The Pear Lake Ski Hut is nestled near a grove of trees 9,600' up in Sequoia National Park, six miles and a few thousand feet of elevation gain from the nearest trailhead. The hut sleeps 10 intrepid souls willing to make the moderately difficult trek to get there, and has grown increasingly popular over the years. Most all of the weekend slots are allocated during a lottery in early November. Donette and I did not score a win in the lottery, but picked up a couple of mid week spots that were left unfilled. The problem with making reservations in November for a couple of days in February is that you never know what the winter will bring. The past 5 years in California have seen very little snowfall, but this winter delivered the goods. While we didn't know how good the snow would be as we departed for the mountains, at least we knew the rocks would be covered.
We left San Luis Obispo on Tuesday afternoon in a warm rain. The rain continued off and on for the entire drive, and it was raining as we pulled into the parking area at the trailhead at 7,250'. Oh well, at least it made for a safe and easy drive in. The rain soon turned to snow, and the van had a light dusting by the time we drifted off to sleep. Wednesday morning we awoke to a dusting of snow on top of a half inch of clear ice on the pavement. Thanks goodness we had been able to drive in the night before, as the road seemed quite treacherous now. After a hearty breakfast burrito, we shouldered our packs and hit the trail. The parking lot was still deserted as we left, even though we were expecting 7 other skiers to be headed in the same day. The conditions were excellent, with a firm base to support our weight and just enough new snow to give our skins some grip. The overcast skies kept the temperature nice and cool. While it is never "easy" to get into Pear Lake, this was probably the easiest conditions we have ever encountered in our 17 years of visiting the area.
The trail climbs steadily for several miles until you reach the top of the Hump at about 9,200'. This is a great place to take a lunch break and enjoy the expansive views that open up as you climb out of the trees. The skies cleared briefly for us as we ate our lunch, but by the time we struck out again the overcast had returned.
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| Donette skiing across Heather Lake |
Just after crossing Heather Lake and getting ready to descend to the lower route we met a group of 3 skiers heading home. They had been the only people in the hut for a few days, but hadn't been able to venture far from the hut due to the ongoing storms. We enjoyed a few nice turns, even with fully loaded packs, and then skinned up for the final climb to the hut. The overcast dropped even lower, and snow began to fall. We skied the last section in dumping snow, arriving to find the hut almost completely buried.
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| Skinning up through the falling snow |
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| The hut buried in the snow |
We were the first ones to arrive, thanks to camping at the trailhead. We claimed our bunks, made some coffee, and rested after the arduous trip in. The hutmasters, Patrick and Lauren, arrived after their morning ski tour and joined us for a while.
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| The hut is pretty roomy when it is just the two of us. |
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Patrick and Lauren were preparing to ski out that afternoon, so we joined them in climbing up above the hut and then skiing down thru the trees. A few inches of fresh snow atop a firm base made for delightful skiing! At the bottom of the run they departed for the trailhead, while we set a skintrack back to the top. Even though we were quite tired from the trip in, the conditions were just too sublime to pass up. After a couple more laps through the trees we made one last climb and skied the "Frontyard" to the hut.
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| This is what it looks like after an atmospheric river of warm moisture collides with the Central Sierra at 10,000'. Everything was coated with rime ice from the previous weekend's warmer storms. We were lucky that temperatures dropped and left us with a nice coating of fresh snow on top of the icy, crusty, hard pack below. |
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| Donette skiing the trees |
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| Heading for home after the final lap. |
By now it was close to 5 pm, and still no sign of our expected hutmates. However, it is a difficult journey, and not uncommon to have people stagger in at dark, or even after. As the night wore on though, it became apparent that we were going to have the hut to ourselves for the evening.
Thursday morning dawned clear and cold. Very cold by our coastal dweller standards, with the mercury hovering around 0*. With no one else around, we were assured of fresh tracks and ate a leisurely breakfast, hoping the temps might rise a bit. We departed the hut at 9, and it had warmed up to 5*, so our plan worked.
We skinned up to Pear Lake, then a long climbing traverse below the Matterhorn, intent on checking out the back bowls. We found stable conditions, with a firm base and a few inches of powder on top.
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| The composting toilet at Pear Lake is completely buried |
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| Skinning up under clear skies |
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| Panorama looking West |
We skied a few laps on the back bowls, enjoying the fresh snow and laying down fresh tracks each descent. Around 11:30 the clouds started drifting up from the valley below, and soon visibilty dropped to almost zero. Time to leave the high country and retreat to some trees. We descend to the hut and enjoyed a hot lunch and restorative hot drinks.
By the time we headed back out, it was snowing hard again. We headed back to the sheltered tree runs for several more laps as the fresh snow continued to accumulate. We returned to a still empty hut in the late afternoon, exhausted but happy. Patrick and Lauren arrived just before dark, finding their way home in a complete whiteout. The four of us enjoyed a nice evening of food and conversation.
Friday morning, our last day, dawned clear and cold again. We got up early, hoping to get in a few more laps before departing. We had to leave the hut fairly early in order to be home by dinner time, as Weston would be at our house waiting. We skinned up the west facing slope behind the hut. The wind was brutally cold, but the snow was awesome.
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| Donnete climbing the slope above the hut, the Watchtower in the background |
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| A good mornings work. |
We did three quick laps on the west face, then one more climb to ski the Frontyard for the final time.
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| Ray skiing the fresh powder on the Frontyard |
We quickly loaded our packs, cleaned up the hut, and hit the trail. We climbed our existing skintrack back up to the top of the tree run, and then got one last descent back to the exit route. We skinned up for the final time and began the slog back to the top of the Hump. A quick snack there, and then off on the final descent to the van. This last part is often not that much fun, and can usually be best described as survival skiing. But not today. The fresh, untracked snow made for a rollicking fun descent, spiced up a bit when hitting the melting snow falling off the trees. We were back at the van by 1 pm, right on time. There were only two new cars in the parking lot, and we had chatted with the group of four skiers from those cars as they neared the top of the Hump, so it looks like they were in for a similar uncrowded, wide open hut weekend. I'm not sure why so many of the skiers/snowboarders/snowshoers are bailing on their reservations this year. Perhaps they just don't know what they are missing.
