just put up a thread with general Tahoe and East Side pictures so you can see snowpack. Lookin' good!

There is another helpful thread for Mt. Williamson on this messageboard. Thanks for the beta guys! I also found one on Supertopo. I started a new one so it loads faster. There's a search feature on our messageboard to easily pull up ALL threads pertaining to a ski tour you're interested in.

I'll start by saying this is entirely too much beta. I just put all my thoughts and pictures on here because it will be lost forever if I don't. If you are heading out on this ski tour you have plenty of backcountry mileage under your belt, and can figure it out like the hundreds before you. Go with one person though and move fast if you want to complete it in a day!

Skiing Mt. Williamson has always been a lofty goal for myself and most sierra backcountry skiers. Of course when you get to the top of these big guys you look around and realize there are hundreds of comparable ski tours that you didn't know about, because you couldn't see much of the line from the highway. Anyway, I highly recommend this tour, but I'd suggest doing it in 2 days unless you can climb Shasta in say 6 hours or so. Getting to a point where you can start skinning below the Glacier Creek Cirque, in the North Fork Bairs Creek Drainage, is an epic in itself. Read more in Richin's and Moynier's guidebooks.

On Tuesday John Crus and I had a great long day skiing Mt. Williamons from the North Bear's Creek trailhead. Not really a trailhead, more of a spot where you dive into a crazy multi-hour scramble...and then skin 7000'.. We parked at 6200' and the summit is 14,375'.



When we saw all this snow touching down near the road we were psyched. Of course we realized upon parking that snow was only hanging on below 8000' on north exposures.


No, you guys aren't going.




I ran up the previous night and saw the headwall couloir above Glacier Creek Cirque. It didn't look impossibly far away to climb in a day from here. You can make out the line just right of center.




The only passage is under my yellow arrow. On the right is a shot of the view from the that spot. You can see the single large flowery tree alone in the notch, aim for that. When you get there you'll find a fairly large sandy flat spot and a short descent of 100' off the other side before you can start traversing slightly downhill along the hillside towards the snow.


Crap. My alarm didn't go off. We leave the truck walking at 6:15am. An hour wasted we needed.


too much sun, we aren't even at the notch yet. I think it took us 1:15 in ski boots. The snow was fully isothermal and I started wondering about wet slide avalanche danger in the drainage. Turned out we didn't have to put ourselves on any terrain quite that sketchy.




Here I am at the notch. On the right we finally put skins on. Not sure what time, way too late. Maybe 9am. You wouldn't start skinning up Mt. Shasta or Whitney at 9am. Oh well, let's move!








I was feeling better about our chances of summiting at this point. Maybe 12 noon, and I had a good feel for a route back to the dirt weaving around the small slopes that could produce wet slides. The snow was getting pretty good too, a few inches of winter soft stuff. I'm not sure how tall the headwall/couloir is, maybe 1000'. Above John it's at least 2000' to the top of the couloir. We skinned up half of it.


There was ZERO wind today and the sun was intense above the rock lined couloir. I couldn't see anything from sweat and foggy glasses, I just felt my way up at times with eyes closed near the top. Gotta start bringing the real mountain head gear from now on like I used to. Flappy hat, bandana, that kind of thing was missing from all that heavy gear I had on my back.


This last bit looked really good to me. I could tell the snow wasn't getting too soft this high, and if it re-froze that would be fine with me too. We were going to ski winter snow mid mountain for sure. This last 1500' was taxing though, especially the way the actual summit is near the high point on the left. The travel up there sucked. You know, that wind blasted slippery, sharp edged wind spattered snow-around-rocks kind of summit. The way it usually is above 13k really.


John cranks his way up to the last stage of the climb above the high bowl.






We are so psyched all day though, especially at the top! This pano stretches from the Owen's valley on the left, to Mt. Tyndall right of center. I skied that many years ago in a one day effort chasing Morrison aka "spec". This was a comparable day in effort. Not as far back, but the travel below 8000' on Williamson makes up for it. John Crus and I spent about 10 hours reaching the summit of Williamson from our car. I remember Tyndall taking me 9 hours I believe. Of which JM waited quite a bit on me.


