February 12, 2005
Trimmer Peak - 8" of Bliss in the Carson Range
Joe, Toby, Kyle, Chad, Buddy and Chile Dog
Trimmer Peak Slide Paths from the top of "2nd Shot"
After a great introduction to Trimmer Peak from Bob Larsen and company on January 16th, I was thrilled to hear Toby, Kyle and Chad were planning a trip up there on Saturday morning. Toby and I had bounced around the idea of skiing the Fallen Angel / Hidden Chutes off of Angora Peak, but a surprisingly nice 8" storm left the steep slopes sluffing, and made Trimmer appear as the better alternative. A fresh blanket of snow, blue skies and wind free summits gave this day that great Sierra winter vibe.
We parked at the end of the High Meadows residential tract and skinned our way up the access road for a mile or two. Trimmer does not see a lot of traffic. It is still a bit of an unknown, but the long flat approach also deters lots of folks. Chad, Toby and I had been up the peak on separate and very different trips. I was the most knowledgeable due to the Bob Larsen guided tour, so I gave out directions to the best of my recollection. This worked fine until the climb steepened; where upon this speedy trio left me far behind in their wake.
All in all we made pretty good time to the top of the avalanche paths. Kyle (who was celebrating his 27th birthday on this fine day) decided to continue the ascent up and through the eroded granite knobs and brushy trees. After some "challenging" skinning we reached a ridge crest.
We scrambled up a granite ridge and sat perched above some perilous cliffs looking east and south towards Monument Peak (backside of Heavenly), Monument Pass, High Meadows, Jobs Sister, Freel Peak and the true Trimmer Peak summit.
Vast views form the top of Trimmer:
After some snacking and discussion of the very sweet lines spilling off of the Trimmer ridge towards High Meadows (see above) we felt it was time to ski. We traversed over the east ridge, and then reemerged above the slide paths on top of a short chute. Birthday boy shot through it first, followed by Chad, Toby and then myself.
Kyle:
Chad:
Toby:
After a dozen very enjoyable turns in the light and dry snow of the looker's right slide path, we traversed through the trees to see how things were shaping up in the looker's left slide path. Although this path is shorter, the fall line is more consistent and has less trees (it was caused by a more recent slide - in the 80's I was told). All was good in the looker's left.
Chad:
Chad was linking some great turns in the pow up until the point when Chile Dog (his energetic, yet not quite used to downhill skiing, wonder dog) leaped into his line, causing an outrageous collision and tumble - the beginning of which I captured in the 4th picture of the series above. Fortunately, both came away from the rinse cycle episode uninjured. And although it was not the ideal way to teach Chile Dog the lesson, she did spend the rest of the day keeping her proper distance from those sharp and shiny ski edges.
Kyle - with a spirit to match his neon pink Bud Light hat:
I missed most of Toby's long and endless turns down the slide path, but here's a few from the bottom:
Chad was finishing up his run nicely, when the Hat of the Day came in close from the sidelines, with feeling:
After our long and dreamy run down the looker's left path, we skinned back up for the short, but leg wasting, climb to the top of the 2nd shot. This is the little ridge between the High Meadow access road and Trimmer. It offered an extra 1,000' of very nice tree skiing, survival skiing, bush whacking and alder hacking down to the road. Although I didn't take any pictures of the skiing. I was fortunate enough to capture Toby and Kyle making a proper entry huck off a perched boulder.
Toby:
Kyle's turn:
We skated, strided and poled our way out the road in Spring like temperatures. Kyle claimed his waxless skis were slowing him down, and was given instructions from Chad on how to utilize Chile's energy to do a little skijoring.
Another great day spent in the Sierra's. We only met one other group on the lower flanks of Trimmer all day. It's amazing how quiet this bustling tourist town is just 100 yards off the roads.
