Eastern Sierra Photo Tour | Mt. Dana, Dana Plateau, Mt. Wood, Dunderberg Peak, Bloody Couloir, Sonora Pass | May 27th

On our way home from Mammoth yesterday, we did our best to get some good shots of the Eastern Sierra.  Most areas that you can see from highway 395 are hurting for snow.  Up off Tioga and Sonora passes there might some nuggets left…

**Just got this mini-report from Christian in our comments:**

“Skinned out to Greeley Lake just past Saddle Bag lake off Tioga Pass. The gate to the lake is open, making the skin in only about 2 mi or so until you start to reach some fun little lines. Camped at the far side of the lake for a couple days and had a blast, nice and soft come late morning until mid/late afternoon.”

Mt. Wood is just about completely burned out.  The East face of Mt. Dana is nearly dry.  The East couloirs off the Dana Plateau are still kind of in, but you’d have to hike out the entire lower section. Dunderberg actually has some big low angle snow patches for linking up some mellow turns.  Bloody Couloir still has snow – old, funky, brown snow.  It looks like you’ll have better luck on the west side of the Sierra or right near the Pacific Crest.

I didn’t get a great look at it, but the Negatives and some of the areas around June Lake seemed to be holding a lot of snow.  More than anywhere else we saw, at least.

I really wanted to see what Sonora Pass had to offer but a snow storm shut any hopes of seeing the terrain down.  There was still quite a lot of snow around at 9,600 feet.  I’d guess that there might be some good skiing up there, still.

It appears that the Eastern Sierras are certainly close to the end of ski season if not already there.  This is one more reason that it’s very cool that Mammoth is still open and that they have a good amount of snow.  That skier compaction keeps the white stuff around a lot longer than it naturally would.