well, I was in the neighborhood, so I finally made it back up to Hull Mountain. There was lots of snow down low. I got stuck several times at 4000' where the road is north facing for about a mile. The big super swampers still work! I made it through only to get stopped by more snow at 4500'.

I had just gotten back from Sanhedrin Mountain where I was doing a little exploring...but thats a thread for another time. The south side of Hull is pretty melted out. The north side is still DEEP! In fact the north sides of everything were buried. Just patches and drifts to the summit on the south side of Hull. Plenty of turns to be found however. The best snow was down lower out of the wind down the drifted ridge to Timberline Camp. Skied some of the lower slopes below there as well. The snow in these areas was perfect for the steeps. Super firm with a dry, chalky texture that just begged for more jump turns.

I'm waiting for a storm that snows down to 5000', with rain below that. And then some clearing without that nasty inversion we've been having lately. It finally got cold last night. The snow stayed good all day.


It was good to be back in familiar terrain.

Not the original plan, but ended up back at Hull again this week. Left the house about 3 or 4 in the morning and headed out to Stonyford. I had plans to mt. bike my gear up a new mountain.
I've done this technique before. One of these days I'll put up
pictures of jibC and I skiing Angwin. We mt. biked our gear about 3 or 4 miles behind my house and skied Friesen Peak and Old Baldy.

Anyways, I ended up riding the mt. bike for about 1.5 hours with my skis and boots on the pack on my back. After a while I realised that my biking shoes weren't so good for hiking. I had to alternately ride and hike depending on the steepness. After about 4 miles and 4000' to go, with the steepest parts yet to come in the next 6 miles I quit. I was riding up the barren and dry south side with hopes of skiing the deep and buried north side. Some slight modifications to this system of ascending will have to be worked out. The ride back was interesting. The skis were actually pointing down and right in my line of sight. With so much weight on my back (I was using my lightest pair of skis), my hands still hurt from having to crank on the brakes.

I'm getting to the Hull Mt. part... So after I get back to the Jeep, I decide that while I'm in the area, I should check out the snow level to the trailhead on Snow Mt. and see if Letts Lake is available - I brought the fishin' gear just in case!
Got stopped by snow just past Letts Lake and got to within a mile of the lake itself. Snow Mountain was all white above 5000'.
It's now 11:30. The only way to save the day is to drive to Hull and get a run in before dark...

Got to Hull, just above Camp I (5000') at 2:45. After breaking down and stashing the bike in the Jeep and repacking the pack for a bikeless ascent, I was skinning by 3:30.

Summited in 2 hours and got to watch the sunset from the summit of Hull Mountain. The weather was perfect. Afternoon buildup had protected the snow from the sun, and a stiff wind had kept the temps down. New snow was evident above Timberline Camp at 5500'. I would say about a foot of snow had fallen over the weekend. The south side was still pretty thin. Cable Couloir from just below the summit into Sundream Bowl was still skiable. Looking north I saw Black Butte, Anthony Peak, Hammerhorn Ridge, and South Yolla Bolly. Sanhedrin to the west was still all white. Still LOTS of snow in the Coastal Crest. The north side of Snow Mountain was plastered all the way down.

The skiing was a little crusty. I could tell that the corn harvest lasted all day. Cable Couloir was a lot of fun though. Dropping down between the rocks, avoiding the cable and heading on down into Sundream Bowl was epic. Hull Mountain rules!
No other place in the Coast Range (that I've been to so far) offers up such ease of access -with a Jeep!- and is so deep and steep.

With any luck I should be able to put up some pics this weekend.
With more snow coming this weekend, the skiing in the Coast Range continues...

Don't bother coming here. It's too remote and not enough snow! [:D}

Did a moto enduro in Stonyford a few years back. Sick trails, and what looks like a sea of Mt. Tam's. Of course I can't see so good through muddy, fogged goggles at 30mph. I need to get out my Atlas now, you've got my attention.

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

The summit of Hull with Sundream Bowl
dropping off to hikers right. Not much snow here,
but the north side is DEEP!


Looking 180 degress from last photo, down
Boardman Ridge to Lake Pillsbury


the remains of the lookout tower
on the summit. Lake Pillsbury below
summit: 6873'
Lake Pillsbury: 1818'


looking down Sundream Bowl
into Cable Couloir


Sanhedrin Mountain/Imapassable Rock


Snow Mountain with Crockett Peak (the little pyramid to the left)


St. John Mountain, Crockett Peak, Snow Mountain
-as seen left to right


Anthony Peak (with sun on southern slopes - middle of photo)
Black Butte on the right.
The Yolla Bollys behind


Full moon rising

Nice pics jib, esp. the moon pic. My friends went surfing instead of going to Hull last weekend. They wanted you to have a fresh pallete to draw your lines.