Zoomed in on Milestone Mountain, part of the popular Trans Sierra Crossing route that starts from Shepard's Pass Trailhead.


North side of Mt. Whitney


Mt. Tyndall and it's north facing slope. I heard some Tahoe guys were trying that this week. Andrew?






I swear John is skiing near the top center of this picture. Shows you the scale here.


Nice soft wind textured powder in the shade. Beautiful Granite all around. In the left picture, John is standing at the top of the couloir in the middle.














Now it's time to really move fast with sunlight fading. Don't fall in the creek! Fill up the water bottles and find the route we came in on.


Normally when you hit the trail in the desert you can relax. Here it's all business if you are racing daylight. I started to think about how nice it would be to sit around a fire in the sand at the notch. That would be killer actually to drop off a sleeping bag and mat right there, you would wake up to the alpenglow on the terrain you skied the day before, and get to walk on hard snow back to the car rather than rotten stuff. But then you lose a day of skiing, and there aren't many to go around. John and I have 5 kids age 8 and under between the two of us.


This Quartzite wall is just above the elevation of the path leading home to the notch. This was impressive. 30 feet high and 60 feet wide. Little bits were spread all around. Incredible really, I could have hung out for a while there.




My flash makes it look dark here near the truck, but there was plenty of light. Well not really, the headlamps went on just then. What a day! We motored for every ounce of daylight and saw some unreal terrain and views, skied some powder, and didn't see a single track on the mountain in the upper 2/3. Some younger Mammoth guys tried skinning on the south side of the creek. I never talked to them, but can't imagine that went real well. It was really steep over there, a bit crusty, and blocked by granite in places. Another friend has reached Williamson from the west slopes in a two day climb from Shepard's Pass Trailhead. And spec and Co. reached the summit of Williamson by 12 noon somehow from a drainage to the south, I'll have to look into that route sometime. Nahh, I'm not going up there again. I saw 30 other peaks I want to try from the summits of the 2 peaks I just skied (Williamson and Goodale). Goodale Trip report coming tonight! That peak rocks, go there right now!

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

Wow Mike - this is awesome. One of the better TRs posted in a while. That is a HUGE day trip. Congrats.

Congrats Mike, now you only have to do the ones you want to do.

Great Job Mike! and Thanks for the beta, not just for Williamson, but for the whole east side. Absolutely fantastic! Thanks for posting it.

cheers,

abe

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

Awesome! I was just up the valley from you that day on Tinemaha.
I'm still wondering what shepards creek direct would be like (to access north face) :shock:

TR: Mt. Williamson (14,375 ft / 4,382 m)

Location: Mt. Williamson (14,375 ft / 4,382 m), Eastern Sierra

Dates: Friday, May 7 – Saturday, May 8, 2010

Skiers: Enginerd & UCL

Photos & Video: UCL (unless otherwise noted as Enginerd)

Weather: Both days were bluebird, with warm temperatures and no wind on Friday, but a 20-30 mph wind up high on Saturday.

Avalanche Conditions: We did not encounter any instabilities in the snow pack on the ascent or descent. The snow is undergoing a strong freeze/thaw cycle (although cold winds on Saturday kept much of the snow from significantly thawing).

Synopsis: After finishing the Sierra High Route, my plan was to meet Enginerd and ski both Mt. Tyndall and Mt. Williamson. However, after skiing along the Tyndall Plateau on Day 5 of the SHR, I did not think the North Couloir on Tyndall was worth the massive approach to get back there. While it is an aesthetic line, Enginerd and I would rather save Tyndall for summer climbing on the East face.

Therefore, our plans were changed to only ski Mt. Williamson, the 2nd tallest peak in the Sierra.

Here is a topo map of the trip I put together after I got home. While it does not capture a lot of the intricacies of the approach or the zigzagging up the steep slopes, it does offer a general indication of the massive effort that is Mt. Williamson: (i) approximately 10 miles round trip; (ii) 8,560 feet of climbing; (iii) maximum elevation of 14,375 feet; and (iv) approximately 6,000 feet of a ski descent.



