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Skied up on Mt Rose today 12/8. 6-8" of good powder, very consistent and good coverage. Textbook yoyoing on Hourglass and Tamarack Bowl. Good early season warm up. The snow did not change at all today due to the cool temps, no wind and low sun angle. Tonight would be a good full moon session up there.

went all around Lower Mt. Rose area on 12/23. Reporting on conditions is silly, since it's snowed 2 feet since. Anyway, north and east tree runs had 3 foot deep snowpack at that time. We dug a few places down to rock and didn't find any rain/ice layer from last week, and snow seemed pretty consistant throughout the pack.


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

Rode the NE tree shot off of shoulder(peaklett)below and to the East of Mt. Rose proper. Wow!! Buttery wind packed powder turns forever, well almost, final bit into creek, thin crust. About 2500' of consistent fall line. Me like soooooooooo gooooooooooood!!!!!!!!
New terrain for me! Just when you think you've skiied it all on Rose, you realize there is so much more. Lots of eye candy out there for return visits. But I bet hourglass and Rose Knob were even better so you might want to go there instead for roadside accessability.

I am proud to say that I have skiied all new terrain(for me) since New Years Day and have seen nobody while out there. So as this is the case I will do my service and do some more spraying and posting as I like reading everyone else's posts. Though I have gone a little underground so as not to get accosted by the uphill specialists. Oh wait, I think I'm one too, only I slide sideways, so don't get your panties in a bunch when I pass you!

Looking good, I mean great for Oct 2whatever it is. 3 feet at the car yesterday, even after a day or 2 of consolidation.

This is a fun tour I like to do that loops around Mt. Rose and hits a few different areas. It starts out with a fairly popular avy gully, maybe one of you guys can finally tell me what it's called. With a 20 minute climb from the car, and drops you over 1000' to the creek.



This is the avy gully in the pic above, kind of fat in the middle. There is usually debris at the bottom, so be careful here. Concave and steep at the top.


Crossing the creek was a little tougher with the early season snowpack. Going through bushes and baby aspens isn't normally required.




Awsome view obviously, like every peak in Tahoe. The view is even better at the summit. Pretty windy up there, and the snow was getting heavy, so we only climbed Rose to 10,000 at the broad saddle in the next picture.


This shot is after climbing back up for a small run back to the car.
With deep snowpack, you can leave a car at Sky Tavern, and get another 1000' or more. Skiing isn't that great in the lowest zone, so I always skin back. This return climb can be easy if you point yourself in the right direction. Not super easy without knowledge of the hilly terrain, a map, or just some patients.








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

N and NE facing slopes around Tamarack and Protariat are still holding the goods.

skied in Galena area and Hourglass Bowl this morning. Left at 12 noon, and only one more car showed up by then. Great winter snow, blown around and pretty smoothed out over the old hard stuff. 3-6" on north and east aspects. Much better skiing than I thought. Seems to always be winter snow up there, no matter how rainy it appears at the lake.

Lots more snow in the forcast!

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

Killer snow in Mt. Rose Backcountry today. 2 feet of dry snow in protected areas, and dumping snow right now at 9pm. Reported amazing snow elsewhere too. We have a ton of snow. Make big spring plans, because it doesn't look like it's gonna dry up in April.

In 97, Tahoe had great backcountry skiing through May, and the east side was amazing through June. You couldn't ride your mountain bike to Watson Lake until Aug 1 however. Hoping for a repeat. Not the best for business, but if it's gonna happen this infrequently....I'm ready for it again.

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

south facing gullies of mt rose proper into galena creek are currently holding about 1700 vert of the finest solar produce. don't forget the salt and pepper and get it before it burns.
view from the top, this gully is the one that from the other side of the drainage goes up to just below the cliffs of the summit with exposed rock on all sides.
<img src="http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic36127.jpg" border=0>

there is a super sweet boulder with two stellar aretes like 80 percent of the way up, to burn some time on in case you are a little early to the corn party.

lots of snow, and lots of sun have allowed access to several of the mysto breaks of the rose reef.