You can even see the cable in the cable couloir pic.

Headed up to Hull this past Wwd. 3/2. Got 2-3 feet this past storm. Actually, it's hard to tell. Hull is so windblown that it drifts deep in spots and blown away in others. But 2-3 feet would be the average of what I saw as new from last week. Excellent driving conditions. Drove directly to Camp I (about 4700'), Camp II is 5000'. Two hours from the summit. Coverage is perfect. I got pics, which will be up as soon as possible.

This weekend -Sat. morning, especially- will be epic. If anybody ever wanted to go there, go there now. The south side is covered. After this storm - the whole mountain will be going off. No snow issues on the approach road. Hull doesn't get any better than this. Blue sky weekend, tons of snow, north, south, east, west aspects are covered deeply. Get started early though. Best to summit by sunrise and take the day from there.

I wish I had my pics for you right now. The mountain was beautiful. The trees were still covered in snow above freeze line. The sky was so blue...

Anyways, if any of you have thought of hitting up Hull for some epic Coastal Corn, this weekend will be going off.

All's I'm sayin' is - Hullin' it would be the shiznit!!!

Hi all, new member here but not new to the Hull experience (somewhere around 10 years) haven't been up anywhere near as much as jibmaster though.
Went up on Sunday 3/6-hot as heck up there, saturday was probably the better day but previous commitements kept us home. Boma, Fojay and me squirrel all hit it. We were able to drive further than I ever have (not sure of all the names, jib has done a great job of naming everything-I think it was probably camp 1) 2 hour hike to summit. The south side is still hurting for snow (sundream bowl was sparce) but the backside-oh yeah! We took our first run down the hullbacks, soft not too slushy, great turns, hiked back up the west ridge and dropped the little cornice about 100 yards down from the summit into some great little open sections with amazing snow. Looking back up and seeing our tracks put a smile on all of our faces. Started down sundream bowl about 3:30pm-sticky all the way down to the truck-we knew that though with as hot as it was-felt like 85, all got fried. Made it almost all the way down to the truck-had to stop and watch a small slush slide that we caused. All in all another great day on Hull. Have a lot of pictures to post if I can figure out how to upload them (any help would be appreciated)

Hey Powderwhore-i'm sure Tahoe was fun, but you missed out, got a seat reserved for you next time.


hey garnshit!
it's garmisch!
yeah garnshit!

Good to see someone else enjoying the wonders of Hull!
Were you guys on boards? If so, I think I seen your
tracks before. You like that west ridge off of the
summit into the Hullbacks, eh? I've seen snowboard
tracks there before - several years ago.
I hesitated to speak of this place early on. It's
so much fun, I thought that if I told people about it
that it would see a lot of traffic. After awhile I
couldn't keep my mouth shut. So I started posting
trip reports up there last year. It didn't make any
difference. NOBODY goes there! I might have scared off some folks due to my 4wheeling episodes. The wheeling is definately off the hook up there. For me that's half the attraction of going there. There's nothing like having to 4wheel into and out of a great backcountry ski spot! What a blast! I've totalled two Jeeps up there and almost lost a third one time. Spent many a night up there camping and Hullin' it with the help of a keg!

I've been skiing there for about 7 or 8 years.
In that time, the number of tracks I've seen other
than my own could be counted on one hand. I've never
met powderwhore, but have skiied with some of his
friends at Hull. Were you there the day last year
when they brought up the snowmachine?

You've got to check out Hullafar Bowl. That place
will be holding snow 'till the end of May!

Hey Jib, yeah Hull is definitely a hidden wonder-weird considering you can see it from far away, oh well better for us right. I'm sure the other tracks we have each seen have been each others. Yes that was me up there last year with the 2 snowmobiles that broke down-but not after I got the first ride to Boardman Ridge-was that you that I hiked with and got fun turns down Sundream Bowl? (and burnabowl) I know we've been snowboarding up there for at least 10 years-rode motorcycles as a kid there too. But I know you'ver been there much more than we have. Yeah I'm good friends with Powderwhore-he's in Tahoe all this week-might join him, but hull was so much fun last weekend that I might have to trek up there again. Hey maybe you can help me, I can't figure out how to post pictures, if I click on the "add image button it does this <img src="" border=0>
any help would be great-and you get to see other peoples perspective and where they're riding-I know we all appreciate the pics and updates from you. I'm sure we'll see you up there again sometime-I think we owe you a couple cold Sierra's at the truck.

