We decided that the first trip in the new Sportsmobile would be a spring backcountry ski trip to the Eastside of the Sierra. We chose the Onion Valley area, as it is one of the closest high altitude (9,200') trailheads. We left town Friday night with a spring storm moving in. The winds in the Central Valley were stirring up the freshly plowed fields, and dust reduced the visibility to less than a mile. Frequent gusts would sometimes reduce it even further, completely obscuring the car ahead. As we climbed the Tehachapi pass we left the dust behind, but as we turned north at Mojave our beneficial tailwind turned into a challenging crosswind. The Sprinter has a 'crosswind assist' feature that helps keep you on the road and upright, and we felt it kick in several times. We passed a big rig driver who wasn't so lucky, as his truck and trailer had blown over onto its side and slid down the freeway. We forged ahead, driving slowly with both hands on the wheel, knowing that the winds were not as strong just a few miles ahead.
Snow and freezing rain began falling as we drove up the Onion Valley Road out of Independence. We reached the end of the road about 10 PM. The wind was still howling, it was freezing cold outside, and there was a dusting of snow all around. What a luxury to not have to get out and set up a tent! Instead, we parked, shut down the engine, walked into the back, fired up the heater, poured a couple of margaritas, and crawled into bed. The entire experience seemed surreal.
We awoke Saturday morning to find everything coated in a slippery covering of rime ice. With the wind still blowing, we weren't in any hurry to get going. After a leisurely breakfast and organizing gear, we hit the trail about 9:30. Our objective was to get up high on the slopes below University Peak and see what skiing we could find. We had hoped for some good spring corn skiing, but with the wind and snow the night before we didn't know what to expect.
There is very little snow at the trailhead for this time of year.
We strapped our skis onto our backs and started hiking up the Kearsarge Pass trail.
It wasn't too long before we could put on our skis and beginning skinning up. University Peak (13,600') towers in the background. We had no aspirations of summitting after such a late start, and the normally snow-filled gulley dropping down the North side of the peak had lots of bare spots anyway.
There were still bare spots at over 11,000'
After a few hours of climbing we decided to drop into a trackless chute. It was full of wind blown snow from the previous nights storm, but it also had several hours of April sun on it. It was pretty heavy with breakable crust, challenging but skiable
Donette laying down some tracks
It was still early, so after a lunch break we headed back up for some more. We set our sights on the high point of snow below the large cliffs just above Donette.
We topped out at about 11,800' The snow was a little better here, but still quite variable. Donette generates some rooster tails in the lighter sections.
We continued our descent, heading back to the van.
Even if the snow wasn't perfect, the views always are.
The lakes are thawing quickly, but still firm enough to cross. We got back to camp about 3, thoroughly exhausted. We enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine, and moved back into the van after the sun set and the temperatures dropped. We set the alarm for an earlier start on Sunday, aiming for a steep gully on an unnamed peak rising above camp.
Sunday morning dawned sunny and clear. We left camp shortly after 7 and climbed straight up the snow filled gully. Conditions were pretty good, and as the morning went by the skies got grayer and grayer. We didn't mind though, as the lack of sunshine was preserving the snow.
After climbing about 2,500' from camp, the snow finally petered out at the crest of the ridge.
We dropped our skis and clambered to the top. The clouds were now down
below the tops of the surrounding peaks, and light snow was beginning
to fall. We retreated back to our skis, pulled our skins, and dropped into the gulley. We were rewarded by surprisingly good boot deep powder for the first 1,000'. The further we dropped, the heavier the snow became. However, it was much easier skiing than the previous day, probably because we were heading back at 11 am instead of 3 pm.
Back at the van we threw our gear inside and hit the road. It was our first trip to the Eastside of the Sierra in several years, and it felt great to get back into the high peaks again. We just hope that we can get back to a 'normal' snowpack again one of these years.