VIDEO TRIP REPORT:

Similar to my recent trip to ski the Crescent Moon Couloir on Roundtop with Enginerd, this TR is actually two TRs in one. The first is a video TR which shows both the ascent and video of the ski descent. With peaks of this scale, I believe a video medium really captures the size of the undertaking. Not to mention, it has some good tunes and some cheesy commentary. Sound is a must.

http://www.vimeo.com/11638480

PHOTO TRIP REPORT:

Pushing aside being the 2nd tallest peak in the Sierra, in my opinion Mt. Williamson (or “Big Willy”) is far and away the largest. The mass of Mt. Williamson is both intimidating and calling.



This macro shot from the town of Independence shows part of the ski descent. The large bowl on the upper portion of Mt. Williamson (lookers left) makes up the bottom 3rd of the decent. The top of the bowl is marked by a steep couloir, which then swings to the right up to the summit out of view. The upper bowl that cannot be seen is S-facing on Williamson (and this shot is of the East face).



UCL gearing up for the trip. Photo: Enginerd



Enginerd contemplating the approach.



A special note on the approach: once you hit the snow line (around 8,000 ft), it is relatively quick moving and we made fast time from that point. The approach from parking at 6,000 ft to the snow line, however, is B-R-U-T-A-L traveling. There is no trail and it is generally side-hilling steep slopes with sage brush, loose pebbles and rocks and little to hold on to.

Mike Schwartz (above) and others I know have done this trip in a burly, extremely long single-day push. Obviously, you need to be acclimatized to do this, but I think the real key would be to really have the approach nailed. We followed the guide book and beta from Mike and others (e.g., going through the “Notch”), but I still found the approach to take up most of the time.

One last bit of advice – carry your boots and wear trail shoes. I generally hate carrying my boots and hike in them (as I did here), but the terrain involved a lot of smearing on rocks, etc… - stuff that does not bode well for boots. My Titans now look like I have worn them for 4+ years and the rubber is pretty trashed. I am going to contact Dynafit to see if I can replace the sole blocks, as I am pretty surprised the rubber sole got mangled as much as it did in one approach hike – should definitely last longer than it did. No blisters, though – shows how awesome the tour/hike mode in the Titan is! Other than extremely soft rubber, a superior touring boot!

Spring is in full swing in the Eastern Sierra.



Here is a good example of the approach terrain you travel through en route to Big Willy. Photo: Enginerd



At the top of the “Notch”, you can generally see the route up towards the snow line, but the terrain is uncompromising and you are still in for a butt-kicking! Photo: Enginerd



Did I mention there are fourth/fifth class & boulder moves on the approach? To reiterate, wear approach shoes! Photo: Enginerd



The approach generally takes you through the drainage of the Upper Baire Creek. One thing that becomes immediately visible is the avalanche debris from winter slides. And I mean LARGE DESTRUCTIVE avalanche debris. Entire trees ripped from the ground, large boulders dislodged, etc…

I am going to try to tattoo that picture in my brain for next season as yet another reminder of the potential of avalanches.

Here I am working across some slide debris. Photo: Enginerd



After several hours, we finally hit the snow line and start making substantial progress skinning towards our anticipated camp.



We had left the trailhead around 10:30 because our goal for the day was only to get up to around 10,500. Although I felt acclimatized from Sierra High Route, Enginerd would need to sleep around that elevation before heading higher. As usual, Enginerd rocked the trip, with no altitude issues and climbing strong and fast.

Enginerd skinning as we loose light over the bulk of the mountain. At this point, it was only 3 or so, but looks later because of lack of light.



After reaching approximately 10,500, we dug out a nice platform for our floorless Go-Lite shelter and set up a good camp. Here, I am boiling water while Enginerd finishes setting up camp. Photo: Enginerd



Our view from camp, down 4,000-5,000 feet into the Owens River Valley.



After a good night’s sleep, we awake at O-Dark-Thirty for our alpine start to the ascent. Here, Enginerd and I are looking super pumped to be awake:



First light is hitting from the East, and you can make out the tiny lights of the town of Independence.



We make good time and get on the move quick. All of the snow on the ascent is frozen from a good freeze/thaw cycle. While I had ski crampons, Enginerd did not. In any event, we both realized that booting with regular aluminum crampons would be the quickest and most efficient way up the main slopes (in addition to the steep couloir).

