6/15/2011 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 6/16/2011, By: One Sierra Charlie Info: I climbed the NW Couloir, skied the Dead Dog, lapped back around and skied out on the Tuning Fork. The snow climb is is continuous from the creek to the summit and is in perfect shape. The Dead Dog is in from the summit and is covered with nice, sweet corn. There is a DEEP runnel on the lower section, but you can avoid it. I would only ski (or climb) this route early (before 9:00 AM say) and after a good freeze overnight. The upper sections of theTuning Fork and especially the Emperor contain a very corrugated surface, which did not soften by mid day today. The lower 1/3rd of the Tuning fork was nice corn snow however. A continuous ski descent is not possible via either the Tuning Fork, or via the Grays/Torreys Saddle. |
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6/11/2011 Route: Dead Dog Couloir Posted On: 6/13/2011, By: plasticman Info: Parking begins about 1 to 1.5 miles from Summer trail head. Road has seen great improvements- there is a lot of fallen stone on the road- passable by car but you may have to move some to pull off for another vehicle to pass. Skinned from the car to the base of Dead Dog- any carry sections were for less than 5 minutes. Took the elevator to the summit- be off and out of this before 9am unless you like torture. Saw no rockfall. Only saw 1 small natural sluff go on the right side of the couloir- it was very small and would have barely knocked a squirrel over. Couloir is not in great shape for a great ski descent- lots of runnels and peppered with rockfall in the slop- but you can go top to bottom. Expect a lot of snow coverage on the summer route through 4th of July weekend. |
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6/5/2011 Route: Dead Dog Couloir Posted On: 6/5/2011, By: Nelson Info: I climbed Dead Dog today. The snow was soft and travel was slow. I camped at the trailhead and it took me 3:45 to summit. I was expecting something closer to 3 hrs. The couloir is full of avalanche debris and glissade tracks. The skiing did not look like it would be good so I skied the North Bowl between Grays and Torreys. That was one on the best corn runs I have ever had. I started skiing about 9:15. |
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4/8/2011 Route: Kelso Ridge Posted On: 4/8/2011, By: jimmtman Info: Winter closure at Bakerville in effect. Snow general firm on the approach in the AM - by mid PM today it was warm and the snow was soft and snow shoes were helpful. Kelso ridge by 9 AM today was soft and resulted in lots of sinking to the knee or waist. This made climbing on the rocks preferred over the snow. I believe there was some new snow this week and perhaps this contributed to the less than great snow conditions. The snow was firmer on Gray's and the regular route on Torrey's from Grays even by mid day on the descent. |
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11/21/2010 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 11/22/2010, By: RobertPetrowsky Info: I climbed Sniktau and had a good view of the tuning fork. I thought I would try out the new conditions page and see how this works. The winds above loveland pass are pretty intense. Almost all of the snow on the north faces and west ridge has been stripped off and deposited closer to tree line. The top of the tuning fork was almost completely stripped out by wind. You could climb this peak relatively safely from Loveland right now. Everything to the north of the pass is completely covered outside of the usual windblown areas of Bard and Parnassus. I didn't get a chance to check any of the snowpack that was on the east slopes of Sniktau but judging by the faceting I found along the edge of the cornice the snow could be very unstable for some time. |
