SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR MOST RECENT REPLY

After 3 tries, finally got to do this ski from the top. Last week, we went up the wrong gully, thinking this was Eagle Peak. That post is on the message board. Drove down for the day again, yesterday, and I forgot my boots. Went to Mammoth for a rental, and skied Sherwins Rock Chute. Today we got to the top and saw where Eagle Peak really is, a more barren peak to the south. Not well covered, but you could go up there from the Robinson Drainage in a tighter gully. You can see Eagle from Bridgeport, to the right of the Sawtooths.

Victoria is around 11,800, and you access the east slopes (avalanche gully) from Twin Lakes in Bridgeport. Bang a right after the campgrounds, never crossing Robinson Creek. A mile or two up the valley, you'll find the widest avy path for the climb. This is WAY serious avy terrain with new snow. The run goes about 4500' to the summit, and the upper half is 35 -40 degrees. There's a big steep bowl you can't see, towering above it all. Rocks also come down into the gully with average daily warming.




Right now it's perfect corn for the lower half, and hard windboard up high. Good windboard actually, that you don't break through, and it's soft without wind. 8 skiers hit it this week, and it seems safe. Not real deep due to old avalanches, although the high bowl has turned to sugar snow in places, beneath the surface.


Took us 5 hours from the car to the summit. It's long, steep, and hot. Too steep for us to skin the upper half, and kicking steps is hard when the snow is 3 inches deep in places. This thing must avy everytime it gets new snow.


The slope feels huge. It just goes straight up forever. Then you bang a right at the top, and continue on snow to the summit. A few false summits to make sure you're ass is kicked.


Great day, very light wind.


Get the Hoover Wilderness map at the ranger station in Bridgeport.


John heading down the ramp. Neighboring Hunewill Peak looks equally sweet, with the same long east facing run down to the head of the valley. Have to do that one next. It's been skied recently.










Sawtooths in the background. Great views of Crater Crest, Matterhorn, Mt. Walt, etc...


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

Thanks for the great beta on these twin lakes peaks mike!
Great corn was had on victoria last sunday 2/17. Really enjoyable run from top to bottom, one of the best corn runs in terms of length and scenery. We hit it kinda late (2pm?, but it was just softening at the top and the bottom was thicker, but a total blast). The ski out wasn't bad at all as it's slightly down hill most of the way.

Another great day skiing with the MadTurtles. Great meeting you LadyG (name changed to protect the innocent, sorry, that’s the best I could come up with now), and BigNight !


View of the Sawtooth range as the sun sets from near Bridgport:


Mrs.Turtle skinning with the peak southwest of Hunewill behind her:


LadyG and Mrs.Turtle skinning up past the avy debris, with Mt.Walt in the background. Checkout the cool lines off of the north peaklet of Walt, as well as the Hulk(right)


LadyG with the Incredible Hulk (left) and Kettle Peak(right) behind her:


Looking up at the upper bowl (smooth!!!) :


Mrs.MadTurtle, practicing high exposure skinning for the HauteRoute:


Tarkman1, Tarkman1bro, and MadTurtle skinning up the bowl. The upper chute to the summit plateau in the background. The actual summit sits on the plateau and is the 4th or so hump from right to left:


Mrs. MadTurtle and LadyG, with CrownPoint to the right behind them:


It was cool meeting Tarkman1 and his bro. Total rippers. Tarkman1 was too fast to be caught on camera, but his bro didn’t escape w/o being captured:


Pano from the top of the bowl (sawtooths, kettle, Crownpoint, others):


Hunewill peak. That one’s next:


Looking north from the summit of Victoria (11,7xxft):


View looking south as we head down. (Twin peaks, Matterhorn, Walt, etc)


MadTurtle, top of the plateau, looking at the Incredible Hulk:


Enough scenery, it’s business time :




You ski from 11,600 down to about 8000ft. Awesome southfacing run for winter corn.







