Did a lap on Jake's yesterday, still some nice pockets of pow on the north side trees. I'm not real familiar with the terrain, so I'm sure there are good lines to be had all the way down.

Oh the memories! I really don't ski Jakes so much these days, but it was where I got my wings back in the day. So, for my dog's 10th birthday we went up there. Same old stair case to heaven and only friends around, no herbs. Corn harvest on Emerald Bay side from 10-1.

Would have been satisfied with another 12". We got 4-6' this week! More on the way?!


















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

Must have been an awesome day. How was the snow stability? Seems like there was a lot of wind loading during the last storm.

<font face='Verdana'></font id='Verdana'>Looks great Mike, was this Friday? As you said it's melting quickly.

Jake's Pics for today

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

Glad to hear things are turning around for you guys. Why is that world class tele guy skinning with his helmet on? Is he protecting the few brain cells he has left from the cold?

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

nice work towlie,
I figured someone would be hitting that line this week. It's hard to not take a good scenic shot up there, eh.

snow looks perfect. My wife's out of town, and I'm thinking how if I can take my kids down that run with their little harnesses. Hm....we made it down the face at Homewood...

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

Ed,

Here's a couple pics of you from last sunday. Great skiing witcha again!
Amazing how much more the direct stuff was tracked up by the 2nd lap...

Saw on monday that folks had skied most of the S. lines as well, including some of the chutes.

Fantastic conditions in tahoe right now !!!

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

Thanks SLT for the tallac pics. saw your tracks today from Jakes.

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

I've been eagerly awaiting one of Mike's shameless posts. I figured with all the epic snow coming down you have just been to busy to document. Looks like a fantastic day at Jake's. I hope I bust loose and see you up there sometime this season! Skin on. :D

mmm, phat to flat! it didn't take me too many roadside airs (errors?) to realize that plow banks aren't exactly the cushest of landings. did the em chutes slide at all? it would be nice if they went big once to fill in the bottom runout and extend the springtime continuity! booyah!

don't know if anyone skied over there. road is closed and we didn't drive to the end. I did get a call from Officer Miller, who I think is Eldorado county Sheriff and the main guy who patrols this area of 89. He wanted to make sure our website didn't tell people to park at the avy gate turnaround. Someone must have showed him an old web page from years ago.

He says Caltrans wants the police to keep people from parking there until May 1. Even if it's midweek and clear. He said Caltrans is frustrated with cars blocking the turn around lane.

How many times have we asked the caltrans guys if we are blocking them, and heard NO YOU GUYS ARE COOL...TOTALLY NOT IN OUR WAY. I've never seen more than a few cars tucked into the snow during the week. When he ticketed me, I was the only car there and plowing didn't happen that day.

I asked why they can't have a sign that says "parking allowed from here to here only". He deflected and told me they want to help us and have nothing against backcountry skiers.

I went through placer county to try and get some discussion about signs like this in a few critical spots up here, hoping to start somewhere...and then get Eldorado to check out a few small successful improvements. No dice. They wouldn't entertain any conversation about backcountry access.

Other than for this, I think the local law enforcement rules. I think they need to ski a powder day or two with us.

keeping ya in the loop.

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

right on mike. thanx for the update and keep fighting the good fight.

correction. Placer County said to go away. I never even made a connection with people at Eldorado. The police do NOT care about backcountry skiing access enough to even talk about it. Nice.

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

some pics from wed.






Eric went today and said it was so good, he's going back tonight.

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

Stellar conditions on sunday, bluebirds singing, lots of friends on the mountain, perfect cement.

kyle drops in


and anya drops in. fitting time for lake of the (is the) sky to be used!

Some pictures from yesterday morning...


Coverage is pretty awesome right now


Here's Andi dropping into the center chute

not quite the conditions like the start of this thread a few Octobers ago, but Jake's is pretty good on the top half. Resist the temptation to ski near buried trees or boulders.
14 degrees today, Friday. East winds blasting above treeline, but not below. Tallac bowl looks very thin still.

