Hey Guys,

That is a way late trip report, but there are some cool pictures in it... maybe not the snow, but at least from the sunset! :-)

We did that before on December 11th, the short weekend when we had a little taste of "december spring skiing", before it started snowing like crazy again! I am not a big fan of "traverse" yet (I prefer skiing down to traversing), but considering the weather, I thought that was a good time to explore some new terrain...

We started from Sugar Bowl parking lot and skin up out of bound. It was longer than what we expected, but not terribly difficult. We should have started earlier on both days, that would have allowed us to enjoy some short side skiing excursions. Route finding on the first day was super easy (just stay on the ridge), but a little bit harder on the second part of the second day (not hard, but you are in the trees with little clues on where you are going for a little while)...

Obviously, next time I would do a bunch of things differently to get more good skiing, now that I seen the terrain and have a better idea of the time required to complete the traverse...

Low clouds on the first day:






I wished we left earlier in the morning in order to have some time to do a few laps on Anderson.















Looking in direction of truckee...






We decided to bootpack the couloir on Anderson (no skiing as it was refrozen) in order to get a better view of the sunset. That was a real good idea, because the snow was even harder the next morning and it would have been difficult to kick steps in...


















Looking at what where we travelled on the second day:


We missed last chair! Bummer!!! :-(




The approximate route...


Need to do it again this winter!

Alexis

thank you so much for these great pictures. That cabin is full nearly all year, showing how many people enjoy going out there. Never stayed in there myself, now I need to go!

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

Awesome! I LOVE ski traverses (I am a glutton for punishment I guess), and I still have not done this. Really need to do so - looks awesome.

Is that one of the Sierra Club huts? Bradley? Anderson (probably makes sense).

I guess you could just take a mid tent (adds one lb) and rock it outside instead of dealing with a hut lottery.

This is Benson hut on the north side of Anderson (about half way):

http://www.sierraclub.org/outings/lodge ... enson.aspx

Next time I would try to leave as early as possible from Sugar Bowl, get to the hut, drop my gear and go do laps on Anderson. I think this is the best skiing you can have on the first half of the traverse, and that would be after dropping your big backpack so skiing would be more enjoyable.

Bradley would required a "side trip" from the traverse... but apparently has some nice ski terrain around.

There was no one who had made a reservation for this hut when I called the day before the trip. Ok, that was in early season, but still, I was amazed: no lottery, no one else! You could definitely bring a tent (or just a bivy if the weather is nice) and camp by the hut...