MadTurtle and the moon:

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More BC action next week, right here on ESPN 8, "The OCHO" :)

YES!!!! I love classic shots like this. Sunny blue skies, big mountains, corn skiing? "Yes dear, that would be FEBRUARY in the Sierra!!!"

way to go towlie. shasta sized run. Just without the flats down low. Let's team up for a ski in late March or April.

Those slopes go big when it gets warm mid winter. As obvious by the deep avy debris near the valley floor, and more obvious wet slide cannonballs you have to cross going in there. Remember just the top few inches is corn. You're skiing on a supportable crust hopefully that won't slide on facets from the very shallow snowpack underneath. Strong over Weak as they say in the Avy Class.

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

Nice day today 12/23/09 skiing Victoria Peak's west facing main avy gully. Just the right conditions really. You can't wait for these huge Big Slide canyon slopes to turn to corn, they melt out long before that. And you wouldn't want to be anywhere near them after a big snowfall, they slide way down all the way to near Robinson Creek with average warming. With the low sun and cold night temps, we found 6-12" of either new snow or wind deposited soft snow on top of a thick supportable crust. 10 degrees warmer today and we might had to turn around. These slopes are tough to time. They heat up and slide regularly and rarely get deeper than a few feet. Only inches in places.

Nice view of Mt. Walt near the car. We left tahoe at 5am and started skinning at 8am. The entire tour took 6.5 hours at a casual pace. It takes at least an hour to tour up the Robinson Creek Drainage in Big Slide Canyon, before you gain any altitude. There are some small dense aspens, and bush fields to negotiate that slow you down a little. Then there's the tricky steep skinning conditions. Today both skinning and booting was kind of tough. Didn't have ski crampons, but I won't forget them next time.



The wide gully here is probably 3500' from the valley floor to the top of the ridge. Then it's 1000' more to the summit or less, depending on where you drop in to the avy gully. The bottom of the run is only a few hundred feet higher than the trailhead, but also a few miles away.



We actually skinned up one gully north of the main avy path. This was really thin and rocky. We veered right up top and dropped in to the main slide path which was MUCH more filled in run. This fat slope had a firm crust supporting the new snow and we barely hit a single rock all the way to the valley floor. Sick! A bit thick, but nothing the fat skis can't handle.




Views don't get better than this, and you're not likely to share it with anyone else skiing in this area. Crown Point on the right, Mt. Walt and it's complex couloir variations in the middle, and the Horse Creek / Matterhorn Drainage on the left.


Today we didn't climb much higher than this. Just to the ridge. The actual summit of Victoria Peak is one of the little bumps near the middle. It's quite a slog up there. Skiing down along the wind pillowed edge would have been pretty good today though. There wasn't much cornice and it wasn't rock hard as expected.


Ahhhh....smoothness!


Kettle Peak in the center, behind Logan. The Incredible Hulk Climbing Wall is on the left.






Crown Point is the cool looking peak on the left. I skied that one from the top of the east couloir last year eary season with Scott. It was way beautiful, way out there, and way wind hardened. Little Slide Canyon is in the picture on the right. Definately not in condition. You wouldn't enjoy skiing down the valley until we get more snow, however the couloirs on Kettle and Mt. Walt are probably filled in enough. Kettle's upper SE facing bowl looked covered "enough".








This is a picture taken a few years ago of Eric Ongerth going up Little Slide Canyon. The Y shaped avy path behind Eric is what we skied today. It wasn't nearly this filled in, but there was plenty of snow still. Probably the best coverage we saw all day anywhere.

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

Skiied Victoria March 29 in some favorable winds which maintained good corn snow from the ridgeline to the valley floor.

Molly enjoying some good booting near avalanche debris. There is a nice thin hands roof crack in this alcove for those wanting to mix it up a bit


Hunewill from the ridge


Calling Sierra Souljah


Views into Little Slide Canyon


Good views of the Sawtooth Ridge Traverse from previous week


Jeff K enjoying the last of this last weeks corn harvest just in time before the anticipated pow storm coming in tonight


Molly finding some creamy corn snow and setting the slalom course around some boulders


Jeff K setting up to practice rail slides on some natural features


Cool clouds and views today