January 20, 2007
The High Meadows Horseshoe - Heavenly, Freel, Frimmer and Trimmer
Joe, Toby, Kyle and Brennan
Toby testing the cleaned up knee on steep wind pack on Freel Peak - 1/20/07
Bored with the same old same old, we opted to put ourselves through a sufferfest on this dry Saturday in January. We took advantage of our Heavenly passes and did the first 3,000' of climbing the easy way. And that's where the easy ended. We skied beautiful breakable crust (without blowing out a knee!) down to Monument Pass and then snowplowed to High Meadows. Skinned from High Meadows to the ridge below Jobs Sister where a field of Quartz crystals offered some kind of point of interest to our weary minds. We continued around the rim of the high bowl (wishing we had crampons) to the base of Freel. Climbed the frozen Summer trail to Tahoe's high point, took pictures, ate, froze and then begrudgingly began our epic descent. Distracted by frozen waves of wind rippled snow and rock, we missed the Q-tip on Freel, but found a very nice line right next door that was mostly snow. We skinned up again at the bottom, passing Freel Pass to the high point on the ridge between Freel and Trimmer.....thus Frimmer. Skied some worthy steep lines in there, some with powder some with everything but powder. Skinned up again, and followed Kyle's blazing trail to the top of the Trimmer slide paths (the 11's). On weary legs we made a very rewarding descent down the aging but fun powder. One helluva bushwhacking traverse ensued until we found more turns on 6" of snow over forest floor. Finally we found the Power Lines which led to the road which led to the obligatory Hannenkam race back to the waiting car at High Meadows. According to Toby it was 7,600' of descent, 4,500' of climbing, 8 hours total and countless energy sapping miles. Here's the photogs.
Out of Bounds:
What caught our eye:
following the power lines from Monument Pass to High Meadows and still smiling:
Heavenly is having a HUGE snow year:
Freel. Looking Waaaay out there:
It's not frozen rock, it's quartz and lots of crystals:
The only thing shinier than the crystals was the Freel bowl behind Toby:
The 2nd half of our day was in view:
Where's Erkala?
Summit views:
still smiling:
My house is right.....here.
Toby insisted on first tracks, no one objected.
Kyle searching for I'm not sure what.
Brennan fines the right line:
Toby follows:
Really cool line, once inside:
Mostly snow:
Brennan:
Kyle:
Toby:
The line:
After admiring our tracks (which were totally invisible) we headed up for leg #2 - The steeps of Frimmer
Our future objective lies behind Toby:
Kyle spied a line:
It was good!
Kyle:
Toby:
Brennan:
Lots of good skiing to be done out here.
Now for leg #3 - up to the Trimmer slide paths.
Closing the Horse Shoe - the Monument Pass power line below Heavenly - where it all started 7 hours earlier.
Finally time for the last kind descent, with the best snow of the day.
Kyle:
fiddling with tele bindings that only release when you don't want them to.
Toby:
It's me:
Wow, a sunset already.
Snow is thin, but power lines mean we are close to the car.
The start of the Hannenkam.
Here are a few marked up photos with our routes - ascent is in red, descent is in blue. If you were to look at our route on a map it is the shape of a Horseshoe with High Meadows in the center....thus the High Meadows Horseshoe tour.
Please send fresh snow soon. We are still starving and don't know how much longer we can hold on.
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