10 year anniversary. Already!?!

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!

My how time flies.  The last 10 years have been filled with all kinds of fun and adventures.  From family camping trips around the West,  to Grand Canyon rafting, White Rim bicycling, medical missions to Nicaragua, trekking in Nepal, an African safari, Caribbean snorkeling, skiing in Japan, and local kayaking and mountain biking, just to name a few. We are very fortunate, with wonderful, supporting parents, awesome children (who are now having kids themselves), adventurous, fun-loving friends, and good health.  And we are truly blessed to have each other.

Nine years ago we spent our first anniversary back country skiing out side of Bishop.  After successfully climbing and skiing Basin Mountain,

 

 

 we tried to drive a little further up the Buttermilks Road.  The rear of our truck slid off the road in a particularly snowy spot, and despite several hours of effort we were forced to spend the night sleeping in the middle of the road alongside our stuck truck until a tow truck could reach us the next day.

That experience did have some positive aspects though.  We got to meet Glenn Plake, a famous professional skier, who came skiing out of the trees nearby, guiding a group back from Mt. Emerson.  He was the nicest person, and spent quite a while energetically helping us dig and jack and try and pull the truck back on the road.  Most importantly though, I learned what a good sport my wife was, and how she dealt cheerfully with a somewhat unpleasant, and certainly unexpected, event.

We decided that another backcountry trip would be a great way to celebrate our 10th anniversary, albeit without a $600 towing bill as a souvenir.  We headed back to Onion Valley, where the (paved) road currently goes right to the snowline.  We got there Friday afternoon, and headed into the mountains.

An easy start, step out of the van and put on the skis

 We made a bit of a bad decision right off the bat.  The snow bridges over the creek had melted out near the road, so we figured we could stay on the road side of the creek for a ways and cross later.  Not.  As we wound around to the south facing slope below the road, the snow disappeared.

A bit of a scramble back up to the road

 Skis on our pack, a dirty scramble up the slope to the road, and then a short walk to the snow line. 

Whew, back on skis. Donette skis across the buried campground at Onion Valley.  The tracks ahead reveal that someone had fun today.

We skied in to Onion Valley, then climbed further into the mountains.

Donette trying to stay warm in camp.

 The winds had been raging in the mountains for a couple of days, along with a bit of fresh snow Thursday.  Friday night it all calmed down, and we enjoyed a clear, calm, beautiful evening.

Our original idea had been to climb and ski the N. Couloir on University Peak, the rugged 13,600' peak to the right in the picture below.  However,  with the high winds, new snow, and subsequent warm days we didn't feel that was a very safe route, so we set our sights on something a little less risky.

University Peak in the background, our camp is on the toe of the ridge in the center of the photo.

We figured the South facing slopes would be the safest bet, especially if we got an early start and finished before it got too warm.  We spied this 11,700' un-named peaklet a little further in from our camp, and decided it's south face would be a good days fun.

Our Saturday objective

We awoke before dawn, made breakfast, and were off shortly after sunrise.  The day was clear and calm, and our surroundings were spectacular.

 We started out on skis, but switched to boots as the slope steepened. The snow wasn't fully consolidated yet, and our boots broke through the frozen crust on most steps.  We hoped the crust would soften and still support our weight on skis for the descent.

Donette booting up the slope

 We climbed a little more than half-way to the top of the peaklet, and then decided to see how the skiing was.  It was excellent, so we put the skis back on our packs, climbed to the top, and skied the whole thing.

Happy couple on top

We made it back to camp in the early afternoon, and spent the rest of the day relaxing, playing cards, and later, as the winds returned, building wind walls to shelter our tent and kitchen. Since one of the more tedious chores of winter camping is melting snow for water, we found a break in the ice on the lake below and refilled our water containers.

Directly across from our camp was another south facing slope, culminating at a 12,000' high ridge.  We decided this would be a good objective for Sunday morning, as we could ski it, then break camp and return to the van.

The view from our camp.  This looked like a prefect slope to ski Sunday morning.

The winds howled again on Saturday night, and Sunday morning dawned with a wall of clouds to the East.  It was still clear overhead though, so we opted to climb the slope and hope that the sun came out enough to warm it.  We had a more relaxed start, as we knew it would take longer to warm up today.

Starting out under cloudy skies

 We again started on skis, but switched to crampons as the slope steepened.  This slope was much firmer, and our crampons bit confidently into the icy snow.

Booting up the steepest part of the slope

Ray topping out with University Peak in the background.

We were rewarded with fabulous views in all directions. Since the climb had only taken about 2.5 hours, we sat and had a snack and waited for the snow to soften a bit more.

Pano looking North at Dragon Peak

Pano looking south

The skiing was still firm on top when we dropped in, but got better and better as we descended.  As it was only 10:30 when we finished, we looked around for a little something else to ski before we packed up to leave.  We decided to do a lap on the steep East facing hill right above our camp.  The snow was much softer here.  As Donette dropped into a steep section between two cliffs, the wind loaded surface layer slid away.  She was able to ski out of it, but it we decided it was probably best to call it a day.

Our tracks dropping into the small slide

Whew, glad to see her tracks coming out of there!

We quickly broke camp and began the ski back to the car.  It took us only a joyous 25 minutes to ski the 2 miles and 2,000' of fabulous spring snow back to the road.  Much more fun than the 3 hour hike in!

We drove to Lone Pine, had some tacos (highly recommend the Bonanza Mexican restaurant), bought a thick, juicy rib eye steak, and headed for one of our favorite camping spots, the Alabama Hills.  We found a secluded nook, showered, and spent the remainder of afternoon basking in the sun, playing music, and watching the mountains disappear beneath the lowering clouds.  There is just no place like the Eastern side of the Sierra!