February 17th, 2007
Mount Rose Step - New turns and New company on the shore to the North
Joe, Ron and Ed
I've been meaning to make it to the North shore to take a tour with Ron for the last year. We have a couple of things in common; avid backcountry skiers, and a victorious battle with cancer. What better elements could bring a couple of folks together for a day of turns in the Sierra sun? And to make the outing even more special, Ron said Ed Willis was going to join us, and be the tour guide. Combined, Ron and Ed have about 145 years between them (Ron in his 60's, Ed in his 70's). If this was all you knew about these two, you would think our itinerary would consist of a flat cross country ski in Tahoe Meadows. Well......it was far from that type of fragile experience. These guys took me through every type of difficult snow condition, bush whacked through thick aspens, climbed and descended 2,700', skied boot deep powder, boot deep slop, and I swear their boots never stopped moving. I was impressed, humbled and in awe. I can only hope to be in their condition when I'm approaching their age. You Guys Rock!
First view from our starting point was not promising. Mount Rose (fortunately NOT the side we skinned and skied):
View towards Relay Peak. Great terrain and snow back there.
We followed Ed down the first 500' of breakable crust. Things would improve.
We crossed Galena Creek and headed for the East side of Rose:
After Galena Creek, things got whacky:
Then they got thin, but Ed led on:
We reached consistent snow at about 8,500':
Ed says he only doesn't ski if the skinning is bad. Which pretty much means he's out there just about every day. He's the most passionate person I've ever met about our great passion, and has volumes of knowledge he's willing to share.
Someone once said there are two types of Sierra backcountry skiers:
Those who have skied with Ed, and those who have not skied with Ed, yet.
Ron lives on the branch of Washoe Lake on the left side of the picture. Pretty good view of his casa, over a mile below:
We topped out on Rose Step (around 10,000') after 2,000' of climbing. The skiing above here would have been wind scoured and brutal. We changed over here for the descent:
Ed - aka olemonski:
Ron - aka Quadzilla:
Ed shared some of his vast knowledge about the various treats in his candy store:
From this point I took several pictures that I stitched into a panorama - Lots of good skiing here:
Time to drop in. Fortunately good snow awaited us. Our tree run lies directly below, Galena residential area seen way below:
Ed:
Ron:
I had to force myself out of the fall line to start the right hand traverse back to the saddle. But then we found this at our feet, and above the saddle. Powder and then corn.....well, maybe porn:
Ed lays first tracks in a cool little gully:
Ed and his art:
Ron follows:
I wonder if Ed's thinking, "Come on, you're messing up my art!"....I would mess it up further a few minutes later.
We eventually found our original skin track and knew we were on the right track back:
Ed and Ron crossing Galena Creek at the right spot:
A small part of our route (Red is Ascent, Blue is Descent). Most of the descent is out of view beyond the right hand ridge:
Thanks for the awesome day in your Candy Store guys!
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