Here are some pics of the terrain above Hwy 40 and the Sugar Bowl Academy. Enough snow to get where you want to go, and mostly still soft believe it or not. We haven't had much wind. Fairly tracked up, but not too bad.

Here's the view as you drive up old hwy 40 through Donner Summit. . The area on the left is pretty extreme. The trees and gullies in the middle are fun to weave around, but get a little steep at the bottom. You can always return the mellow way you climb up from the car too, which is out of view on the right.


Boreal Ski area is that little lump in the foreground. Signal Peak looks a lot more impressive in the distance.


Donner Ski Ranch on old hwy 40 is right across the street from the start of this tour. Drop the kids off and get your skin on.


Most people go up towards Mt. Judah and Donner Peak, and keep going a little further to ski the east facing trees below the crest. This shot shows Anderson Peak and Tinkers Knob in the distance.


Looking north across I-80 at Castle Peak and Negro Canyon


Looking East from Mt. Judah


I had 2 hours and thought I'd ski to the tower on top of Mt. Judah, then go over and ski the bowl beneath Donner Peak right next door. I realized pretty quick I wasn't going to make it over there, or even make many turns...


For some reason I brought my 12 year old Dog. short legs, long hair, wrong animal all together. If I didn't carry him down most of the way we would still be up there. Now I remember why we never take him skiing in soft snow.


Donner Peak's bowl faces northwest I believe.


When you pop out at the old train tracks, you are in for a small adventure getting back to the car. You either ski to another car, or go through the old train tunnels.


The second one is long, dark, and spooky. I brought my killer attack dog and made it through without incident.

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

Pics are a couple weeks old, but give you an idea of coverage.
Did two laps in the heart chute on the north face of donner, finding fabulous light breakable crust, hard hard windboard, and some recrystallized pow, overall great conditions for shredding.
Cold temperatures were mainly to thank for the varied snow conditions, as evidenced by the ice on the lake when viewed through the classic notch.


The first run down I chose not to sideslip or sidestep through the bushes to the left, or go small of the side of the air. Instead, I backed up and rolled off the prow of the cliff with a nice bit of speed and went much larger than expected. I guess thats what happens in steep terrain, eh? Stomping the sidehill landing in hard snow with a seventy odd foot cliff below was quite invigorating! You can see my tracks start just to the right of the traverse line to the right, near what looks like a bombhole. Snow was too hard to actually break through here.


More good turns could be found below, especially on the steep lower cliff band in the lower center, mmmmmm. The first air is in the upper center directly below the bare tree trunk. Nice exposure below!


On the second lap, I went further skiers right and made my way down through some water ice and steep flutes. I scored a brand new rappel sling and two biners from someone that avoided the fifteen feet of exposed rock downsliding and bushy-icy schmidt-turns that found me getting stuck in a tree branch during part of the traverse and making use of one-arm lockoff skills to remove my caught ski so that I could continue descending. I guess thats what I get for booty-ing goodies! Really fun day on the north face!

Here are some pics of another mellow tour connecting Mt. Judah and Donner Peak. Pretty good coverage up there as this is largely north facing terrain. Trees and gullies dominate this zone above Donner Pass Rd (at the summit). It's a fun place to play, but there is no open shot to make a lot of turns in a row.

Today was a quick office guy ski tour. Tony is Bela's office manager for ASI. Eli is our office manager at The Back Country. Ben and Chris graduated college last year and were smart enough to move to the mountains and join our team as well.

Here's the view from our shop at Donner Peak. This is the east and north sides of the mountain. You can see some of the "lake run" from Donner Peak to Donner Lake. The bowls up on the right are the actual Sierra Crest, provide nice powder skiing when the storm snow settles.


Closer view from Donner Pass Rd, alongside Donner Lake.


Mt. Judah on the right is usually the goal of your climb if you start near the Sugar Bowl Ski Academy, across the street from Donner Ski Ranch. This is an easy hour climb or so to a nice view and short powder shots to ski at the Sierra Crest. Donner Peak is on the left. You can easily hit both summits in a half day ski tour. We skied the low angle treed run inbetween to get home.


Looking south along the Sierra Crest.


