April 9-10, 2005
Horse Creek Peak and Dana Plateau
Joe, Toby, Chris, Rich, Dan & Buddy
Part 1 - April 9, 2005 - Horse Creek Peak - Sawtooth Range of the Eastern Sierras
Toby and Buddy straight lining towards our objective - Horse Creek Peak
I'm a lucky guy to live in South Lake Tahoe where I have several fabulous ski stashes within 10 minutes of my house. However, when I dream of my ultimate ski day (which I do quite often), my mind travels south to where the great Range of Light meets the arid desert floor - The Eastside of the Sierras. It's a setting of contrast; towering snow cloaked granite walls merging with warm, dry and stark desert floors rolling eastward in the shadows. The vertical relief reaches 2 miles in places along this monstrous and dramatic escarpment. One can gaze from the heated sage filled foothills up to these great wintry glowing shrines in the sky. Shrines made of walls born from great powerful continental plates colliding and rising. Where wind, snow, ice and water have slowly and deeply carved wrinkles into the solid granite faces. It's where these wrinkles fill with snow and run from the forehead down to the chin, that we seek to test ourselves among the faces of giants.
This weekend was our first of several trips to rejoice with the big brothers down south, shrouded in heavy jackets of a long winter's snow. It was my only multi-day trip of the year, and ended up as one of the best ventures I've ever had down to the grand Eastside. Chris, Toby and I had a blast just planning this epic trip. We decided to spend our first day in the Sawtooth area, just outside of Bridgeport. This is the northernmost section of the High Sierra's, and only 2 hours from the South Shore. We figured we would camp that night and then hit up one of many other roadside options between Bridgeport and Mammoth on Sunday. Rich Steele was also set to meet us for our tour up Horse Creek Canyon. Rich's plan involved an overnight camp at Horse Creek Pass and then a solo venture to the remote North side of Whorl Peak. It was enticing, but the 3 of us where geared up for car camping and big descents, not heavy packs and 10,000' bivouacs.
Fortunate for us the weather came together nicely for the weekend. On Friday, the Sierras were blasted with yet another perfect 12" cold storm. The new layer seemed to follow the somewhat typical Sierra pattern by settling to a safe and stable soft base within 24 hours after the storm. Our 5:00 AM Saturday morning departure was made under cold and starry skis, with the excitement of kids headed to Santa's pad at the North Pole.
Arrival at the frozen Upper Twin Lake: The colorful Rich Steele outside of his hotel room:
Mt Walt (left) is one of the many fine Sawtooth peaks in "the book". A few weeks later Gary, Bob and I would return to ski the south east facing chutes off of the subpeak to Mt. Walt (on the right, in the sun). I plan on skiing the Sawtooth area heavily over the next couple of years. There are many nooks and crannies in this high alpine playground residing only 2 hours from my house. Behind Mt. Walt is an amazingly sweet looking line adjacent to the Incredible Hulk. It's one of those lines that I haven't been able to forget since the first time I saw a picture of it snaking down the side of the massive vertical wall of the Hulk. This northern end of the Sawtooths (Blacksmith and Little Slide Canyons) seems to be seldom visited, yet is still very accessible and very worthy.
From Upper Twin Lake and the sprawl of Mono Village, we headed up towards Horse Creek Canyon. We were elated by the quality of the new light and dry snow hanging in the trees and parting in a wake from our eager ski tips. From the top of the bench we were heavily distracted with the stellar views of the freshly draped Sawtooth peaks amongst fractured blue skies and remnant storm clouds. This day afforded some of the finest views and photographic opportunities I've ever experienced in the mountains.
Stoked!
BCRider: Steeleman:
A random ridge with opportunities near the bench: Matterhorn and the Dragtooth and the clouds:
Rich and the Twins Peaks playground: Toby, Buddy and pyramidal Horse Creek Peak:
Our day's objective; Horse Creek Peak. We skied the big couloir just to the right of the big cliff face. We then proceeded to lay tracks all around the rock bands and open bowls directly below the main cliff face:
The skinning from the bench to Horse Creek Pass was quite easy compared to the loose rock scramble required during the summer months. My memory of an arduous trip up to Horse Creek Pass was fresh from the previous summer's trip with Uncle Jack. Today was much different, easier and just as beautiful:
Myself, Buddy and Toby nearing Horse Creek Pass:
At Horse Creek Pass, things grew chilly. We regrouped, ate, rested and prepared for the last push to the top of the Horse Creek Peak Couloir.
Rich dumped his gear at Horse Creek Pass in a suitable location for an overnight abode. We gazed up at Whorl Peak where Rich had planned to climb and ski. Doesn't look like an easy solo venture to me:
Rich verifies the altitude & his subsequent exhaustion: Whorl Peak - Sweet climb from last summer:
Whorl Peak
Summer: Winter:
Chris, Toby, Buddy and I moved onward and upward to the top of the Horse Creek Peak Couloir. Once at the top we were blasted by steady north winds. What once had been a broken blue sky was quickly becoming a veil of clouds. We waited around for some good light and poised ourselves to dive in as soon as visibility was good:
Toby breaks trail like a Bombardier snowcat. I would do it more often if I could maintain his pace. I think the real reason he's always out there ahead of us is because he knows he'll get first tracks on the way down if he puts the work in on the way up. Below are the best series of pictures I've ever taken, in my life!
Toby and Buddy ripping the Horse Creek Couloir:
One of the sweetest lines I've seen skied by a dude and his dog - Buddy is a bad ass! The deep cold pow was otherworldly and amazing. I went second and tried to leave a little room for Chris to grab some untracked, but unfortunately laid a full body smear in the middle of the chute. Most of the run was damn fine cold and deep Sierra Sweetness:
Me:
Me: Chris:
Here's a picture of our daily work:
Like I said above, we moved onto the rock bands and bowls below Horse Creek Peak for our next session.
Chris:
Toby and Buddy:
A day's work in the temple of our gods (Fall line was skewed for us due to the flat light):
Then the light became really flat. So I put the camera away while we skinned up another litte ridge and skied more epic powder below the Petit Capucin. After the long push across the Horse Creek meadow flats, we made more sweet turns in the porn snow from the bench down to Mono Village. Here's a couple of shots of Chris ripping it up with poles, a la his skiing brethren:
After 4,000' of Sierra kindness, our bodies needed a good soaking. Travertine hot springs just east of Bridgeport did the job nicely. Especially with this view from the steaming tubs:
Our day finished with a pizza from Giovanni's in Mammoth and a comfortable floor to crash on at Dan's pad. Dana Plateau was our playground of choice for the next day.
Click here for part #2 of our Roadie - 4/10/05 - Dana Plateau
Click this link to check out another one of Chris's amazing videos with plenty of footage from this sweet day:
Backcountry Files