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A breezy but warm spring day provided us with rare gelato snow conditions from first run to last.

Joel prepares for the first run.

As usual, we met at 7:30 at Woolly Mammoth HH. Cathy, Phil, Joel, and Rob met Cheryl and me on a warm spring morning. We divvied up the people and gear between two cars, cruised up to Downieville, then on to the Pumphouse trailhead. We were surprised to find a couple inches of snow at the parking area, probably from a small storm on Thursday. After stepping into boots and unloading skis and poles and skinning up, we dashed across US 40 and clambered up the dirt embankment to the snow. 


Old tracks led us up the usual route by the gravel pit. We dodged the old collapse pits along the trail on a well-consolidated base with a couple inches of powder in places. We didn't expect powder on the open ridge as we saw the wind moving the powder off the high peaks on the way in.

Powder is on the move on the ridge.

As we cleared the trees and headed up the gentle nose of the ridge, we noted that the recent storm had smoothed over the rough snow surface, and the sun had already prepped the snow so it was soft enough to ski on our first run at 9:30. Usually we have to make one or two crust runs before the snow is ready, but today was prime skiing from start to end.


At the top, we saw several people had climbed the peak 12424t and were skiing the 40° slopes into the Pumphouse bowl. We stayed on lower ground.

Click the photo to zoom in and see the tracks
off the peak to the climbers left of the cornices.

Cathy and Phil get ready to make a run.

Joel is standing around waiting to make his run.

Phil and Rob de-skin for the run.

Here I demo the perfect tele-wedge technique.  Arghhh!

Before we knew it, we had done 4 runs with only a couple bites of lunch, and it was time to go to make sure the snow supported us on the way out. Pleas for compassion had us wait a couple minutes longer for the slow eaters who were expecting a formal lunch period. We headed down through the trees, dodging exposed ground and logs, and made it safely to the gravel pit, then to the pumphouse itself, and the car.


Stats: 4 runs / 4 hours / 1900' elevation gain.

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The day started cool, but eventually the sun warmed the slopes enough for some perfect spring corn.

Norm surveys the peaks at the top of Pumphouse ridge.

After seeing the weather reports early in the week, Dave asked for volunteers to take over his trip to Mayflower Gulch. Wishing to honor Dave's intended audience, I only changed the destination, trip description, meeting time, and rating. The usual suspects dropped off the trip, but John joined Cheryl, Norm, and me at the park and ride at 7:30. After a quick trip to Downieville, we were at the Pumphouse trailhead by 8:30. We had the parking to ourselves, and the snowbanks were melted off. Skies were clear, and we were feeling a bit chilly with 30° temperatures when compared to previous weeks in the 50's and 60's. It was nice to see the peaks all white again, after the brown look of the past few weeks.


We gathered up our gear and scampered across the highway to the trailhead. The exposed ground surface had increased in the past two weeks, but the snow at the top of the embankment was still within easy reach. We strapped on the skis and I steered the group towards the edge of the gravel pit to make it easier to find our way out at the end of the day. As backup, I had some GPS waypoints and an old track entered to mark my preferred route. The climb through the tight trees was disorienting, since things looked different with the declining snowpack. Following the GPS, the trees thinned and we soon came to some old tracks that coincided with the GPS track. In the trees was some remnant powder from Monday's 3" dusting, but mostly we found crust with some early sun softening. Emerging from the trees, the uptrack consisted of solid crust, but the surface was smooth due to infill from the early week storm. As we pushed up to the top of the ridge, the winds increased but never reached the predicted 30 mph sustained or 55 mph gusts. 

John and Cheryl climb the uptrack with the highway and Mines Peak in the background.

At the top, we found crust with a roughened surface due to differential melting. After thinking to wait for softening, we instead decided to make a run while waiting. The rough snow was hard to edge and turn in. I reverted to snowplow turns, dropping into parallel when possible.  Below the clump of trees where we often stop, the slope opened up and got smoother. We veered right for the SE facing slope, but it wasn't soft yet either. However, it was smoother making for easier turns. Norm commented later that the run got better after giving up on the idea of making telemark turns. At the bottom, we skinned up and climbed up to near the top.

