#ogul

okay you know what here's a drawing of ogul too

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!

3/17/19

After a surprisingly smooth summit of Ellis Peak the day before, I was excited to try my luck at Mount Elwell. As we drove north from Tahoe and into lower elevations, I began to worry that there might not be snow at the trailhead (given that it’s only at 5200’). We made a stop at the Sierraville hot springs, which are at about 5000’, and there was no snow to be found there. While Leo and I were enjoying the hot springs, our friend Sadie drove out to the trailhead and reported back that there was plenty of snow (Thank you Sadie! I had been considering just bailing entirely).

Sadly the next morning, Sadie wasn’t feeling great so she opted to head home. Leo and I left the trailhead from Johnsville, CA at 7:25am — a bit of a later start than I was hoping for. In researching the peak, I had stumbled upon the Plumas Ski Club, who were holding one of their three-times-a-year International Longboard Championships! I was dying to check out the festivities, so I wanted to bag the peak quickly and be back at the car in time for the races. (Seriously, you should click those links and read about this).

We followed Bob Burd’s track up to the ridge that is near the trailhead, which parallels some cross country ski trails. Given how warm it had been in recent days, the snow had a decent freeze on it. Since getting up the ridge was a bit steep, our skins weren’t holding on the icy snow. We ended up bootpacking the last few hundred feet up the ridge pretty easily, with no traction devices. Once on the ridge, we put our skis back on and continued skinning. Soon enough we were at the edge of the ridge and had to descend a bit to the saddle leading up to the next ridge. We chose to stay in walk/skin mode and were able to make it down before continuing back up. Leo and I were both feeling a bit nervous that this was going to be a long slog that wasn’t going to be fun (and would take much longer than expected, causing us to miss the Longboard races entirely). We decided if we wanted to make it to the races, our turnaround time should be 10:30am, so we might as well continue till then and see how it goes.

As we reached the saddle, the terrain looked quite steep and the trees looked pretty tight. We stayed left a bit, trying to avoid the steepest parts, but still found ourselves in very dense trees. I was ready to bail, but we hadn’t reached our decision time yet, so we continued a bit further. We switched to bootpacking again, and I feared it would be slow going for ages, but we only needed to bootpack for maybe 100 feet before it opened up again. The terrain became very reasonable, and we decided we’d go all the way to the summit.

From there, it was pretty straightforward with one more hump before the summit. Most of the way we followed another skin track (which we were surprised to see), among many snowmobile tracks. Despite all the tracks, we didn’t see any other people out the whole day. We made it the summit at 11am, and it was definitely a sight. Getting out there to the more obscure Tahoe peaks that don’t have the hordes that the classic Tahoe spots have is really special. On such a clear day, it was beautiful. Sierra Buttes looking incredibly rugged to the south, Lassen to the north.

We took 20-30 minutes to snack and transition before heading back out. Eastern facing aspects were quite mushy already, with all the warm sunshine on those slopes. We chose to ski back down the ridge the way we came, to make sure we’d make good distance back towards the trailhead. In some spots the snow was pretty good, but it was variable the whole way: from hard crust to slushy to even some small stashes of a thing layer of powder. We continued down the ridge without to many issues. It got dense here and there, but nothing some side-slipping couldn’t handle. As we neared the saddle we had to be sure to avoid some very steep terrain to the west.

Back at the saddle, instead of ascending back up the first ridge, we contoured it to the west, dropping down into the adjacent valley that holds the cross country ski trails. We contoured for as long as we could, so that we’d have to walk as little as possible. Once we were on the valley floor, we follow the flat-ish trails for about 3/4 of a mi until we found ourselves back at the trailhead. Car to car took about 6 hours and 10 minutes: definitely longer than I was expecting, but not a long outing. I was incredibly happy that turns out the races go into the afternoon, so we were still able to see em (and they are well worth seeing! A good family spot). A pretty excellent day of activity before the drive back home.

3/16/19

I recently recruited some new friends in my goal to climb all 63 peaks on the OGUL list. The lure? That I’ll have a party when I complete them all, and you’re only invited if you’ve climbed an OGUL with me. :)

Ellis Peak is on the west shore of Lake Tahoe behind Homewood Ski Resort. The easiest way to get there? Pay for the pricey cat skiing Homewood offers off the summit of Ellis Peak. Since I wasn’t looking to spend a few hundred dollars to bag this peak, my own two legs were the option I was left with. In January of this year, I attempted Ellis with my friends Andy and Brice from the Blackwood Canyon sno-park. This proved to be a pretty long route. We went up Blackwood Ridge to its high-point (which took us about ~3.5mi), and saw the summit was still more than 2mi away — with a lot of descent in between. Plus, it looked like the ski out would be a long slog, and the snow on the ridge we had just climbed was in awesome condition, so we opted to do two laps on that instead.

Fast forward two months to mid-March. The Sierra has had storm after storm after storm this winter, and this is the first clear weekend since the weekend in January when I last attempted Ellis. For a new attempt, I enlisted Leo and Sadie this time (Sadie just so happens to be Brice’s partner — and Brice has already done an OGUL with me, so now hopefully they can attend together ;) ).

Looking for a shorter route this time, I decided it would be worth trying to skirt the north edge of Homewood until we pass the resort. From there, it looked like an easy skin up to the summit (which could be made even easier if we caught the cat track from the cat skiing). Homewood has no uphill travel allowed, so this was my main concern. Would the terrain just outside the resort be too steep? Would it be hard to stay outside the resort (and would employees care)?

We set off from the resort parking lot around 8:30am, passing the lift they have at the base. One employee spinning up a lift asked where we were headed, and we said just outside the resort. He remarked “don’t get caught!” which left me feeling a little uneasy at the start. Once past those lifts, we had to navigate some huge snow banks in a small neighborhood, which was a little confusing. We did manage to get on a slope though and started to head up, hoping we were outside the resort.

We soon came upon a groomed road to our left. We assumed this to be the edge of the resort, so we just kept to its right. The terrain to the right was usually reasonable, but at a few sections it was quite steep and awkward to traverse, so we popped on to the very edge of the groomed road. A snowmobiler (presumably from the resort) passed us as we were on the road once, but they just waved as they passed.

Soon enough the terrain opened up and it become easy to stay just outside the resort. By now the resort had opened, so we could see people coming down the runs. We paralleled the groomed road until reaching the end of the resort, as planned, and then headed up a gully until we reached Lake Louise. We crossed the lake and headed up another slope, where we were able to catch the cat track, making the remaining climb to the summit quite trivial (with the exception of looking over my shoulder every 15 seconds to make sure I wasn’t going to get run over).

The views from the summit were spectacular (as they typically are on a bluebird day from a summit in Tahoe). Desolation Wilderness to the south, Castle Peak area to the north, and gorgeous views of the lake. We took our time eating lunch before transitioning. As we were finishing up, sure enough the snow cat showed up, unloaded a dozen people, and then turned around.

We skied down a more northern aspect than we had come up, hoping to find nicer snow in the very warm weather. We were only mildly successful. The terrain is nice trees, but it was just too warm and sunny. Before long we were back at the edge of the resort, skiing adjacent the groomed road we had paralleled on the ascent. We were back at the parking lot by 2:30pm. Overall, it was a nice tour and a great way to summit Ellis. The terrain back there is nice, though a bit chopped up in a few parts because of the cat operation. Getting around the resort could be more difficult if the resort employees give you a hard time, but I suspect if you head out before the lifts start spinning it’s no problem.