Lean Winter Ski Conditions -

This year I got my season ski pass for Heavenly Ski Resort down in South Lake Tahoe. Tim Weigel, Shasta Ferranto and myself have teemed up to make up the tele mafia at Heavenly. There really aren't too many other tele skiers on the mountain so we're probably quite noticeable. I think this has been one of the leanest snow years for the Sierra Nevada on record. Certainly it is way below last year. As a result most of the skiing is pretty restricted to groomed runs with snowmaking, and this February! Actually, we did score a few decent tree shots but that was just after New Years.

My goal for the season is to get comfortable skiing moguls on tele skis. The rationale is that moguls will force me to be quick on my feet as well as force me to ski the fall line. Hopefully these two traits will come in handy in the woods and on the steeps. To date I've clocked 11 ski days this season, although some days were on alpine skis and not every day has been a full day.

Mount Shasta -

Mount Shasta simply dominates northern California. When I was moving to Reno in August 2005 I drove Highway 97 through Central Oregon and noticed a massive white mountain off in the distance. That vantage was from north of Klammath Lake over 50 miles away. Mount Shasta is big, beautiful, and covered with real glaciers. It is truly impressive. Naturally, I wanted to climb the mountain as soon as possible.

The first opportunity came during New Years 2005/2006 when Sean Bemis, Chris "Cri" Boratenski, and myself planned a winter ski trip to the mountain. Chris's fiancee Julia joined us, as did Jarrod and Sam Decker. On this first trip we were weathered out in a big way. Several feet of snow fell on the mountain. Julia, Sam, and Jarrod had to leave early and ended up getting stuck on the drive down the mountain. Meanwhile, Sean, Cri, and myself were sitting by the heater in Sean's van drying out before returning to Horse Camp. We did end up enjoying some good skiing on that and the trip that followed in March, however, the summit continued to beckon.

With Sean off doing geology fieldwork over the summer, Cri and I planned a summit attempt of our own in June. This would be my third attempt and Cri's fourth. We met up in San Fran on a Friday and drove up to the mountain during the evening only to find the parking lot packed. At about 9:30 pm we showed up at Horse Camp, pitched our tent, cooked dinner, and prepared for the 1:00 am start. Both of us forgot cameras so we took photos with Cri's cell phone.

That morning we awoke to several other parties with loud voices and loud footsteps within a few feet of our tent. We quickly mobilized by strapping on the skis and heading up the mountain in the dark. Dawn hit as we were ascending the headwall of the Avalanche Gulch route with a hundred other people. We stashed the skis and continued up past the Red Bank and up Misery Hill. Eventually we reached the summit just in time for the clouds to clear out and the winds to die down. Fortunately for me I felt no effects of altitude on this climb as I had on Mt. Whitney. We took it easy on the summit and on the descent we even caught a brief snooze on the lee side of a rock bank.

The ski descent down the lower mountain was simply amazing. The snow was perfect powder. We were happy that we had brought the skis, but at the same time we were glad that we hadn't hauled our skis to the summit where the snow was boilerplate crust. Everything on this trip had worked out quite well.

Hopefully, some future trips to the mountain will include ascents of the West Face route and the north side routes. Shasta is the perfect halfway point for Sean, Cri, and myself, since Sean is living in Eugene, Cri in San Francisco, and I'm living in Reno.

-Tom

Link to SummitPost for route info:
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150188/mount-shasta.html

Mount Whitney -

One of the first mountains that I wanted to climb upon moving to Reno was Mount Whitney. At 14,496 feet it is the highest in the lower-forty eight states. Also, it would be the highest elevation that my body had ever ascended to. Dave Walker, who is a fellow graduate student in geography at UNR, suggested climbing the peak. Neither of us wanted to deal with the crowds or the quota system that is imposed upon hikers during the summer months so we opted to climb the peak in January, 2006. This also gave us the opportunity to do a little bit of telemark skiing on the descent from base camp.

We left Reno for Lone Pine, California and stayed the night in a BLM campground near the Whitney Portal road. That is Dave in the photo with the Whitney Portal road ascending the hill behind him. That night we were rocked by strong winds but awoke to improved conditions.

Our climb began a little before the trailhead since the road is closed in winter. That day we ascended to trail camp, at 12,039 feet and pitched our camp. At -10 F it felt just like an Alaskan climb. We pitched our tent in the lee of an outhouse for protection from the wind.

The following morning we awoke to conditions that couldn't be better and went for a summit attempt. The morning sun barely poked its head over the mountains to the southeast, but gave us a jolt of energy. We put our skis on and headed for the col where the summer hiking trail reaches trail crest at 13,777.
The ridgeline teated us to gorgeous views of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park to the west and vast areas of wilderness. In January there were no other people around to disturb our solitude apart from the military fighter jets that buzzed overhead ever 5 to 10 minutes. I have to admit that low flying aircraft truly is one of the biggest impositions on one's wilderness experience. Nonetheless, there would be no wilderness experience in the summer due to the crowds, so I suppose that we were fortunate in that regard.

Trail ridge is where I began to feel the effects of altitude. My body had never been that high before and such a lengthy traverse at that altitude had me slowing to a crawl. We proceeded up the amount, albeit slowly. Not once did we have to don crampons, however I certainly was glad to have an ice ax in my hand. Although non-technical the route had several sections where a fall could have resulted in injury.

At the end of the day we reached the stone hut on the summit. We didn't have much time to linger, however, and quickly started on the descent. We hurried as quickly as we could at that altitude along the traverse but darkness caught us by the time we reached our skis and we were forced to ski down in the dark. I lost a skin on the descent, which I didn't discover until too late. We were tired and exhausted, but where was the tent? The tent and the outhouse were tucked away amongst the rocks and in the darkness everything looked alike. After over an hour of searching we found the tent and cooked ourselves dinner.

The next morning Dave and I set out looking for my lost ski skin, but to know avail. We shoved off from camp with loaded packs and skied down to the trailhead. The conditions above treeline were horrendous. Wind blown crust alternated with small pockets of powder. Once we dipped below treeline conditions improved and the skiing was remarkable. Finally, the trail narrowed into a thick forest canopy where the surface was littered with branches and needles. These conditions proved tricky. Around noon we returned to the car, took a look back at the peak, and counted ourselves lucky. What a great climb!

-Tom

Link to summitpost for route information: http://www.summitpost.org/route/156374/whitney-trail.html