Trip Report
Report from April 30, 2026
I arrived in Mammoth Lakes, California, on April 28 – earlier than I’d ever arrived for my spring foray in the Eastern Sierra.
There was powder in them hills.
I was told to go high and north and find something untracked.
I knew that Mt. Thompson had 4 or 5 chutes on it delivering a good chance that at least one of them would be fresh.
The plan was to roll solo, then the legendary Jason Dobbs showed up…
13,501′ Mt. Thompson
“Knudston Couloir”
Sierra Nevada, CA
- Summit (actually a ridgeline): 13,255 feet
- Car: 9,715 feet
- Vertical From Car: 3,737 feet
- Vertical Skied: 1,000 feet in the chute and apron (another 2,400′ of transportation skiing with some of that being good skiing up higher)
- Max Pitch: 45º
- Avg Pitch: 40º
- Aspect: North
- Distance: 9.86 miles round trip
- Time From Car to Top: 5 hours and 55 minutes
- Car to Car Time: 9 hours & 16 minutes
- Recommended Equipment: Crampons, Ice Axe x 2, Skins, Ski Crampons
Up at 5:15 a.m.
Driving by 6:30 a.m.
Hiking at 7:45 a.m.
The parking lot at South Lake was open so we were able to park at 9,700 feet — which is nice.
We skirted South Lake on the south side in loose rock, boulders, and no snow.
On the far side of the lake the snow began and we began skinning up the creek.
The snow was on-again, off-again for a bit before we got into the creek gully and started climbing on all snow.
The climb went smoothly until we had to nail the cut over just below Treasure Lakes, where we did some fun rock scrambling that wasn’t too involved.
From the other side of the scramble, it was all snow the rest of the day.
We got up high into the Mt. Gilbert cirque.
The classic chute on Gilbert wasn’t in, but the other chute on the looker’s left was.
It had a monster cornice guarding it at the top and there was no way I was gonna put us below that behemoth for a 1+ hour bootpack so we moved on.
Thompson’s 4 chutes came into view shortly after our visit to Gilbert and we saw that those 4 chutes had become one.
The Smrz chute didn’t go.
The Harrington & Non-Moynier were already skied…
Easy choice – Knudston it was.
I’d already skied this chute back in 2023 during my “Eastern Sierra Blackjack Project” and my “300” project.
I try not to repeat lines as I’m trying to learn the range but in this situation, it was a no-brainer.
We used the skinner that was already in place leading up to the Harrington then cut hard left towards the Knudston.
The snow was powder and I’d never skied powder in the High Sierra before.
I put in the booter and it was a beast.
Steep, knee-deep, and seemingly endless at times.
I was counting out 30 steps, stop, 10 breaths, 30 steps, stop, 10 breaths, over and over.
I hit the summit 5 hours and 55 minutes after leaving the car.
I collapsed, ate, drank, soaked up the view, and enjoyed the windless, warm summit.
Butterflies flitted past me and made me smile at the absurdity of these spectacular California summits.
Dobbs and I walked to the edge and gawked into the yawning gorges of Kings Canyon National Park to our west.
Green valleys and sky-scraping peaks spoke of adventures to come.
I dropped in first, knowing the snow might be kinda tough, but it was pretty good at first.
Stiff powder, but still powder.
The pow stiffened more at the choke, where it was the steepest, then became true powder on the apron.
The apron turns were glorious and sang of the true reward of our adventure.
From there, the travel was simple.
We mostly transportation skied back down except for one sumptuous corn zone delivering about 30 sweet turns.
We skied back to the lake and switched back to shoes.
The final 30+ minutes along the rocky lakeshore were trying but simple enough.
We arrived back at the car 9 hours and 16 minutes after leaving it, fired up for some Taqueria Mi Guadalajara burritos.
We never saw another person out there.
Thanks, California!
Photos in Chronological Order
