Unofficial Squaw - Reporting Daily From Tram Rock

Skied three final days on the east side over Memorial Day weekend.  Above is the Solstice couloir on Mt. Dana.  Had to cut a chunk of cornice out to get in.  Under the entrance was a 50ft cliff, so you had to traverse under the cornice after sliding in.

Looking back up the Solstice Couloir, which we skied Saturday.  You can see the entrance in-between the cornice blocks

Benson skiing pow in the Soltice Couloir

Mike Vaughan POV - East Side Finals from UnofficialSquaw on Vimeo.

POV from one of the couloirs on Mt. Thompson (Sunday) and a line on Emerson (Monday)

The Second line in this is what I've been calling the "S" chute on Mt. Emerson.  I skied the top really conservatively due to the exposure and the warming snow.  In reality the top would have been pretty rip-able, but I was scared.  I didn't subject the viewer to the whole thing.  Climbing the crux was the scariest thing I've climbed.  A steep ice bulge for 20 or 30 feet.  Definitely wouldn't have made it up without an axe and crampons, had to use some rock on the right for hand-holds too.  I wish I had the camera running for that too...

The "S."  I've had my eye on this line for a while.  Scary, but I was stoked to ski it.  Anyone know of another name for this line?  Check out the POV above.

I've uploaded a bunch more photos to Flickr...I'll try to add them with captions soon.

A few days after skiing the north couloir of Mt. Emerson, I met up with a group heading the same place.  A trace of snow in the High Sierra proved to be a few inches in the north-facing couloirs, enough to completely buff out the old tacks, and make for more pow skiing up high.  Most of the group skied the north couloir and had an awesome run, Jehren and myself skied the Zebra couloir.

Zee-Brah from UnofficialSquaw on Vimeo.

We regrouped and headed up the back of mt Locke/Peak 13,112, for a second run.  Jehren and Ryland "wrestled the demon" into submission, and the rest of up skied some more pow in Kindergarten chute (see "more eastside" post below for a photo of the Checkered Demon).  Big, ripping, corn turns back to the car (with some sick sage-brush strainght-lines by Kris), and it was time to enjoy some brews.

Skied a couple more days down south late last week.  We skied the North couloir of Mt. Gilbert (me dropping in above - thanks Pat for the photo) and the north couloir of Mt. Humphreys.  Pretty standard eastside conditions with some pow, and some variable snow.  Nice corn down low.

The North Couloir of Mt. Gilbert.  One of the closer calls that Pat and I have had came climbing up the couloir, when a "bigger than a bowling ball" sized rock fell out of the climber's left wall, landed about ten feet from me, and then almost nailed pat as is sped down the chute.  You can see the rock's path to the right of Pat's boot-pack coming out the bottom.

The next day we skied the north couloir of Mt. Humphreys.  The chute hadn't seen any tracks since the last snow, and held nice pow on the skier's right side.

Broke my previous record for a long-ass day on Saturday, with a 14-hour trip.  Brian and I drove his truck up the road to Convict Lake at 3:45 am only to find a line of cars waiting for the gate to open at 4:00 for fishmas (opening day for fishing season).  These people are nuts...they clearly felt the same way about us.  This shot is looking back at our first line of the day, the north couloir of Red Slate, as we crossed Dorothy lake.  Toured north over a couple small ridges and across a couple lakes, and climbed up the south side of Bloody Mountain

The Bloody Couloir.  There were a couple tracks in the main couloir by the time I got there, so I skied a sweet little variation.  Skied the hanging snow field skier's right of the main couloir, and exited through the one chute about three quarters of the way down.  It was a fun line, though I had to stop and look at my camera in the middle to make sure I could find my exit.  A bunch of traversing, a creek crossing, and a little walking through the sage brush and we were at my car at Sherwin Creek Rd. at about 6:30pm.  We figured we covered 16 miles or so, and probably skied close to 8000 vertical feet.  A little wind-hammered snow up high on Red Slate, but mostly pow.