You want to know where you are going up here if you don't follow the skin track back. The ski area obviously borders you to the west ,you can see people skiing on the groomers through the trees. You just want to make sure you don't head over to Donner Peak's north side, which is expert terrain and even extreme in times of low snow (now). You can skirt Donner's north face and ski East down to Donner Lake in a nice long car shuttle. Car shuttles are rarely worth your time however unless you live in the area.

Here we are near the top of Mt. Judah on it's north side, beneath the radio Towers. You can see Donner Peak behind us. To do a "Lake Run", or donner peak car shuttle down to Donner Lake, you skirt the right side of the peak (in the sun). There are some cliffs along this route too, so hiring an ASI guide or going with friends is advised for beginners.


Eli's unconventional method for taking a break.




Tony from ASI shredding with Castle Peak and Frog Lake Cliff in the background, and across I-80.


I put this shot in here to show you the terrain in the middle of this short Donner Peak Northside descent. It's not that straightforward, but low angle until the bottom.


Here's the steep few hundred vertical feet at the bottom that is tricky for beginner skiers.


A Donner Peak northside skitour doesn't dump you out at your car. You have to go find it uphill.


We went through the tunnel, which takes you too far west. Still a fun adventure if you haven't done it, skinning on the ice floor through the dark.




A 10 minute skin along Donner Pass Road back to our car and we are back to work!

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

oops double postage

La face nord, couloir d'coeur was in condition fantastique on saturday. One track from day before let me know it worked while scoping from the black wall zone. Nobody out except some shredders spinnin tricknasties with mad steeze. Booyah. My favorite part is dropping through the notch at the top, traversing across, and then making the four or five super gorgeous steep, exposed turns leading into the heart of the heart. Couple of exit options given the lower snow, air or rap over the lower zone. Choose your own adventure. Still some water ice lurking atop rocks on the steeps, gives a little reminder of what the real deal is like. Skkkkrrrtttt! And some big cliffs that you can get above with ease. Really, really nice snow top to bottom. Did a couple of laps just cuz the turns at the top were so amazing. Well, before the rain. Maybe it will freeze rock solid and become a legit descent! :D

Eggsilent winter conditions on north facing aspects of donner peak. A bit thin, watch out for snow covered slabs and water ice, but really nice steep riding conditions.


Evening bansai pooper scoop run


Darkness falls upon the slopes. heads up for sneaky drops!


More bansai!


Dropping into north face above the heart from the summit rocks. Always nice to get some eggsposure.


The line takes you above these lovely drops, ridable under a few more feet of nieve. No falling please!


Once the large cliffs have been navigated, you can disco with only one tier of doom cliffs below


Technique for steep hiking. just a shade of tilt on accident


Always wanted to drop the granite barrel chute. Oh yeah. Couple steep turns, doggydoor straightline into the tube...


...Screech to a stop to turn and laugh...


...Then keep shredding!

Heart Couloir is riding nicely, one rappel necessary, but thankfully, nobody has cleaned up the rap ring that I left a few years ago so its still a trade route. Crux zones are a bit thin, watch out for rocks and water ice, especially in the exit couloir, but all in all a great zone to play in right now! Snow is great up top but crusty once you exit the heavier zones all the way to the tunnel and onward.

Few shots from the heart attack:

Entering the goodies. I made sweet boots that work okay, gotta iron out the large kinks though. Sportiva Trango mountain boots (read: possibility to ascend 5.9, WI5, A3, with snowboard on back) + Rossi race boots cut to fit OVER the trangos, giving support along various important 3-d planes (read: sick lines can be descended after burly climbs done in winter conditions). Test slope?


Dropping!


Steep and thin so far...the rain crust started just after the final crux in what should be the ferrarri zone. Real nice snow up in hurr.


Post cruxes. One 30 foot rappel. Fun final straightchuter too. Boots were hurting at this point.


Topo. Black is turns, red rappels.



And no I can't climb WI5 or A3...YET

I'm loving this thread. Next time I'll crank the danger down even another notch if that's possible, maybe bring my cat or something. Granerjo can keep uping the radness from the same trailhead.

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

Wow!! Love looking at those pictures from home. Know that type of terrain in person usually makes my intestines uncomfortable. I will need to be careful what tracks to follow down when I come out to the Sierra's.

heres a quicky of some afternoon laps on asi knob before the pow this week.
http://www.vimeo.com/9663098