Down in my cups. I recognized quickly that last week’s rains had made the sun cups substantially worse, plus it’s a little cooler and firmer. I figured at any given time, only twenty percent of my bases were actually touching the snow. This could be a long day. Hopefully it’s still smoother in the steeps anyway. I suspect this epic season is about done, so much snow it interfered with the skiing, haha. (and as it turns out, that was it. 69 days, 361,200′ total vertical feet, on thirty different peaks, averaging 5,200′ per day, which, oddly enough, has, until recently anyway, been my rough seasonal average for years, a vertical mile, even in a monster year like this, biggest ever, so far?)
I skied the steep gully at left (and erased the weather station on the peak at right).
The practice hill
Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis)
Mountain Jewelflower (Streptanthus tortuosus), Brassicaceae, it’s chlorophyll still waking back up.
Western Wallflower (Erysimum capitatum ssp. perenne), Brassicaceae
Spreading Phlox, (Phlox diffusa), Polemoniaceae family
Dwarf or Skunky Monkeyflower (Diplacus mephiticus), Scrophulariaceae family
Dwarf or Skunky Monkeyflower (Diplacus mephiticus), Scrophulariaceae family, come in either yellow or pink
I tried skiing down here but ran out of snow after a couple hundred feet. The snow was softer on this exposure, but was mostly just melted away.
The peak at center is called Melissa Coray Peak, for the pioneer woman who crossed the Sierra here in 1847 with the Mormon Battalion, when she was eighteen. The neighboring peak here, with it’s more abundant decolletage, has been referred to as Mariah Carey Peak.
The top of my ski line is looking choppy
scarcely made a mark
but it looks better below
still scarcely made a mark though
Let’s go there. I generally make it a point to ski my whole fall line, to avoid that feeling like I am taking a bit of the cookie, then putting it back in the jar and taking another, but these suncups are about ready to rattle my fillings loose, so I just flip around and head back up.
Headed back up, past the pink snow algae, I heard meltwater running in the rocks across the way, and stopped to fill my sack. Maybe the pink adds electrolytes? Ha ha. Yeah, no. Don’t eat the pink snow.
Head in the clouds, eye to eye with giants
I know there’s a line in here somewhere
There was.
Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) curled up in a cozy nook.
Skis are the perfect tool for covering ground like this, while the talus is buried and you can just glide for miles.
Sky was darkening and rumbling as I departed, the cloud bellies laden with the day’s convection moisture.
Cute little ski terrain decorations along the way back, which I am content to simply admire from below in passing
.
With a final resounding boom from behind, to hasten my way.