Dog Days of Winter and a Few Couloirs in The Eastern Sierra

Winter on the west coast has been interesting to say the least. While a few big storms have managed to sneak into the Sierra and build up a significant base, long stretches of strong high pressure have dominated. Warm sunny days have done a number on the surfaces and day in and day out, we find ourselves skiing a variety of stout wind board, pockets of sheltered facet pow, and if you get lucky, some high elevation corn. Things have felt slow moving and each day kind of feels like a repeat of the one before that. I didn’t really know it was a thing, but it seems like we’ve been firmly entrenched in the dog days of winter.

Despite the lack of fresh snow and the slow pace to the winter season, I’d like to take a second and acknowledge that in a lot of ways we‘re pretty lucky here on the East Side. We have snow to ride on to and from the car, a plethora of nice, sunny days, an exceptionally stable snowpack, and a number of engaging lines to explore. Not everybody west of the Mississippi can say the same. So when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

A couple weeks ago, my friend Jack Tanny came down from Seattle to visit and we set out to make the most of what we had. Jack was in the mood to get techy, so it only made sense to head up the lifts at June Mountain and take a crack at 3D Chute: an imposing line facing the ski area with a rappel from the top to access the first pitch of skiing.

Based on photos I’ve seen, in fatter years, you can ski this engaging line sans rappel and likely with quite a bit more speed, but in sticking with the theme here, we’re making due with what we’ve got and the goal was to have fun with it. After spinning a few warm-ups at June, we headed out the backcountry gate from J7 and made our way to the hourglass to access the negatives ridge line to the lookers left of 3D. After a quick traverse of the ridge and a bit more spicy of a scree-filled down climb, we made it to the rap station off a lone tree at the top of the line. The popularity of this line made the setup easy with a good looking piece of cordalette already slung around the tree dressed up with a sturdy looking locker. There were also a couple sketchy looking old hand lines in place, but with the rope already in our packs we opted for the safer route.

A 30 meter rope would have gotten the job done, but with the low tide situation, the 40 was quite nice to get ourselves through a second choke that would have been a very exposed side slip. After pulling the rope, we made our way down the line in pitches finding ourselves consistently surprised by the quality of the facet buff that’s been recycling between descents by other parties. Before getting to the final choke at the bottom of the line, which would have required another rappel with the current conditions, we opted to traverse off to skier’s right finding a sneak through the salt and pepper. The apron again provided some surprisingly nice facet pow working the slightly shaded micro features of the terrain. After admiring the quality of the descent, we skinned back over to the ski area. Not too bad of a day in the doldrums of high pressure!

After Jack headed out of town the high pressure remained. In between days of work and a couple of ski lift sessions at the hill, I decided to check out Lee Vining Canyon and see what it had to offer. I hadn’t been into the area yet, but with premium weather, I figured it would be a good excuse to link up two iconic couloirs and get a good lay for the land. I landed on the idea to head up the Cocaine “Coke” Couloir to access the Dana Plateau and the Kidney Couloir. After skiing Kidney, I’d head back up to the top and descend the Coke Couloir to my car.

Perks of phenomenal access on the East Side allowed me a relatively leisurely start of about 7:45. Arriving at the Lee Vining Creek crossing on the power plant road was yet another reminder of the instantaneous vertical relief of this area. Straight from the car, I’d be climbing. The first pitch of skinning brought me up V Bowl, a classic easily accessible local tour. But today, it was evident the weeks of sunshine and warm temps had done a number on the low elevation zone. Rocks, bushes, and downed trees were making themselves known. After about an hour, I found myself on the moraine dividing V Bowl from the alpine cliffs and couloirs rolling off the Dana Plateau.

The vastness of this range and the sheer vertical of the mountains continuously surprises me. I often find myself looking at a slope thinking that’s not so big and before you know it you’ve climbed 2k or so working your way to the top. The Coke was no exception. What the Coke lacks in steepness or aesthetics in my opinion, it makes up for in size and options. The large apron narrows to a wide choke before splitting into a number of smaller veins that bring you to the plateau above. My ascent entailed meandering around mid-slope sastrugi and front pointing up stout windboard. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to coming back down. After topping out, I switched back to skinning and pointed myself towards the top of the plateau where I’d find the entrance to the Kidney. Temps were warm, the sun was out, and winds weren’t too bad. I was hopeful the southeast facing Kidney Couloir would be perfectly ripened corn.

After navigating the maze of massive sastrugi on top of the plateau, I opted to make my way to the high point. The view of the steep, north face of Mt. Dana was inspiring. Most of the face is made up of a massive cliff, but it’s bordered by two aesthetic couloirs, the Dana and the Solstice. Both of which lead to ramped snowfields that‘ll bring you to the 13,061’ summit. Tucking that one away for another day.

Post summit lunch with a view, I dropped into the Kidney. The first few turns were firm and refrozen, but it quickly gave way to perfect corn for the remainder of the line. The Kidney is a feel good couloir. Never really getting steeper than 40 degrees, but holding good pitch for its entire 2000’ of vertical, the line is a dream and I felt pretty lucky to time it perfectly.

After reaching the bottom, I put skins and ski crampons back on and surprised myself by getting all the way to the top without ever having to pivot to the booter. Once topside, I made my way back through the Dana Plateau sastrugi farm towards the top of Coke. The descent proved to be just about what I expected. About as firm as it gets and nothing to write home about… and then V Bowl provided no relief. The shallow snow was largely isothermal at this point in the afternoon, and I found msyelf continuously punching through nearly to ground. The shaded tilts were a tad better, but it was full on survival skiing back to the car.

Back at the car and in the sun, I was psyched with how my solo day exploring a new part of the range played out. It was a fun, efficient day in the mountains and the rewards of skiing Kidney top to bottom in perfect conditions was worth every bit of heinous skiing on the way back. Despite the lack of fresh snow, I felt lucky to have such a good outing less than a half hour from my front door.