December 31, 2004
Powderhouse - New Year's Eve Epic
Joe, Toby
Unbelievably deep powder closed out 2004 on Powderhouse Peak - 12/31/04
Forecasts and expectations were ambitious for the 2004 New Years storms. After 3 weeks of firm snow and dry skies, we were cautiously optimistic about the meteorologist's predictions of 4' to 6' of new snow above 7,000'. Turned out the weather men were wrong, again. Only this time they had underestimated the snowfall. The first wave of storms rolled through Tahoe on Tuesday, dumping a surprising 1'-0" to 1'-6" in the upper elevations. Toby and I confirmed these accumulations ourselves Wednesday morning as reported here. Wednesday continued to pile up another 6" - 12" throughout the day. Thursday is when it took a turn for the incredible. From Thursday morning to Friday morning a full 4' of snow fell at my house in Meyers. The upper elevations received at least 5' - 6'. It continued to snow Friday morning, but faded to showers and eventually to broken blue skies. It was shaping up to be an epic New Years eve with a staggering 8'+ of new snow awaiting.
After some epic snowblowing and tourist dodging, Toby and I discussed whether there was actually too much snow to go out. All of the south shore ski resorts were unable to open until mid day due to the heavy snows, road closures, avie control, etc. But the sunny skies had there way with us and we finally decided to follow our instincts and hit the old faithful - Powderhouse. We hoped our late start would allow others to bust in the skin track, saving us from the arduous work of breaking trail in 6' of new snow. We also knew that Powderhouse would be the most wind protected peak around the south shore, thus the safest, yet steep, backcountry option.
Before I could even consider heading out to ski, I had to put in some quality time behind the snow blower. As you can see, the snow in the driveway was deeper than the blower bucket. And that snow was only dumped in the last 12 hours!
Powderhouse Parking
Parking at Luther Pass was limited, to say the least. The plows were barely able to make Luther a 2 lane road, much less provide a decent shoulder for parking. I plowed my way into the berm and felt fairly comfortable I was far enough off the road. When Toby and I returned 4 hours later, the plows had carved out the berms on both sides of my truck and wedged us into the remaining snow. A little digging and we were out.
Powderhouse and the sun loom above, calling us to celebrate the ending of a fabulous year.
The day was filled with a series of great moments. The first and most important being the HUGE accumulation of snow in the last couple of days. The second great moment occurred when we spotted the skin track punched in the deep snow headed towards the fluffy flanks of Pow House. We were quite thrilled to follow someone else's track and not have to break trail in the super deep ourselves. To the guys who broke trail: "May big doses of good karma follow you forever!"
Fields of Pow
As we neared the summit, our anticipation grew even stronger to float down through the powder. With scenes like this passing by us for the last hour of skinning, how could one avoid becoming giddy with excitement?
Some shots of the beautiful post storm landscape we gazed upon near the summit. The only wind affected slopes we encountered were at the tippy top
Brittany and Boyfriend
I ran into an old friend from wayback, Brittany Beggs, in the parking lot and then again on the summit. Sorry I can't remember her boyfriend's name.
After de-skinning, layering up, eating and drinking a bit; it was time for Toby and I to partake in our best run of the year. We set off into the trees, far to the skiers right. Toby:
The snow was DEEP. The slope had to be fairly steep to gain enough momentum to make decent turns. We leaned it back just a bit and floated freely, arcing into knee to thigh deep submersions every turn. We didn't leave tracks, we left troughs. Floating above and flowing through the whiteness was a surreal experience. Here's a series of shots of Toby enjoying the hefty girth of his Explosivs:
It was so damn good, we had no choice but to take another lap. We skinned up to the glowing summit once again. It was now after 3:00 PM and the next wave of storms was making it's way towards us from the West. The temperature was cold, the legs were worked, and we knew we were sitting in the catbird seat. We ran into a few other folks on the summit and pondered all the new tracks since our last run. This time we opted to enter the float zone on skiers left of the tracks. We had a bit of a traverse to do to get there, but it was well worth it once we found the untouched glades. And, the second run may have been even better than the first. Toby with Echo Summit and Christmas Valley as a backdrdop:
We cruised the skin track back down to the truck, where we found at least 15 other vehicles plowed into the banks of Highway 89. After the required shoveling, we were on the road and and home by 4:30......right when we told our pregnant wives we would be. Let's hope 2005 starts as well as 2004 ended!
Click the links below for other Waterhouse and Powderhouse Dawn Patrol Images:
Waterhouse Dawn Patrol - 11/16/04
Powderhouse Dawn Patrol - 11/28/04
Powderhouse Dawn Patrol - 12/2/04
Powderhouse Dawn Patrol - 12/29/04