Yeah that was me up there when you guys brought up the snowmachine.
I remember that day. We had some pretty good snow. We'll have to hook up again. Hull is a lot of fun on those days when it's like a beach. Skiing shirtless with corn slopes falling away all around you!
Never had so much fun at the beach before!!

You can go to biglines.com and upload your pics from there. Go to the photo section and 'browse' your folder of pics and when they are uploaded, open the picture in a new window and copy and paste the url between the [img][img/] brackets in your post.

Keep in touch. More Coastal Crest trips in the near future.

Well here goes my attempt at uploading pictures (did the best I could with the names). Enjoy!

[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36286]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36287]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36288]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36289]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36290]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36291]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36292]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36293]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36294]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36295]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36297]
[http://www.biglines.com/photos_large.php?picid=36296]

dang it-oh well it kinda worked.

yo squirrel,
I saw your pics on biglines so I knew you were posting over here. Hit the insert photo icon above in the format area and put the properties link inside it.

like this
[img]http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic36296.jpg[/img]

Are you still going up this weekend. If it snows low enough it may be really good.

yeah whatever-I can't figure this stuff out. I clicked the photos icon and pasted the link from biglines and it just put up the links-what do you mean by properties link?


Yes I think this weekend will be fun-wanna go? Backside's a callin.

When you have the large format pic up on biglines, right click it, hit properties, highlight the address or URL code and copy it. Then on this forum when you are replying, look where it says Format, below password, above message. click on the inser image icon, it has a yellow box on it. Paste the URL code in between the img thingys.

If you can't figure it out, then you have the brain of a squirrel. Glad you joined the forum dude.

Nice pics squirrel! Not only are you squirrel-brained, but you are also confused. :D
Your pictures look like you headed out the west ridge from the summit.
This is not Hullafar Bowl.

It's the east edge of the Hullbacks. That little chute in the trees is Corner Pocket. Hullafar Bowl lies just the other side of that ridge.

And this looks like the middle of the summit ridge with the Hullbacks to the left.

The south side is just to the right, dropping into Meteor Bowl(hardly ever skiable).

If you've never taken the summit ridge all the way east, you haven't seen Hullafar Bowl. You can't see it until you get there.

This is Hullafar Bowl showing the Rock Chutes


How 'bout with a little less snow


If you haven't seen this you haven't see Hullafar Bowl. Hullafar is the best place on Hull. You've got to go there. Powderwhore knows where it is.

Or better yet, I have Easter Sunday off. If you want a tour lets hook up on March 27. I'll take you out to Hullafar Bowl and we'll drop into some lines that I know you will love.
The Hullback Chutes, The Shaft, The Rock Chutes, Out of Bounds Bowl...

yeah I know. Did the best I could though-you got a lot of names for all the spots-i'll just take the pics and post them, i'm sure you know where they are.

I know exactly where Hullafar Bowl is now-i've seen it before but have yet to ride it-maybe this weekend. Prior plans on Easter weekend but we are going to be up there the weekend of 4/1-4/3 probably camping up there. You still got the jeep?
see ya on the hill.

Headed up to Hull with sirjibalot on Tue. 3/22. We slept in and left the house about 9am. Got to 4500' at Camp I around noon and found some new snow. The Jeep wasn't liking the drifts farther up the road, so we parked and headed on up into the storm. We were right at the transition from rain to snow. Lots of WD-40 on the skins kept me from clumping! Just past Timberline Camp the visability got real bad. The snow on the windblown ridge was a little firmer than elsewhere, but basically it was all mank. The fog was thick and it was super windy. We could hear the roar of the wind further up the mountain. Skied back down from just above Timberline Camp.
Cranked the stereo and the heat in the Jeep over a few beers until the rain subsided enough to set up camp. Everything was soaked. Goretex isn't really that water-proof!
Hull got 2-3 feet of snow during the last storm. It should get more this weekend. Just catch it when it's clear and the snow has had at least one day to consolidate and corn up with a good freese/thaw cycle.

No time to wait. Gonna check it out on Saturday, hopefully before more rain/snow comes. Can't go on Sunday though. Jib, you still going out on Sunday?

Saturday looks like it might be good. It sure looks good today. That storm may stay to the north until Sunday. If someone else is going to be there, I'll go. I would have to leave Sat. after work - around midnight, crash in the Jeep, jib Sunday and drive back trying to get some sleep before my Monday lunch shift. That's a lot of effort for solo storm skiing. But like I said, if I had a jib partner, I would head up in a heartbeat.

It got down to 27 degrees last night up there and should warm to slightly above yesterdays high of 35.

Camp out powderwore and I'll meet you up there.