We skiied the great Mt.Wood on great early season corn in the morning right before noon. After a fantastic breakfast at The Braekfast Club in Mammoth (Denver Omlette with home fries, biscuit and gravy are so good in the morning), we drove to the North loop of the June Lake Loop (highway 158) and drove until the snow closure right in the middle of Grant Lake (the last section requires some threading the needle as the road is only plowed to a car width making for a tricky retreat). So we got off to a California alpine start from the road at 7150' at 8AM and made the summit (12,637') right at 11:30 to a spectacular view of the Minarets and Ansel Adams Wilderness. The views down on Carson Peak which we skiied on Wednesday were impressive being 1500 feet higher and looking down on the steep couloir off the summit ridge. Mt.Wood provides a spectacular vista point for the area. We met some riders and skiiers from June Lake and got some great beta for future descents and trips. It seems those riders from June Lake keep busy riding the nice lines in the vicinity. We opted to ski corn down the SE gulley and were able to ski from right off the summit. The sliding was all time great with unlimited, large open bowls and near perfect corn. The terrain was big and provided plenty of room for artistic expression on the descent from big GS turns to short jump turns it was all good. We traversed over to under the East facing gulleys where the group from June Lake was descending and with morbid fascination witnessed some survival riding. Being East facing and surrounded by rocks and small cliffs, the snow in the chutes was unstable, unconsolidated from the suns warming and the first boarder popagated and large, heavy slow moving point release which scowered the slope down to rocks and firm snow. The boarder was able to piece together the remaing descent and yet initiated another slide which he raced out of the narrow bottom rock-lined chute into the safety of the open bowl. The other boarder and skiier had a harder time finding remaing snow to ride out of the chute but were able to negotiate the exposed rocks and ski the bed surface out into the bowl over the fresh avalanche debris. All was well and we skiied down to the car in deeper corn then unconsolidated slush. Back at the car at 12:45. Wood was good.

here's a 2 shots of Wood from 3-9-05

<img src="http://thebackcountry.net/messagepics/mtwood1.jpg" border=0>

<img src="http://thebackcountry.net/messagepics/mtwood2.jpg" border=0>



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

We skiied Mt.Wood May 7, 2006 in another great corn day. I was dragging a bit but Molly prodded me out of bed at the Parker Lake trailhead and I finally got going at 6:30AM. I finally woke up at around 10000 feet when I realized we were in for some more corn skiing (I was not in to hiking through sage to get to snow, even though it was only 45 minutes of a trail and then some bushwacking). We had a late start so we double timed it up to the summit from the 10000 foot mark and had some great snow after starting the descent from near the summit at 11:40. We were back down to the bench at 9000 at 11:50 after skiing fabulous corn snow. With some creative route finding, we were able to ski to within a 30 minute hike from the car. We did see a road off of the Parker Lake trailhead road that would have allowed us to ski right to the car (unfortunately we found it on the descent but we will know for next time)! Of yes, we booted the entire route from car to summit and never required skins. The East faces still go but we were a bit concerned with skiing down through the chokes later in the day with the warming rocks and opted for the SE option.

you guys rock. thanks for reminding me of sweet conditions we have (and sweet mountains). Must......stop......working.....somehow.....

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

Skied Mt. Wood today. I'll put pics up when I get back from some east side adventures on Friday night or Saturday.

June Lake Road Gate is still closed, but you can drive around it. We walked for 20 minute to get to snow. New snow from last week hasn't consolidated yet, but skis okay with fat skis. We found nice smooth firm winter snow up high where the slope tilts to the north some, and 6" of porn snow on east and south. The best snow was down by the car where freeze/thaw has happened a little more.

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

Mt. Wood pics from March 31. June Lake Loop road gate was closed, but we drove around it easily. Great snow coverage, and the main 3 east chutes go through. We didn't look at the North side possibilities with binoculars, but I bet they are sketchy at this point.

Mt Wood is 12,637', and about 5500' above Grant Lake.








Looks like you could ski off the summit of Mt. Lewis into southeast corn snow and even get a little chute on the way to the S shaped canyon descent. This ski tour is done from the Parker Lake Access Road.




These tracks were from the day before. There was barely any tracks on the east side of Wood above the chute, I think we got the first soft day in awhile.




I love these comparisons. This pic makes the center east line on Wood look 30 degrees. (It might be 35 here and gets to 40 up top)


This pic from hwy 395 makes the terrain look extreme. We skied up and down the center. A few of our crew skinned up a lower angle way on the left of this pic, and skied down the chute right of center.


These guys were everywhere.


Peter Leigh is one of Bela's guides and joined us for the fun today. He made the top first and skied back down 1/3 of the way. Then he came back up, because 5500' wasn't enough of a climb. It's really impossible to hide from the wind at the top of the slope. We had really cold high winds at the summit only. And actually, we didn't go to the real summit...that would be a bunch of walking for very little additional vert and skiing.


Vince reaching the top with Banner and Ritter behind him.






Chris and Greg from the shop.


Looking to the south, San Juoquin Mountain on the left, with Carson Peak in the foreground. That long straight chute next to the trees is Devil's Slide on Carson Peak.


