I had a break from the East Side of the Sierras when I went down to San Diego for Jason and Chelsey's wedding. There I did some mountain biking and even a little bit of boogie-boarding. Then I stopped off in LA on the way back for some more mountain biking (I even biked to THE ULTIMATE DESTINATION!) and some surf kayaking - or more accurately surf ski-ing. I had a good time and caught some nice waves and even managed a few rolls some of the times when I flipped, but I also seemed to get an awful lot of the Pacific in my sinuses. Then the mountains called, so I went - first to Lone Pine to pick up a permit and to camp in the Alabama Hills.
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I headed into the Sierras from Onion Valley near Independence on June 18. After a few miles on the Kearsarge pass trail I cut southish at Flower Lake and headed uphill in the snow on my skis. Sometimes it was a bit steep for the skins, but it beat post holing. I continued uphill onto University Peak. At some point I left the snow and started up the talus and rock instead. I was pretty tired and going slowly and sick of carrying all my stuff, so I stashed my backpack and headed on up w/o the burden. I wasn't sure if the way I was going would go, but it did (with only a few sketchy rock/snow climbing moves. By the time I got to the 13,632 ft summit it was pretty late (after 7 pm) and not very warm with the wind. I decided to head down a different way, which worked out, but I am not sure it was the best plan. This had me kicking steps down a pretty steep snowfield. I am impressed by the guy that skied down it earlier in the day as it was steep and narrow - definitely out of my league. After much downscrambling, post-holing, and gnashing of teeth I made it back to my stuff and found a reasonably flat spot to spend the night (with a little work it was as long as me and just a bit wider with a nice lip so I couldn't roll over and down the mountain). It was cold and windy that night, but with all my warm layers once I was in my bag I wasn't actually cold - a nice change from plenty of other trips. Since I couldn't bring a pile of Yogaslackers for insulation I had to settle for carrying it myself. There was a long and beautiful sunset that evening.
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The alpenglow the next morning was pretty sweet too. I had to put on crampons to cross a snowfield and then stopped before skiing on the next one to cook some breakfast in the sun (and with a bit better wind shelter). This let the snow soften marginally before I skied down to the base of a pass. I kicked steps up the pass (to the north of University Peak) and then skied the other side down to Kearsarge Lake (which was mostly frozen). Then I traversed around another lake in the basin and found a nice spot to camp. There I stashed my food and sleeping stuff and headed towards an unknown peak that looked good (it was Mount Rixford).
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I had to cross a number of snowy and dry sections getting to the base of the peak which was a little frustrating. Then after skinning up a ways I switched to the talus which felt a little easier, but not much. I was feeling weak and moving slowly. Finally I got up to the top of the snowfield I planned to ski down and stashed most of my gear. It seemed like a quick little jaunt up to the summit from there, but in reality it was quite a distance - but without the added weight it was easier. When I got back I got set to ski. Gulp. It is always a bit scary for me to ski down things that get steeper as they continue (so you can't see what you are getting into). I knew there was a steep section with some cliffs and rocks I had to get through too. The first part was fun sweeping turns but when it got steeper I stopped every turn to try to plot my descent. Finally I could see my path. As I cut across the steepest bit there was a small soft slush avalanche which I waited 'til it stopped before continuing down the constriction between the rocks. I was pretty excited to make it without wiping out. Once the angle lessened a lot, the sun cups and runnels began to be annoying, but they weren't that bad. Unfortunately I had to take off my skis a few times to cross snowless sections on the return. It was nice to be back at camp in time to dry everything out and cook dinner without being cold. I even had time to read for a while. Unfortunately the sunset wasn't very good although the clouds blowing in did look cool. That night I was warm enough even though I wasn't wearing all of my clothes!
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The last morning I was on a pretty relaxed pace and I talked to some guy that hiked by for a while before hiking up to Kearsarge Pass. There I talked to a bunch of PCT through hikers and stashed most of my gear and headed up Mt Gould. The 13,005 ft summit was a nice little boulder pile but otherwise it was just a long talus slog with a snowfield for good measure. I continued on across the summit plateau to look down into the Rae Lakes basin and check out the radio repeaters up there. I had 4 bars on my cell phone but it said emergency calls only, so perhaps they can connect to the park service system in an emergency.
I hiked and glissaded back to the pass where I talked w/ another batch of PCT through hikers (and gave them my sunscreen and took their Subway trash) before putting on the skis and heading back down the trail. I was mostly trying to maintain altitude as I traversed the slope and then to find a clear snowy path down as far as I could. I had to walk a few sections but I managed to make it almost to Little Pothole Lake before I switched back into my comfy Inov-8 boots to hike the rest of the way out.
Back at the trailhead I talked to yet another group of PCT through hikers (this is the season) that were coming out when I was going in. I also cooked up a big batch of spaghetti for dinner. Then I headed down into the hot lowlands where I turned north and soaked off the trail grime in the hot springs that night.
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