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

Does anyone have any beta on what the Section 20 Chute is looking like after this last storm?

It all looked pretty bare on Monday, can't imagine that the storm would have made that huge of a difference

Pic from Tallac yesterday.


Don't know if Section 20 chute is on the south side, but if it is I don't think it got enough new snow to make it doable. Looks ok in photo but I'd be skeptical.

skied some psuedo corn this/thurs am on the south aspects of jakes. seemed like the se aspects didn't ever quite get there but the sw shots were pretty good w/ that shingle type corn as long as it was untouched. anywhere w/ a previous track was rock hard. we were skiing at 11:30 and we were by far the 1st on and off the mtn w/ quite a few rolliing in as we were leaving and due to cold am temps and wind i's think later is better in the corn hunt right now.

some pics from yesterday on the south side. no tickets at the avy gate. great corn snow.

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

nice mike. can you tell me your best estimate as to when the corn window is open for that area???? thanx

it's pretty good all day actually. I've been going out late this week due to kid duties, and the snow is nice corn when we start at 10am.

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

some pics from today. Great corn on south exposures.

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

Nice to see the Mr and Mrs getting out together! See you soon!

pretty good coverage and really nice dry powder on 12-23-08. Of course now that it's 12-25, we have 3 feet of new snow everywhere and more on the way. Game is very on finally.

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

Jake's was excellent on Saturday, Jan 3. It stayed cold throughout the morning and the small storm on Jan. 2 filled things in very nicely. Had a bit of cloud cover on the ascent but the skies parted and we had a glorious ride back down to the car. Props to Mike for hooking me up with the Scarpas . . . it made for a much easier skin up.

http://picasaweb.google.com/marcrlewis/ ... directlink[/img]

After a little extreme skinning on dust-on-crust, the upper elevations are super light knee deep powder. Go get it while it's cold for another day or two.

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

Yup, skinning was a challenge still today... lots of people just booting it.

We did the section marked "skiing not good here due to cliffs and fast melting" and it was actually excellent today. Probably better snow in the trees, but it was nice & corny 'round 1:00-ish.

Lost my camera in the first 10 minutes of the Jake's skin track on Sat 2-10-09. Small black olympus in black zippered case. 530-362-0020


otherwise another killer day in the bc!

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

Wanted to post a few pics of the great day. Sunny, snow still in great shape, and low avi conditions.

Nice one. Great to see the Dream Team getting it done!

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www.livinginpatagonia.com

All time conditions in the backcountry right now. Dry Powder on north even down low. Two days ago there was great snow on all aspects, and good stability. We measured 365cm snowpack on the north side of Jake's at about 8300' !

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

some pics from monday. backcountry snow is great, but there are still hazards out there. 3 feet deep on average around Jake's Peak. Ski slow and enjoy it!

Emerald Bay was closed but we heard them plowing

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

Climbed up for one lap at 11am yesterday. Still good snow to be found on the north slopes above 7000'. The skin track has become pretty icy, and with its steepness and slant downhill, makes ski crampons recommended if you don't want to break a new track.

I think I just found my favorite dawn patrol run before work.

Chris

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Climb | Ski | Sleep | Repeat
climbskirun.blogspot.com

damn, I couldn't bring myself to start a new jake's 2011 thread. These older pics are great! Is this annoying?

Nov 25th, first day on skis for me. shin deep cold powder, 3-5' snowpack. It'll consolidate to about half of that when it warms up. Be careful, it's still an early season snowpack. Big air pockets near boulders and bushes.

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

How are chester paws ? looks like he had a good day. What a great first day in the BC. The thread is a little big but you get to look at all the great jakes photos.

Monday was bluebird with no wind and stable snow, and my resort pass was blacked out, so I hit up Jake's. I scoped out the Emerald Bay side of things aforehand and confirmed that all the chutes were filled down to the road. Eagle Chute was the call, and it was superb. Was able to ski straight down to the road, even through the manzanita near the bottom, stuck my thumb out and got a ride back to car within about 30 seconds of hitting the road. Perfect day. Some pics: