February 23, 2008
Working the West Shore on Jakes
Joe, Toby
The West is the Best (?). Vista looking way North from top of Jakes
Toby and I broke our usual South shore routine and drove the entire 15 minutes past town to reach the base of Jakes on the West shore. Although the North shore folks claim this one as their own, I can't imagine that they can be there as fast as us, nor does the map show this peak to be anywhere near the North shore. But they do frequent Jakes a lot more than us, although that's mainly because they don't have any big mountains up North. But we were impressed by their no nonsense steep skin track and of course by the quality of the skiing and views. We ended up doing 3 laps and about 6,000 vertical feet in under 6 hours before the impending snow storm sent us home. I only took pictures of the summit views and our first lap down the East avalanche path. Nice light blower powder was served. And it was bottomless and full of face shots on the North facing slopes on runs #2 and #3. Good times!
The views from the summit:
What is this yummy face?
Southern Desolation. L to R: Tallac, Kalmia Ridge, Pyramid and Dicks
Up close of the seldom seen Northwest side of Tallac and Kalmia Ridge:
The drainage directly behind Toby is Mr. Toads.
Hell yea. Moment Skis!
Tahoe and Emerald Bay looking eerie and ink colored:
Another Tallac shot:
Toby dropping down into the Avy paths from the top:
Snow was not super stable, but it was very soft, unconsolidated and shallow where it moved. Looking back up at my tracks on the right, Toby on the left:
Pow Wow. Look at Buddy in the upper right:
There's Baldwin Beach in the background where we spend all Summer with the kids!
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