April 22nd and 23rd, 2006
Skiing Across Desolation - Hwy 50 to Emerald Bay
Joe and Rich
Day #2 - Sunday, 4/23/06 - Aloha Lake Snow Cave to Jacks to Dicks to Maggies to Emerald Bay
So the next morning we awoke to milky skies and another world of white. No bluebird days for us on this trip. But the clouds did keep us cool which is nice since the April sun in the high country can inflict a beating on a skier. We briefly discussed hitting Price in the morning, but realized we probably had as much as we needed just getting out to Emerald Bay over the top of 3 peaks (Dicks, Jacks and Maggies) and many, many miles of rolling terrain in between.
Looking across Aloha towards the base of Price. Not really an appealing mountain in flat light.
Northward it was.
As we climbed up the base of Jacks the clouds parted to give us a nice view of Aloha and the fat Crystal Range.
Then super duper Cracked Crag showed up. Legit steepness there.
After passing the lower slopes of Jacks, the summit appeared not far above.
An absolute world of white in Desolation this Spring. Pyramid looking fierce with the north face fully filled in. A rarity for sure.
At the summit ridge on Jacks we got a partial view of Dicks, our next objective.
Rich on the final steps to the summit of Jacks.
Here I am ripping skins on the top of Jacks with Dicks in the background.
Rich was quite proud of how well his skins were gripping the snow.
Skiing off summit #2 - Jacks:
We picked up the pigs again and continued down the nice bowl leading to the base of Dicks:
Another great one.
At the base of the Dicks we switched gears for the climb and the skies opened up once again:
Rich with Jacks behind him.
Future endeavors on the ridge east of Jacks:
The sun reappeared briefly and you could see our tracks.
Why can't it shine while we are skiing?
My load.
Time to go up Dicks. This was a steep side hill traverse of a climb with exposure below us. If visibility was good, it would be cool because we could keep our dangers and goals in sight at all times. But of course the clouds closed in, and we found ourselves on this featureless steep face with about 20' of visibility and very little sense of direction other than knowing if we went too low we'd end up on top of cliffs, and if we climbed to steeply we would end up reaching the ridge in a very difficult and steep section surmount. To make sure our nerves were fully tested the bed surface of the snow was firm and required a hard edge set with each step. It was exhausting, stressful and fortunately incident free. Fortunate because we did not blindly fall off a cliff and we somehow reached the ridge crest at the one perfect location we were shooting for.
No pictures were taken during that ordeal, but this one pretty much expresses both of our moods when we finally reached the safety of the ridge:
With the clouds dumping on us once again we skin to the top of summit #3 - Dicks Peak.
Rich de-skinning at the summit of Dicks. I take a lot of pride in my strong sense of direction, but at this summit I was completely turned around due to the white out conditions. Fortunately we had our tracks to follow back down. But not for long, it was really puking up there!
Rich skiing off summit #3 - Dick's Peak.
Skiing the Dick's summit ridge in powder was awesome. Tight little rocky lines with pockets of powder filled in between them.
Me:
Rich:
it got snowier and deeper as we descended:
Rich obviously altered this picture of me on Dick's ridge to pick up the light that wasn't actually there. Nice pow, huh?
Since there is no sense of scenery in these shots, here is a picture from Rich's archives of Dick's ridge with frozen Dick's lake below. We skied down to Dick's lake then up to Maggie's Peak (tree covered summit just right of center) and then down to Emerald Bay.
It was more incredible powder skiing in the long bowl down to Dick's lake. Things cleared up just a little after we crossed the lake. Dick's Peak is back there somewhere:
From Dick's Lake it was a long rolling ski and skin to Maggie's Peaks:
There was still some skiing to do along the way:
The trek to Maggies went on forever. We had hauled these big ass packs up and over three big peaks, been stormed on, shined on, slept in a snow cave, climbed and skied dangerous terrain by brail, were tired, hungry and thirsty. But I knew we were truly having an epic when I looked back at Rich and saw "the stare".
Don't worry bro, I'm feeling it too. Summit #4 - Maggies:
So we rejoiced in the fact that we had nothing but downhill ahead of us to the Bay View trailhead and my waiting truck on Hwy 89. But that would not be, cause stare-master led us down the wrong side of Maggies and into Eagle Canyon. It was steep and fun, until we realized we had to skin back up it. It was pure hell, but Rich broke a mean trail and we made our way out. Then it was all downhill all the way to civilization.
Hell Yea!
The road was still closed, so we walked the last mile in our soggy boots to the campground gate.
We grabbed a couple tall boys to suck down at the local 7-11. Nothing like a quick hitting dehydrated buzz. We eventually arrived at Rich's car on Hwy 50. And the loop was complete.
Here's a partial view of our trip from the top of Ralston. The red X is our snow cave site.
- 2 days on skis
- 1 night in a snow cave
- 4 summits and descents:
- Ralston, Jacks, Dicks, Maggies
- Lotsa miles
- Lotsa stinky polyester to be washed
Awesome trip. I'd love to do it again with some sunshine.
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