May 14, 2005
Dunderberg to Green Creek Car Shuttle - Winter to Summer in 4 days (what happened to Spring?)
Joe, Tony
A View of Most of our Route From Dunderberg to the Green Creek Couloir (Kavenaugh Ridge) - 5/14/05
From the first time Tony and I slogged around in the lower half of the Green Creek couloir on a stormy Spring day in 2000, we had vowed to return to ski the whole line. Opportunity arose in April of 2004 when we hooked up with Gary, Toby, Kelly, Ron and about 3 others to climb up the gut of the 3,000'+ beauty of a line and then rip it all apart on the straight-as-an-arrow fall line descent. It was a great trip and we had stellar corn from top to bottom. Here's a tidy little group of pictures from that sweet day:
Despite that epic descent, Tony and I were still not satisfied and craved even more Green Creek action. When we reached the summit of the Green Creek Couloir that glorious morning, we were afforded a striking view of the north face of Dunderberg Peak to the south. A long and aesthetic chute led through the north facing cliff bands just below the summit. The only expanse of land separating us from this Dunderberg treat was a long and broad ridge (i.e. easily traversed) connecting the base of the Dunderberg Chute to the top of the Green Creek couloir. We both agreed a car shuttle would be the only way to satiate this newly discovered desire. Here's the picture that inspired us from the top of the Green Creek Couloir in April of 2004:
So Tony and I made good on our promise from a year ago and sought some soul therapy on the sunny Spring slopes of the great Eastside. The car shuttle started with a meeting at the bottom of Monitor Pass and 395 at 5:30 AM. We both had to drive the whole distance for car shuttle purposes. The below pictures show both Dunderberg and the Green Creek Couloir looming in the background. These peaks are pretty damn motivating when they stare through your windshield at you incessantly for the final half hour of the drive. We were prepared to have to park prior to reaching the Green Creek campground due to lingering snow. It was a welcome sight to see that a snowplow had put in the effort to plow the last couple of miles to the campground. Probably for the fishermen, but we'll take it!
Prior to the trip I had imagined the traverse from the bottom of the Dunderberg North Couloir to the top of the Green Creek Couloir as a relatively short push and stride. When I saw the view of our route (above) from the grade up to Conway Summit, I began to feel I had underestimated this middle leg.
The view of the top half of the Green Creek Couloir (left) from the drop off point of Tony's car. That thing is 3,000'+ of direct fall line fun.
We were amazed at how warm the temperatures were at Virginia Lakes at 8:00 AM. The sky was a perfect blue with a few floater clouds to the Southeast. There wasn't a breath of wind in the air all day. It was HOT as soon as we started skinning up the wide open southeast facing slopes of Dunderberg:
After a couple of hours of skinning and 2,800 feet of vertical, we reached the East summit of Dunderberg (~12,300'). It turned out another group of skiers from Truckee and Bridgeport were doing the same car shuttle as us. We hung with them on both summits, skied both lines amongst them and enjoyed a few beers in the parking lot at the end of the long day. From the East summit we had to cross a long saddle and climb to the West (and true) summit (12,378') to start our descent down the north couloir.
West Summit from the East Summit: Tele dudes from Truckee / Bridgeport:
From the West summit we scoped many more sumptuous peaks and potential descents, including the one right below our feet that we had come all this way to ski:
What's up with the summit couloir on North Peak? North Couloir on Dunderberg:
A little bit of food, rest and tourist photo snapping and we were off to ski that untracked couloir before the others nabbed it first.
I took the honors of first tracks. The snow was quite a bit mankier than I had expected. No problem - just lean it back a little and tail gun them turns! It was a beautiful, fun, wide and aesthetic line. I stopped halfway down and snapped a few shots of Tele Tony bringing it down:
The snow was thick and unconsolidated from the recent rapid warming. Only 4 days earlier it was all winter snow up there. It had changed from cold winter storms to warm summer temperatures way too quick. After Tony stopped skiing the first pitch a series of large rollerballs bounced down the fall line past us. We enjoyed more steep turns and then exited the chute for another 500' of wide open slush cruising down to the flats where we would skin up again.
The Rolling Snows: 1,100 feet of fun:
Looking towards the top of the Green Creek Couloir: One down, one to go:
Looking back towards the upper portion of the couloir. For size and scale, notice the skier (small dot) in the chute just below the top summit cliffs.
The skin across Kavanaugh Ridge to the top of the Green Creek couloir was indeed longer than I had expected. It was another long section of work in the warm sun with radiant snow pack below us. The surroundings were amazing as we felt especially tiny on this vast tilted high desert plane. Before long we were at the top of the GC couloir.
We lounged and snacked some more; feeling good that all of the uphill work was behind us, and 3,300' of descent lie below:
Green Creek was super mush on the North and East facing aspects, but was money on the West. Fortunately this super gully allows one to ski any one of these three aspects they choose. A thin surface slide had cleansed the mank out of the center of the couloir from top to bottom, making for nice corn-like skiing straight down the gut. The slide debris deposit pile on the apron looked like the largest collection of frozen bowling balls I had ever seen.
Tony and 2,500' of perfect fall line:
Pictures of me by Tony:
Debris Pile at the Bottom: Coooool Green Creek Crossing:
The Great Green Creek Couloir:
Two cars, 3,000' of climbing, 4,500' of skiing, a few beers, another great time with Tony......soul therapy was accomplished.
All that remained was my usual Eastside return drive over Monitor Pass to home:
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