Conditions Report
I left Waterford, CA this morning at 7:30am headed for Sonora Pass. At the highway 108/120 split, the sign said Sonora Pass closed, Tioga Pass open. Change of plans. I drove up highway 120 to Yosemite, stopped to jump into Rainbow Pools, took pictures of Half Dome, stopped to take pictures of a guy who’d driven out onto Tuolumne Meadows and gotten stuck, asked the Park Rangerette on Tioga Pass how much snow they’d gotten, she said 8-12 inches since May 6th, then arrived at Ellery Lake on Tioga Pass at about 11am.
The wind was howling. Sustained 30mph, I’d guess. I made some new friends in the parking lot who decided to bail due to the wind and the likelihood of hard, icy conditions.
My friend Sara showed up shortly thereafter from Tahoe and we geared up in the screaming wind. We left the parking lot and started up hill wearing all our gear. About 100 yards from the car, the wind died down and we had to strip down.
The rest of the hike had little to no wind. We were able to skin right to the bottom of “Poop Chute” (we think it’s called), the furthest chute skier’s left in Ellery Bowl. The snow on the way up wasn’t hard, it was slushy with a hint of hot pow on top.
Boot packing the chute was Les Miserables. Up to a foot of new snow had accumulated in the chute making each step deep, thick, and nasty. Nearly every step slid back on the hard layer underneath. It took us an hour to boot up the chute.
Once on top, our old friend the wind returned. There wasn’t a breath of wind in the chute, but on the exposed Dana Plateau, the wind was yodeling once again.
We ate, packed up, clicked in, and dropped. The skiing was good. Damn good. Horribly good for May 9th on a 30% of normal snowfall year.
The upper turns were thin with a hard layer underneath before giving way to 4” of perfect hot pow followed by 8” deep hot pow that you could open it up in. The chute was tight and limited movement until we escaped onto the apron below.
On the apron, we were able to make big, fast, smooth turns on recently-melted-formerly-wind-blasted-to-ice snow with a skosh of hot pow on top.
The skiing was terrific right back to the car before encountering two Arctic Wolves tied to a rail. No B.S., arctic wolves for pets someone had.
The wind was even stronger than when we’d left. It blew away a pair of skins and a sleeping bag. Oppressive winds.
Moments later we were coasting into the merry Mono Cone in Lee Vinig. It’s incredible how you can be on top of a high peak, freezing your keester off, then be cooking in the sun in a T-shirt, flip flops, and shorts eating an ice cream cone 10 minutes later.
From Mono Cone straight to the 100ºF lazy river.
The East Side is still delivering. Go.
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Nice work Miles! Looks like a rad trip. How were the conditions at Rainbow Pools?
Thanks PowFinder. You’re right, I forgot to report Rainbow Pools conditions. At 8:30 am everything was cold. The water was supernatural, as always and the crowd was redneck fisherman. I don’t think they appreciated the fish frightening plunge. Thank god, Rainbow Pools didn’t burn in the big fire last year. It’s completely untouched, green, and perfect. Water in the stream is low for sure, tho. No waterfall hucking this year.