i hadn’t been to stevens peak yet this year, despite it holding some of my favorite lines. problem is they normally take a lot of snow to fill in. good thing is, we have a lot of snow. on wednesday, the 16th i invited ashley to gon a tour, thinking we would head back to some of mellower terrain off the north ridge. with dog in tow we (I) decided to skip that and stay on the skin track rather than have nacho post hole the long way around. the elevation gain from road to peak is about 2700′.
we’re half way there
since that was not enough of a workout we decided to throw some climbing into the mix when we approached the summit. it started off scrambly, but as it got steeper, nacho had second thoughts
once we reached the top, we realized it wasn’t really the top. yay!
and then there was some real climbing. it looks like i am in trouble here.
but the views made it all okay (click pic to enlarge)
this wasn’t really the mellow terrain i had planned on, but the snow was good and carveable and the huge walls on each side are impressive
and the snow was perfect for doggies
i chose poorly again. after the upper cirque we headed around skiers right to get down to the lower section. the snow was good but wind crust in some spots. had we headed left we would have had some of the best skiing tahoe had to offer at the time. still a fun day in the mountains though
fun as it was, it still left me wanting to get some of the lines i had sought on wednesday. and with the help of facebook i found a willing victim to go back the next day. we took a more direct route straight to the ridge i missed the day before.
matt and nacho enjoying the week old powder.
matt coming off the ridge through one of the many couloirs in the area
and into the fields of corn below
then nacho and i had a little photo shoot on the ridge
he looks a little like a dog from greek mythology here
our last run was something like this
but as i left, there were still some things that caught my eye
so despite swearing i wouldn’t put my boots on the next day, here i was, following toby up the ridge
our first line of the day would be the second of the pictures above. up top the snow was awesome, below the crux it was a little over ripe, but still fun.
finding a safe place at the top of our second line, in the first of the two pics above
toby skied the top section with a small downclimb through the crux. i skied around the top section
approaching the crux of the lower portion of the coolie
in the heart of it
the video from the second two days
so after the three days i had finally gotten all the stevens peak out of my system for a little bit, but i’ll be back. because…