<img src="http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic37699.jpg" border=0>
classic bowl skiing
<img src="http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic37703.jpg" border=0>
a sweet shot that is kinda psychadelic at the top, then rolls over into a gully of white gold, indicated by increasing turn amplitude
<img src="http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic37702.jpg" border=0>
another bank robbing line, the perenially tree chute. fun sassytrugi above the fin rock, then you plunder the treasure. equation for turns in this shot: m(d2x/dt2)= -kx
<img src="http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic37701.jpg" border=0>
a fabulously attractive gully, about 1100ish vert, and a great pitch down to the creek. definitely a classic
<img src="http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic37700.jpg" border=0>
view from below of the above line, you can see maybe a thirdish of it, and where the turns were great and where the avy debris brought the funkadelic style out in the bottom section
<img src="http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic37698.jpg" border=0>
this line is a ton of fun. steep drop in, you score some air with each turn until it mellows above the rock bands, allowing various degrees of shradness, or go right for more surfy turns and less air
<img src="http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic37704.jpg" border=0>
same line from below, drop in spot/above pic taken is by little rock visible above the v-notch in the upper center. i went skiers right around and under the big rock band instead of pointing and airing the vee, double fall-line take offs and landings in exposed spots and solo bc skiing don't mix well.<img src="" border=0>

Epic photos!

If a picture is worth a thousand words - than posting a trip report with lots of photos saves you time...

Nice job dude!

I agree, great pics, awesome lines. Good job!

Jim

JM

Cool pictures and sweet lines. I think I skied the bowl in your first picture (Relay Peak?) and then the (Bronco?) chutes that look to be in the area of your last three pictures a couple of weekends ago. It's a bit of a trek back there, but the choices are endless. Thanks for the pics.

Great corn snow on south facing terrain of Mt. Rose. This morning we hit the Couloir shown in this shot. It faces the Mt. Rose Ski area, where we parked. A little bit up and down to get to Mt. Rose Proper, which is why it's uncrowded.


Great corn snow at 9am, probably held well all day. We skied down at 10:30 and it was perfect on south exposures, and descent Porn snow on South East.




Mt. Rose ski Area for you newbies is across the highway on Slide Mountain.


Another 30 minutes to the summit, which we didn't do. Usually wind scoured and thin coverage above 10,000' on Mt. Rose Go for the tick list, but all the same views can be seen from the high saddle.


Mt. Rose Summit on the right, Mt. Houghton in the middle, and Relay Peak on the left.


Tamarack Peak in the center is the busiest spot in the area. Great stuff on all sides.

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

that line is known by some as the 'hully gully' and is definitely one of the more fun and most aesthetic lines in the area. just finding your way down to it from the top is a good time!

backcountry wrote

Heard yesterday it's called Dick's Crack.

Hey, I didn't name it or make it up. But it was untracked and really good yesterday.


the lower half of the southfacing chutes on Rose had a crust under 4-8 inches of the weekends light snow, so we climbed it, but didn't ride it.



Did the other side instead with good powder. 3/19.

Saturday was also good on the not so always covered southeast facing side of Incline. Only a little section of soft crust. 3/18.

some pics

Here are some shots from yesterday. hitting rocks everywhere, but more snow is on the way for this week.

Galena Bowl on the left, Tamarack Peak and Hourglass Bowl on the right.


Mt Rose Summit


Mt. Houghton

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

Didn't rain in the Mt. Rose area and powder is still hanging in there on north facing slopes.

Corn cycle should get good along the crest on south exposures in the next few days, in the early morning. Don't be fooled into thinking this is consolidated snow beneath however. The snowpack will fall apart by early afternoon if we get warm temps well above freezing.

SAC avy report will likely explain better on this odd "temporary" transition from winter to spring skiing conditions.

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

*note - there are many more Mt. Rose threads on the messageboard for beta on this area. use the search function.

11/6/08
I skied Mt. Rose on thursday. The real day to hit it was the previous day. We found plenty of coverage above 9500', which I believe will hang in there on north facing slopes. That's not a lot of terrain in tahoe, but it is a few laps at the top of Hourglass Chute on Tamarack Peak, next to Mt. Rose.

I can think of other higher elevation pre-season skiing that could be good, but all will require thin, lame coverage for most of your day en route. Hopefully we get some more snow this week as they are calling for!

Anyway, it's winter!

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

went to tamarack and surrounding area on Wed. Deep but rocky and super dangerous actually. It will all be covered well in a week with the predicted storms. I heard people weren't hitting rocks in other local places like Ward Canyon and Tahoe Donner.