Cheryl skirts the exposed ground on her way up the hill.

The snowpack is melting out fast this year.

At the top, things hadn't improved much, so we made another run anyway. Norm and John went SE, while Cheryl and I stayed on the main slope. At the very bottom, conditions improved slightly, but enough to try a few tele turns. Cheryl decided to take a break to wait for more improvement, and I headed up to meet up with Norm and John. The third run took us down the main slope, to check on Cheryl, then over to the more southerly facing SE slope, which was very good for the last 100'. The next run nailed it. We found some lovely dirty snow near the top which soaked up the sun, and turned, turned, turned through the trees to the bottom of the SE slope. Cheryl met us after a quick run through the good stuff, and it was time to go. 

Cheryl makes some great tele turns in the corn.

Norm and John at the bottom of the SE run.

Cheryl and Norm relax at the bottom of the slope with perfect corn.

We did a grand traverse around the nose of the ridge, and hit the turnoff to avoid the gravel pit perfectly. The snow in the trees was hummocky with lots of exposed rocks and bare ground. It was a great relief to find that the snow supported us all the way out to the car.

Hummocky snow with bare ground under the trees.

Even more bare ground makes navigation more interesting.

Stats: 4 runs / 1800' / 3.5 miles / 5 hours.

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(click the "X" to close the profile and view the map.)

Current Creek Middle 110s 033112

The end of March saw the continuation of the heat wave. The snow suffered for it, and so did the skiers.

Lots of rocks to dodge due to the thin snow cover.

Tom scheduled the CMC trip to meet at 7:30 at HH, where Wendy, Ginger, and Joel met up with Tom and Cheryl. We loaded up the Xterra and flew to Downieville, then onto the trail head.


We saw a couple of other skiers packing their skis at the parking lot as we strapped on the gear. A few expressed concern at the crusty, uneven snow surface, but Tom assured them that would change. We climbed up a solid surface below Teacup Bowl, following an uptrack similar to the one on Mar 24. As we got to higher ground, the bomb craters from CDOT appeared between the trees.

CDOT avalanche bomb craters above the highway.

The reduction of the snow cover was distressing. Broad open areas of bare ground greeted us on our way to the top, with frequent collapses on the shallow slopes due to the thin snow.

Ginger, Cheryl, Wendy (mostly hidden), and Joel near the top of the Middle 110s.
Note large patch of bare ground behind us.

Large patches of bare ground lurk between the trees.

Nonetheless, we continued to the peak, and deskinned for a run. The warm temperatures made the skin glue extra sticky.

Cheryl gets extra leverage to remove her skins.

Collapsing was most prevalent at the top, tripping up many a skier. As we approached the slope break, we angled over to skiers left to find some less steep pitches, only to discover a distressing number of rocks to avoid. We skied down to the aqueduct and a bit beyond, where the slopes were pitted with rocky obstacles. Next we headed a bit south to skiers right, and skied a nice 100' run into the trees.


It was 11:30 when we skinned up, and we decided to skin up to the top of the steep slope for a final run. 

Wendy de-skins at the top of the second run.

The snow surface was pitted with sun cups, runnels, ridges, and occasional rocks, making the descent a bit interesting. We gathered at the bottom of the run and attempted to make our way out. Our uptrack was melted out, so we ventured closer to the edge of the cliffs in our search of good coverage. As we got lower, the snow strength diminished, leaving us wallowing in collapse pits of our own making. The thin cloud cover of the morning had all but vanished, and the full strength of the sun hastened the snow collapse. We made our way to some rocks and bare ground for a late lunch, welcome after the unsupportive snow. Finally we strapped the skis back on for the final drop to the car.


On our way to Tommyknockers, we consoled ourselves with stories of past ski trips of the season. Tom got a happy hour price for the Pick Ax IPA, plus a free Cocoa Porter that was on the beer engine.


Stats: 2 runs / 1300' / 2.5 mi / 5.5 hrs.

Slope map with current track in magenta.

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