#mountmildred

3/24/19

Continuing my quest of skiing OGULs this winter, Leo and I picked Mount Mildred as the main objective for the weekend. When I had first suggested it a while back, Leo thought we wouldn’t be fast enough to do it in a day, but after reading some more (and having a desire for lots of cardio), he changed his mind! If we could pull it off, it’d be my 30th OGUL. Given that we had the Ikon Pass this season (which has Alpine Meadows/Squaw access), we’d also be able to cut a few miles off the morning.

Home for many nights this season, at Blackwood Canyon Sno-Park.

We first tried to give Mildred a shot on Saturday, but when we got to the top of the lift just after the resort opened, we found ourselves in a full on white-out. A ski patrol came over to chat with us, worried that we’d try to leave the resort in the current conditions — but he had nothing to worry about. We were definitely ready to bail. While chatting with him, we were able to get some good info about how the backcountry access from Alpine works, which we weren’t able to find online. We ended up skiing the resort for the rest of the day, happily so.

The view of Mildred in the back from the top of Alpine. Photo by Leo.

The next day was scheduled to be warm and clear, so we decided to give Mildred another shot. We got in line for the lift around 8:50am, same as the day before, except this time with totally clear skies. As we reached the top of the summit lift, we saw no “closed area” signs as we had the day before. We took a few minutes to scope out the route to Mildred while we had it in view. The cliffs on the eastern ridge from Peak 8109 were very obvious, but the shoulder to the left looked very manageable, so we planned to head in that direction as we headed off. Neither Leo nor I had ever skied or even seen this aspect of Alpine before, so we skied down a bit, looking over the edge. Right off the ridge is a bit rocky, but we skirted to the left and then found an amazing, clear slope. And so, we committed! Heading down the slope in perfect powder from the past day’s storms, touched by no one before us. As we reached the end of shouting distance from the resort, someone yelled to us “do you know what you’re doing?!” I wasn’t sure that we did — Mildred is waaaaay out there, and it was going to be a long day. But we knew enough to make sure we’d get back to the car somehow, so we assured them and continued on.

Avoiding cliffs.

It was an amazing 2000ft descent off of the back of Alpine in amazing snow that would be by far our best turns of the day (and the best backcountry skiing I’ve had to date in Tahoe). The storm had been big enough to give enough powder for tons of fun, but not so big to create dangerous slabs. What more could you ask for? As we reached the bottom and headed into the trees, I suggested to Leo that we could just lap this slope instead, but Leo was keen on his cardio goals, so off to Mildred we continued.

We transitioned to skins and had a great, easy time skinning through the powder. From reading Bob Burd’s trip report, we were a bit nervous about crossing Five Lakes Creek, but with the huge snow year we’ve had, there were plenty of solid snow bridges. We stayed to the left side of the valley, far from the ridge we needed to gain, since we planned to head up and around the left side. The ridge lining the right side of the valley had some really impressive, steep slopes. I’d love to see some amazing skiers ski that.

Mildred coming into view for the first time since Alpine.

We headed up the shoulder we had aimed for through some trees. The main avy concern for the day was loose wet slides, made dangerous by terrain traps or cliffs. As we neared the ridge, there were indeed some cliffs on the most direct route to the ridgeline, on a southern-facing slope that had been baking in the sun. Instead of contouring around the slope (putting us above the cliffs), we headed directly up on to the ridge, avoiding any cliff exposure. From there, we continued towards the summit of Peak 8109, getting our first views of Mildred since having left Alpine.

I spy a cornice. Photo by Leo.

The northern aspect of the ridge was heavily corniced, so we were afraid we’d have to climb up and over the peak, but we managed to find safe entry and exit points, saving us some vert. Once on the other side of the ridge, it was down a couple hundred feet to the saddle between 8109 and Mildred. I got to show off (i.e. embarrass myself) my skiing in walk mode skills, only totally eating it once! In retrospect I wish I had at least locked my heels in, but the summit just felt so close. Once done with the downhill, it was a fairly easy skin to the summit. Woohoo!

Descending to the saddle between 8109 and Mildred. Photo by Leo.

Mildred from the ridge connecting Peak 8109. Photo by Leo.

We took a few minutes to eat and discuss our exit route. It had taken us 4 hours to reach the summit, so we sadly wouldn’t be able to make it back to Alpine to ski down the resort (which would have been the most direct route). This means we’d have to exit around the north side of the ridge that makes up Alpine, substantially longer mileage (but less overall vert). We planned to drop off the ridge between our peak and 8109 at the low point, which also looked like a break in the cornice. We’d then traverse along the northern slope as long as we could, before planning to go back into walk mode and up over the shoulder on the other side of 8109.

Skinning up the final slope to Mildred. Photo by Leo.

The plan went as well as we’d hoped. Right before going back into walk mode, we got some excellent turns coming down the northern aspect. Even though the vast majority of the snow around us had turned to mush, this snow had held amazingly well. We transitioned back into walk mode and slogged up the extremely deep powder — the most strenuous part of the whole day. Once at the saddle, we stayed in walk mode, traversing the south side of the ridge in mushy, sun-exposed snow that was much easier to break trail in.

Our turns off the northern aspect of the ridge and the strong, late-March sun.

As we reached the point we dropped back off the ridge, we transitioned back into ski mode gloriously, enjoying the much improved pace as we dropped into the last valley between us and the back of Alpine. In shady spots the snow had grown crusty and more challenging to ski, but it still felt great to be using my feet a different way. At the bottom of the valley, we transitioned back into walk mode for what we hoped would be the last time. Again, we found good snow bridges to cross the creek and headed up, edging north of Alpine towards Five Lakes. The terrain was actually quite easy skinning, which we were both thankful for — but it just felt long. I was so happy when we finally reached the saddle separating us and the road. Back into ski mode for the last time, and we skied down very hard crust in very low light, finding a snowmobile track to lead us back to the road.

So happy to be reaching the car!

After only a tiny bit of shenanigans to get down the tall snow bank, our feet were back on pavement, and we walked the remaining half mile up the road to our car. We made it back around 6:40pm — about 9 hours and 20 mins after having left the top of the resort. We were very thankful to make it back before dark, because an unnamed individual forgot their headlamp (but he more than made up for it with all the trail he broke). We were rewarded for our efforts with literally no traffic on the drive home, which let us somehow amazingly be in bed at 11pm sharp. I’d call it an incredibly successful day!