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Can you believe it? Oct 27th 2004












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

We put in the skin track, and I think only 3 others skiers show up before we left at 1pm. No sluffing or signs of avy concern. We didn't ski the avy path where it starts usually, I'm sure someone will tomorrow. We did 3 runs and covered a variety of places. Seems GTG from my amerature snow stability forcasting.

Not really boney. Just bushes down low, where skiing usually stinks anyway. I'd think Tallac is money above the first hill. We were aiming for Carson Pass or Tallac, but the road was closed. Now open.

felt like late December coverage. Deep and dry above 8000', which I don't think is changing tonight.

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

Thank you for the info and the new skin track. Where were all the old timers, don't tell me Nettle is washed up!

I'll ask him.
No, those guys ski where there's no people. I usually try to also, but half the time you don't see the Jake's crowd assemble until mid-day.

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

Emerald Bay is closed. Signs say closed even more north of the avy gate. Officer Miller who patrols this area says we can't park at the avy gate anymore during winter, no matter what. He also says you'll get a ticket if you park anywhere but behind the snow stakes (good luck). Jake's is okay. Other traditional road side parking spots are in danger. They scared us all away from Rubicon. I'm starting a list of people who want to petition for more parking, either sno-park or county maintained. Please e-mail me your name and e-mail. I won't share this list with anyone, including our store e-mail list.

These shots could have been taken in quite a few places today. Saw the sun crust starting to form out in the sun however, go get it. It snowed 10 feet, but you really only ski on the top. And knock on wood about the hard layer from before the storm. Didn't see any signs of failure today. pic of rose slide will scare you from going out of your house. see avy forum.















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

mike -- i can't find the post w/ you talking bout getting ticketed at jake's. heading up there fri am to ski the em chutes and wondering if its ok to park at the normal jake's parking turnout. or if not, where does officer obie say it is ok??? and has anyone gotten a good look at the em chutes recently??? is the bottom of the main chute still in tact, or is it ripped to a huge debris pile as is often the case??? thanx

EM chutes are good to go. Snow might be good if you hit it after they get soft, but before they fall apart. Not sure when that is with this low fog.

Officer Miller says you cannot park at the road closure under any circumstances during winter. Meanwhile, I'm positive there have been people parking there every day since I got a ticket. Haven't heard of other skiers getting tickets. I did park there the first day after the storm cleared, when they might have been worried about avy danger or something.

I left a bike in the snow a week later and skied in the area from Jakes parking lot.

I'd part at the road closure and just try to get as far away from the turnaround lane as possible, and stick the car in the snow. Put a note on your car that says you'll be back in an hour, you're looking for your dog or something?
have fun!

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

T - looking fwd to your report on em chutes and jakes conditions in general. also, if you get any further info on parking situation that would be appreciated as well.

speaking of parking for em chutes, when the road is plowed, you can park legally at the Eagle Falls Trailhead. Out on the highway. Walk straight up the last chute. Gets steep at the top, some people use axe or crampons for the last little bit.



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

no parking problems this morning in emerald bay. turnaround at jake gate and eagle falls by the rd are fully plowed out. ascended just out of the thick fogbank driving from s shore right at eagle falls turnout where a clear sunny day was awaiting. did a car shuttle so we could climb from jakes and by 10-10:30 the corn was good to go. mtn top sensors indicated it didn't freeze up high last night but theres a def freeze thaw going on anyway. the snow was about optimal w/ top 1-3" corned on a solid base in the lookers left chute when we skied at 10:30ish. there's still plenty of untracked in the chutes flanks and the only real debris is from other peoples tracks in the gut. i've only skied this line once before and i'll just say it was infinitely better this morning.

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
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