The snow up high refroze just before we got to it. We started hiking around 8am and didn't come down until about 2pm. We had a big group and stayed together. Snow was good enough, chalky winter on the northeast side of the gully, and corn tucked into the southeast side.


Here you can see June Lake Ski Area to the left of San Juoquin Mountain. "The Negatives" are inbetween, were you can hike 2000' or so from the ski area and ski about 5000' down to June Lake Loop Road.


Chris (KT) skiing with Mono Lake in the background. You could take endless pictures like this, with a dramatic desert landscape slashing your picture frame in half with the snow.


Here's the chute climbers right of the popular center gully. Doesn't look so extreme here. It was a bit steeper than it appears here.








Highlands Tahoe City represent! How lucky am I to have great friends to do stuff like this with? And who live 10 houses away from me?


Skiing on left = excellent. skiing on the right = notta so good






Mt. Wood on the left, Mt. Lewis on the right.


Mt. Gibbs in the foreground left of center. East gullies look great. South corner of Dana Plateau on the right, with the south facing Kidney Couloir visible inbetween the two.




East side is all time now. Access is just right for most everything, and snow line is creeping away from the trailheads. Get in the car!

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

The Factor and I skied a classic Mt. Wood line last weekend, the Hanging Gardens! Amazing spring powder conditions up high and perfect corn all the way to the car. Fabulous views in 360 degrees.
Right down the face, break left at the bottom, enjoy the austere environment!


The Factor drops in


Granjero praises Jah

2010 Eastside Spring Trip, Day Two.
Sunday, May 9, 2010

I set up shop at the Grant Lake Marina Campground, literally steps away from snow down to the road of the full 5,500' descent of Mt Wood. You couldn't have a better located campground. What it lacks in ambiance, it makes up for in location.

The view from my campsite, from which you can see both the top and of Mt Wood and lower face, and from which I walked less than 10 minutes in the morning. No commute! Note the cloudless, bluebird skies. (Cue ominous foreboding music)


Just steps from the road, the lowest-most toe of snow. This was actually a relatively difficult sidehill skin, with hard snow in the early morning.


Resting at the top of the first 2,000' pitch just below the Parker Bench, looking down at Grant Lake. When I got back to the campground after the ski, a fisherman fellow came over and said, "I watched you coming down from all the way up there with my binoculars." What he meant was just from this point. It impressed him enough, so I didn't feel the need to mention that I came down from 3,500' higher than that way up in the tempestuous clouds. I was also too tired and frayed to shmooze.


Mt Wood upper mountain from the Parker Bench. Note the first wisps of clouds peeking out from the sides of the mountain. This is one of the biggest continuous descents you can ski in the Sierra, and certainly the biggest one I've climbed and skiied to date. The scale out here is so deceiving. I just kept telling myself, "It's just a Tallac stacked on top of a Jakes." That helped.


The NOAA forecast was for mostly cloudy with 30% chance of snow showers after 11am. At about 10:30 it became a white-out, with wind and blowing snow. Being either (a) a glutton for punishment, (b) a sucker committed to finish what I started within the bounds of safety regardless of conditions, or (c) a backcountry skier looking to "build some character," I continued upward, telling myself that I'll turn around when it gets just too much to bear. (Life being what it is these days, I had to plan this eastside trip way in advance, jealously hording these days on the calendar, and praying for good weather.) I wasn't too afraid of getting lost, as I found my way to the right chute in one of the few gaps in the clouds, and the terrain wasn't too severe (i.e. no major exposure or risk of ending up in the wrong drainage or something), so I proceeded to start booting up the main chute. It was a test of wills. The snow was pretty firm, but I donned my crampons and fortunately stumbled upon a good bootpack right up the gullet. Of course, you couldn't really see the bootpack, because the blowing snow filled it in. So I was usually just focused on the five feet in front of me (couldn't see much else much of the time anyway) looking for telltale distinctions in the snow texture to indicate a filled-in boot placement. Needless to say, I made it pretty much to the top, stopping about 75 feet or so shy of the summit in order to huddle up close to the last large rock outcrop on climber's left. It didn't provide much shelter, as the snow was blowing from every which way, but at least the rock shielded the wind from one direction! Needless to say, I took no photos between the previous one of a bright sunny day starting up from the bench, and finishing the descent of the upper mountain. You wouldn't have seen anything except white. It was as equally a character-building descent of the upper mountain as a climb, with re-frozen textured snow, teasingly flecked with new snow blown into pockets to make for a nice turn amongst each dozen. Here I have managed to get my camera out after making it down from the upper mountain:


Still lots of skiing to be had down into this whiteness. Some of the turns actually got decent down lower.


Looking back up from whence I've come, the mountain being a tease and showing a glimpse through the white veil.


The turns down the bottom 2,000' (where the fisherman watched), actually were really excellent turns, with smooth turns on soft velvet.

Of course, just before dinner, while I was out poking around Panum Crater looking at obsidian, the skies cleared and the mountain revealed herself again. Though you can still see major contrails of snow blowing from the summit.


Let's hear it for a balmy spring!

-josh