So we strapped our skis to our packs and proceeded to climb approx. 4,000 feet to the summit (allowing the snow to warm and soften in the process).

The sun continues to rise in the East. Photo: Enginerd



Cool shot of Enginerd booting with the walls of Williamson looming over. If you watch the movie, I think it captures the size of this place well.



Enginerd booting up towards the Eastern Couloir – the gateway to the snowfields of the upper mountain.



Another cool shot of Enginerd being dwarfed by Big Willy.



UCL following behind – I always fall behind because I take so many pictures and the video. Enginerd mentioned afterwards – “every time I look back, you have your gloves off and are filming things”. I love that aspect of climbing/skiing – capturing the beauty and solitude of the mountains we love. Photo: Enginerd



Although several hundred yards away from each other, Enginerd and I both apparently got the same idea to capture our shadows from the Eastern sun. Photos: Enginerd & UCL





Enginerd continues towards the East Couloir (which is a nice 35-40 degrees).



Enginerd working up the Couloir… I love the perspective with a wide-angled lens on the steep Couloirs.



Close-up of a prominent rock formation at the exit of the Couloir, with the Owens River Valley in the distance.



UCL climbing below the formation. Photo: Enginerd



Enginerd and UCL climbing in the Couloir, respectively. Photos: UCL & Enginerd





At the exit to the Couloir, one encounters several thousand feet of upper snow field, with a great pitch of 35 degrees. At this point, we were making very good time.





Enginerd booting the upper snow field, with crampons still the preferable method of travel.



UCL following suit, approaching the summit cone. Photos: Enginerd





Enginerd on the final push to the summit. Note: both the picture and video are deceiving. There is actually a double-fall line, and off to lookers left takes you to a entirely different drainage. Therefore, on the ski from the summit, Enginerd was careful to hop-turn the appropriate fall line.



Enginerd cannot travel any farther without a jet pack.



Obligatory summit shots. The Southern Sierra follows behind Enginerd, with Mt. Russell and Mt. Whitney (with its arching back), the tallest peak in the lower 48.



UCL on the summit. Photo: Enginerd



USGS Summit Marker. Photo: Enginerd



Altitude from my watch.



To those that want to climb some of the routes on the East Face of Mt. Tyndall, here is a close-up shot. Enginerd and I certainly plan on being back in here during the summer. Beta: It looks awesome. Big, clean granite up to above 14,000 ft.



Coverage in the Sierra is ridiculous this year. Here are a number of panoramic shots from the summit in all directions.

Looking West (towards the Sierra High Route):



Looking North:



Looking South:



Enginerd preparing to ski from the summit. Note: The actual descent is on the video.



After strapping in below the summit, Enginerd and UCL prepare for an approximately 6,000 ft ski descent (the longest in the Sierra to my knowledge).



Enginerd way above, descending the upper snow field.



… And properly straight-lining the run-out with his tracks above. UCL’s descent of the upper snow field is in the video.



Here is a sequence of UCL descending the East Couloir. Enginerd’s descent is on the video. Photos: Enginerd









Sequence of Enginerd skiing below the Couloir for yet another 1,000 feet of vert. Honestly, 6,000 feet of descent.











UCL following suit, back towards camp at 10,500 ft. Photo: Enginerd



After packing up camp, we continued down for another 2,000 ft. of descent to around 8,000 ft. at the snowline. Here, UCL skis some soft corn. Photo: Enginerd



It was all fun and games back until the snowline. Then the reality set in that we had to hike back through the mess that was the approach. Fortunately, time was looking great (as it was around 1 PM).

More technical rock moves by yours truly. Photo: Enginerd



Here I am, pumped to be sidehilling on tiny pebbles again! Photo: Enginerd



As a finishing touch, we got back to the car, headed to Bishop for some great Mexican food, and were treated to some Sierra Wave. Photo: Enginerd

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great job guys!

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

I've been lurking this site for some time now, and I finally had to register to say how spectacular I think your photos are!

I do mostly Tahoe area trips, I use a splitboard for transportation.

I've backpacked all over the Eastern Sierra since I was a teenager. If I knew then what I know now about winter backcountry travel, I'm sure I would be living in Bishop or something...

Wow.

Anyway, thanks: this site has made my boring workdays much less so.