I keep screwing up. Mt. Rose is higher and you'de expect more snow depth, but there are too many medium and large sized rocks spread throught this area. Top of Tamarack (hourglass) was plenty filled in as always.

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

Fun tour on 1/27/09 around the Mt Rose area. Wind was blowing at the upper elevations. Snow was powdery and fun in areas. South facing was turning heavy as the day went on. Snow sticking to the skins was inevitable for some, even though they used was prior to setting out.

Our destination was the north side of this small peak. The south face looks great for corn skiing. Does anyone have a name for this peak and the north facing shots? It lies just west of Rose.



Shelly in front is a prego mama and toured for 6 hours!



And there she goes! Great north facing powder for our first shot.



Looking good Shelly...



Met up with Stan the Man for our first descent. Doesn't he look a bit guilty for slaying that mountainside? He calls this shot Spark Plug. Anyone else have a name?



Obligatory dog shot...Gravy having a blast.



Rod breaking trail to our next destination.



On top of our destination looking toward the north and some other nice shots.



Juliet loving her powder run.



And Rod loving his...



Shelly skiing for two...later she ate for 2 at T's!




For all who ventured out it was a great day. Go and get that powder while it's here!

nice one. I've heard that line called Sparkplug. Tony Pastore showed me that gully way back when. It is the line I drew in the first pic on this thread. Kind of the best line in the area, although still thin right now. A direct way to get out to Mt. Houghton, which is the other peak you climbed. There is a nice mellow tree run down to the creek just to the right of this gully.

Looks well covered out there! Gonna be some corn action next week on Mt. Rose and Houghton I think.

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

Conditions are ideal for rarely in-condition south facing lines. I rode the roughly 2000 vertical foot Hully Gully a few days ago in perfect 6-8" dry pow. Being slightly educated in atmospheric dynamics helped. The day before I knew that just a little bit more snow was necessary for the line to come in. The forecast called for night time snow showers. Sure enough, I watched a little green band of convective snow move along the north shore the night before. Winds decreased to calm during the night meaning windloading was happening and decreasing before scouring could occur. Even though it was fully socked in and snowing lightly in Reno in the am, the 4am morning sounding showed a nice inversion with the cloud top heights at about 7000 feet (based on lifting condensation level) and satellite imagery plus webcamming confirmed sunny conditions up high. Another wave looked to move through late in the day (importance discussed later).

No cars at the 180 or the sledhill. Overflowing at Hourglass parking. Uninformed masses...low angle pow or rarely "in" hot lines?


I choose hot lines any day.


Bonus points for spooky creek crossings


Little wake up aspen thrash with the line behind


Thrash thrash thrash


Now, the importance of the incoming wave. As I was skinning and eventually booting up the gully, several important observations and analyses were ongoing. The 6-8" of very light snow was sitting atop a weak crust and base of about 1-2'. The high solar radiation was forcing the new snow to become more cohesive (with respect to itself) and to decrease in overall stability (small rollerballs). The previous nights wind had allowed pockets of windslab to form which were not well bonded to the base layer. Had solar radiation continued at the classic sierra sun factor, I would certainly have to bail early given the rapidly decreasing stability and location in a prime avalanche zone (Hully Gully is between 30-45 degrees, about 35 average) with exposed talus in the runout. Late start being the main "doh". But when you are sneaky like me, you can afford the late start...
In comes the high clouds and increased winds with the wave!

Can you say, "see ya later shortwave radiation?" Hmm, now in our energy balance equation we have longwave emission far outweighing shortwave absorption. Ambient air temperatures are declining due to decreased radiation as well as increasing advection of cold air from the northwest. Thus, stability will remain constant or increase. About time to drop on in!

Buttery smooth conditions near the top


Tip top, on go the skis! Note sun is now obscured...


Steep and narrow up top, careful what your schmidt turns may find! Granite slabs!


Time to grip it and rip it. Sooooo good! Perfect conditions top to bottom.


Mmmmmmm hmmmmmm. A true gift to be able to ski such an amazing line in descent (pun intended) early season lower snow conditions.


Moral of the story, if you gonna wake up late, make sure you study hard! "Even James Dean couldn't escape the allure..."

Locations & Dates:

Carson Pass Backcountry – Thursday, December 31, 2009 – Friday, January 1, 2010

Mt. Rose Backcountry – Friday, January 1, 2010

Skiers: Nick & Jonathan

Photographers: Nick (except as otherwise noted as Jonathan)

Synopsis:

With the holiday weekend approaching, our original intention was to go on a 2-day tour on Thursday and Friday with some resort skiing over the weekend. As Thursday approached, however, it became clear that a weather system would be moving in on Friday that may make backcountry conditions suspect.

Therefore, our *first* set of modified plans was to ski Kirkwood on Thursday, skin into Carson Pass on Thursday night and camp and then ski various shots off of Roundtop, Elephants Back and possibly Red Lake Peak around Carson Pass on Friday. As noted below, the weather did not cooperate and we modified our plans accordingly.

CARSON PASS BACKCOUNTRY – THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2009 – FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2010

As noted above, our plan after Kirkwood was to skin in to Carson Pass and set up camp, and get up early and start hitting some options (conditions dependent) near Round Top, Elephants Back and/or Red Lake Peak.

Jonathan and I (respectively) looking super pumped to skin in at night after skiing all day at Kirkwood:





Actually the night (New Years Eve) was great – although we both pretty much forgot about it until we could hear the Kirkwood fireworks going off.

Jonathan skinning in at night:



Team photo cooking up some dinner in our cooking pit:



We camped at 8680 and the drinks were clearly tasty. Second Photo: Jonathan.





Earlier in the day, we had checked the avalanche report which was Moderate for the aspects we wanted to ski (with concerns for wind-loading). Our last look at the weather forecast for Friday indicated a system moving in late Friday.

Fortunately we were in the bomber single-wall tent because the winds started to pick up around 9 PM. When I woke up around 2 AM, the winds were easily moving at a steady pace of 40 mph with higher gusts and snow was blowing side-ways. By the morning, our cooking pit had been completely filled in by wind drifts.

We awoke to white-out skis, strong/continuous winds and snow banks. Given that we couldn’t call the Avy Forecast and all of the aspects we wanted to ski were leeward from the wind and pretty exposed, Jonathan and I decided to pull the plug and skin out. We would then go ski Mt. Rose Backcountry that has more aspects below tree line that we did not think would be as affected by the wind.

Note: Those from Tahoe realize this is a ridiculous drive from C.P. to Mt. Rose, but so be it. We thought it was the call at the time.

Nick breaking down camp. Photo: Jonathan.



It should be noted prior to leaving Carson Pass, we dug a pit in the trees to test and see if the basal facet layer was still present and propagating.

We dug a pit in at 8,650 feet on a North aspect, 30 degree slope. The weather was an oovercast sky, wind out of the SW with light snow falling. Shin-high boot penetration. Snowpack was 120cm deep and we encountered rounding basal facets for about 10cm at the base of the snowpack.

We obtained one moderate surface snow failure w/out propagation. The basal facets appear to be gaining strength and rounding – there was no failure in that layer.

Video of the ECT NR, performed by Jonathan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjj0trGB8rk

Picture of the test slope. Photo: Jonathan:



MT. ROSE BACKCOUNTRY –FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2010

After the hour drive up to Mt. Rose, conditions still largely warranted hard-shell touring. Visibility was a little low and it was still lightly snowing.

Notably, on the drive up we checked the Avy Report which indicated Low with pockets of Moderate on N-NE-E aspects (with the primary concern wind loading). Notwithstanding the report, we were happy with our decision to bail on Carson Pass as we would have been hitting those aspects and our experience camping at a lower elevation in the trees still showed some serious wind-loading over-night.

Mt. Rose backcountry ended up skiing great. Mostly heavier unconsolidated snow due to the rising temperatures. I was on my Megawatt setup with Dynafit FT-12s (thanks Adimmen!). Those things just KILL IT in conditions like this.

Jonathan getting some nice turns at Mt. Rose:





Jonathan on the skin up. Note that the skies would eventually clear up somewhat:



Due to the Avy Report, we were playing it pretty safe with the aspects we were skiing. We went to the back areas of Mt. Rose and set a nice, new skin track up a low-angle southerly-aspect. We primarily skied SW-S facing aspects that held good, soft snow (although somewhat wet).

Jonathan after the skin up following the 2nd run:



Nick getting some nice snow. Photo: Jonathan.



Sequence of Jonathan on our 3rd run of the day:







Skin track stoke. Photo: Jonathan.



Nick on the skin up for the 3rd run. Photo: Jonathan.



A view down from the skin track to the lower portion of the aspect we were skiing. Photo: Jonathan.

sweet guys! powder over New Years. Someone had to do it.

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

Saturday was planning on touring, but all of my partners had plans. Stopped by The Backcountry and got some helpful advice from Mike on a good place to solo tour that I had not already skied before.

I wanted shorter approaches that I could do solo. I was not worried about avy conditions (as at the time they were bomber). I just didn't want to go in deep and twist an ankle or something. I generally don't solo tour for that reason (e.g., the smallest thing can escalate to an epic....).

Anyway, on Mike's advice, went with Mt. Rose Knob as I had not skied that before. On the way there, drove by Silver Peak which looked like a mob scene based on the parking lot.

Mt. Rose Knob is a short approach and you can practically look back and see your car the entire way. In summary, the NE/E tree lines skied great because they never got the sun. The upper S/SE bowl was a burnt-out crust.

Some pics:

Skin track stoke. Only saw 2 other guys up there (both also solo), but we were all pretty much spread out throughout the day.



Anything southernly had a 2cm sun crust on it. In some cases breakable, in others not.



Fortunately I was on the Megawatts which just kill the crust on short tours like this.



First run I hit was in the NE/E trees. These were still holding the powder from Wednesday's storm and skiing great. This aspect was the main reason I went up there.





After the first run I grabbed some lunch and decided to dig a pit given all the new snow that was predicted to come. Wanted to offer some obs. to the Sierra Avalanche Center on what is going on in this area before it gots loaded.

Snow was very stable. Got ECT NR X2. Elevation 8,290, NE/E Aspect, 30 Degree Slope. Sunny sky, light wind out of the S/SW. Ankle-high boot penetration. Snowpack was 96cm deep with (i) a sun crust in the top 2cm and (ii) a 10cm ice layer at 75cm-65cm. Otherwise, soft snow with a fist density above and below the ice layer. Some small facets above the ice layer, but they didn't appear to be reactive. Should be able to handle the new snow well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSKSVslZyEE

There is a good bowl up above the trees, but it is S/SE facing. I knew it was going to be crusty, but I went up anyway (more for the workout and views). It was worse than I thought as it was not even breakable.

View of the upper bowl. I came down lookers right.



Different view of the bowl - once again came down lookers right of the higher knob. It looked to have better coverage:



From the top:



Lake view from 1/2 way up, clouds rolling in:




After that misjudgment, I headed back to the trees to salvage the day and get some more powder runs in. Took 2 more then headed home.

Hit Tamarack and a variety of shots back by Relay and Houghton on Friday. Snow was very variable - some N-NE aspects held good wintery chalk, others had wind-affected buff, others had crusts. We were able to find some good snow, though.

Backside of Mt. Rose:



There were definitely a lot of people up in the general area. Morning congestion on the main skin-track:



Looking back at some of the South-facing stuff on Houghton and Relay Peak. As noted above, we found some good, softer snow on North aspects facing this.



Obligatory Lake Shot:





http://lh4.ggpht.com/_gA39gK_0wkQ/S3dfG ... 000103.JPG[/img]

Skinning back up for some more (we did 5-6 laps at different aspects):



Looking back towards Relay Peak. Lot of sledders out back there:



Couple of me on the wind-buff:




Post Script - Got some bad shin-bang which sidelined me on Sunday and today from the BC. Skied some good corn at Alpine - but man, would have loved to gotten down to Emerald Bay Chutes today. Or the S-aspects off Castle. Oh well.

Finally hit the north face of Church Peak. Bonus points for any descent with downtown BLC in view (which makes Peavine, Rose, Church, and Snowflower in a league of their own).

Long cruise approach from the 180 through the Rose Bowl to Church, then you can drop either the Gospel Bowl (nice low angle bowl into trees) or the north face proper.

Great Basin Pride!


Doubt I'll ski off the summit of Church again, but since you can see it from town it was definitely a worthwhile drop. Plus, you get a solid 3100ft run back to the car! Fat corn!

Hully Gully, just like everything else, is totally fatty. Get some!
first two shots courtesy josh hejl photography http://www.joshhejl.com

jones


granjero


prophet


wizard
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