I'll put up more pics below this post next week. Need to have them developed from slide film. Also went up to Palisade Glacier, look for pics of that too. Got a few from my old digi camera.



Barry and I parked a few miles from the trailhead at the closed gate, and walked a mile before the skin started. Barry and I reached the summit in 8 hours. An hour of that was spent carefully finding the best way to the top, above the MR couloir. All snow, no ice, but steep and exposed. You can't see how each of these gullys will actually work out, to get you onto the summit slope. The steepest one right above the MR route had a boot track, and although the steepest, might have provided the least time of exposure. We traversed a few gullies before going up. We both had crampons, I used an axe for extra confidence. Later I found out the first steep one is the real climb and ski descent. Had I known it went to the top I would have gone that way. No big deal, the snow was a little patchy and breakable to enjoy such a steep, high elevation ski descent.

Snow wasn't great. Grabby wind hardened/breakable. Hard and wind hammered in the couloir, but smooth enough in places to turn okay. We didn't choose Whitney on this day for the snow quality.

Snowline update for this area.
- Langley looks great. Prob an hour to snow.
- Williamson North Bair's Creek access is over. This is a mid-winter ski from this approach apparently. Due to time and darkness, we couldn't scope out another way. Looked good from this angle.


looked grim from this angle. We hiked 1000' for this pic.


Also tried to do The Thumb. Couldn't find McMurry Meadows in the dark on those 4x4 roads. I've been there too. After a late night of trying to follow topo map roads in the dark, we gave up. We headed up towards Glacier Lodge and headed towards Palisades Glacier. Some wind and approaching weather had me convinced snow would be bad like on Whitney, so we went for south facing stuff and a high view of the range. Pics will be amazing. I'm pretty sure I was on Two Eagle Peak at 13,000. 2000' of perfect steep corn. Amazing 360 view from the top. I'll post pics of this tour when I get the film back.




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

Mike,

Thanks for the report. I am thinking of heading up there this weekend, and I have a question. Is the snow deep enough to skin right up the canyon, or do you have to scramble up the Eb. ledges?

skin the whole way. perfect conditions, and now there's probably better snow conditions.

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

Tried this route on Sat, 4/9. The road is clear to Meysan Lakes campground, so only a 30 minute skin to the Portal. The main trail is melted out, so had to pack the skis until a little ways up the N. Fork. I forgot my ski crampons and could have really used them in the canyon. High winds from the day before had moved a lot of snow- some areas were nice powder, others very icy. Eventually made it up to about 13,400' in the couloir, and got knocked down twice by wind gusts. Temp was 15* at noon, not counting wind chill. Above, the couloir was very icy and rough, and was unskiable by me. I couldn't imagine how hard the wind was blowing on top, but I knew I didn't want to be on the summit, so I bailed. Some firm conditions for the first few hundred feet, then deep, heavy powder, very tiring at that elevation (especially for us coastal dwellers). From Iceberg Lake on down was a blast, with everything from powder to ice to corn. A great day, and deserving of another effort in the future.

Here's my pics. I scanned slide film this time. What a pain, and I don't know how to color correct. Anyway, hope you enjoy my typical long string. Can't wait to get down there again and do something in this area next week. I'd think the road is still closed at the gate, due to the major boulder spillage and sketch factor in general on that hillside.







































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

<font face='Verdana'>great pix - esp the Pringles. sure hard to get a read on just how technical the top of this route is. thanks Mike!</font id='Verdana'>

oaklandish

I didn't get a look at the top (above the notch) on Saturday 4/9 since I didn't get that far, but I read that a climber died attempting to gissade the upper section above the notch on Sunday 4/10. Second fatality there this year. Conditions in the couloir above 13,400' were very firm.

I don't get this glissade thing. They should re-name it, so the intention is more clear. Just call it "butt sliding with an axe". Or some term that suggests it's not a serious mountaineering technique in descending. Glissading may save time, but it is NOT obvious to some that you should be on low angle, soft snow that you can actually self arrest in.

Of course I have never been there when people got killed doing it, so what do I know. An elitist skier's attitude to be anti-glissade. But you have to know when to downclimb and when to butt slide. I stopped this guy about to glissade above Red Banks last year to ask if he had ever done what he was about to do. Of course the answer was no, and off he went. Crampons still on his feet, no clue how much braking the axe would give him. The snow was hard as a rock. I couldn't watch.

TeleK posted about this ski a few weeks ago calling it the Fisherman's Route. Anyone know why?

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

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="arial" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>

TeleK posted about this ski a few weeks ago calling it the Fisherman's Route. Anyone know why?

Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="arial" size=2 id=quote>

Whitney was called Fisherman's Peak before it was called Mt. Whitney.


"Residents of the Owens Valley wanted to name the mountain "Fisherman's Peak" to pay homage to the first summiters. When this name was challenged they proposed the name "Dome of Inyo". Over the next two years, the local newspaper published many articles arguing this issue. Finally a bill which would make "Fisherman's Peak" the official name was introduce d in the State Legislature. A strange twist of fate bought the bill before the Senate on April Fools Day, 1881, where they frivolously amended it to read "Fowler's Peak." The Governor ended the silliness by vetoing the bill, and so today the original name stands: Mount Whitney."