Spring is one of my favorite times of the year to ski – the weather is nicer, the days are longer, and the avalanche danger generally reduces. It’s the perfect time of the year to explore new terrain and plan bigger days out in the mountains. This particular season I was also on track to beat my overall record for total number of days skiing and was quickly approaching 50 total days. This was only possible because I had made a much bigger effort to prioritize days in the mountains than ever before. I moved to San Francisco, got a job with unlimited PTO, and joined a ski lease in Lake Tahoe with a dozen other friends from the bay. There we skied nearly every weekend in the season, and frequently made trips out to visit friends out of state when the opportunity rose. I had also just gotten back from a two week trip to Canada to ski in the Canadian Rockies and to go on my first backcountry hut trip to the Purcell Mountain Lodge. Now it was time to get out for the spring and finish out the season strong. I had bookmarked a bunch of weekends in a row for big days in new terrain and the first one on our list was my first tour in the Eastern Sierra.
Quite a bit south of Lake Tahoe lies the ‘East Side’ range, it marks the crest of the Sierra and generally lies between Bridgeport and Lone Pine. In this region are the vast majority of 14ers in California and some of my favorite destinations to camp and explore. We decided to scope out the Twin Lakes area in Bridgeport for this weekend and had a group of four all from our Canadian hut trip a few weeks prior. There were a few objectives in mind, but the night before we were still deciding whether to commit to the couloir left of the “Incredible Hulk” or to ski in the Horse creek drainage two valley’s over. Both started from the same trailhead, but we were afraid the drainage to the Incredible Hulk would be muddy and unappealing in the warm Spring conditions. After a long drive, we made it to the trailhead and camped on the road in true dirtbag fashion. In the morning, we packed our bags & ate a quick breakfast before making heading on our way at ~6 am. We wound up choosing to head towards Horse Creek and made our way with hiking boots and skis on our backs across ~1500 ft of elevation and switchbacks. Eventually we made it to the snowline and transitioned to skins. In the distance we could see both Matterhorn and Horse Creek Peak, which were both sharp granite peaks that rose high above the snowline below. Many other parties were touring that day, but nearly all were headed to the “Ski Dreams” couloir next to Matterhorn. It looked spectacular, but Horse Creek was equally cool, had less people, and was new terrain for all of us.
Before we got there, we were met with two steep headwalls and a long valley before we made it to the basin of Horse Creek. We ate a quick lunch when we arrived and discussed what objective to prioritize. Two couloirs sandwiched the peak in front of us, which both looked pretty spicy. On our left was the NE couloir, which reminded me of the Big Couloir at Big Sky, MT. It definitely required two ice axes and the headwall was narrow and rocky. the NW couloir on the opposite side was definitely the more mellow of the two, so we headed that way and I secretly put the NE side on my tick list for the future. As we skinned around to the NW side, it was clear this objective was super cool. There were three chutes in total and we began to boot up a medium difficulty line. I set the bootpack and had two axes, but probably could have gotten away with just poles. We made it to the top after having climbed ~4500 ft for the day and felt great. The snow was a bit variable, but still soft enough to make good turns as long as we avoided the icer shaded sections. Regardless we had a blast skiing down and debated whether or not to make a second lap. At the time I decided to just go down, but we definitely should have gone for a second lap. The way down was still a ton of fun as the headwalls we climbed up were great for big arching turns in soft corn. Soon we were back on dirt, but spotted a sneaky patch of snow that led us nearly back to the lake trail. Overall it was a big day both in terms of milage and vert, but couldn’t have been a better start to the spring touring season. The setting was amazing, the couloir was challenging but well within our ability, and our group got along great.
One week of work passed before I was making another 6-7 hour drive from the bay area to the Eastern Sierra. This time I was staying with two friends from LA in a Mammoth Airbnb and hoping to get some laps in for their first tour of the season. That first night we all chatted through some ideas for what to do, but ultimately decided on heading to June Lake for some sidecountry within a zone called “The Negatives”. In the past I heard June Lake is a beautiful resort and it was on the Ikon pass, so this was the perfect location for an introduction tour. We began the day aiming to get on the first chair a little before the peak chair opened, which was great for sleeping in more than usual on a day like this. Three chairs later, we made it to the top of the resort and looked north to our objective for the day. Carson & the Negatives peaks both looked amazing and had a ton of different options for the descent. We figured we could decide between them once we made some more progress towards the Negatives summit. The skin track was relatively straightforward and we were following a ton of others on the way up, but our group was a little less experienced than usual. Really this just slowed up the pace a bit and I was able to soak in the views on the way up. The tour was only ~2000 ft, so before I knew it we had reached the summit and were joined by 2-3 other parties. All the lines coming off the ridgeline looked awesome. There were clearly a lot of other skiers in the area and conditions were still prime corn, so we opted for a central line on the North face.
We traversed to the start of the line and saw a glorious slope below us. There were plenty of tracks below, but the snow was soft and not bumped up at all, making for some great and playful turns on the way down. We descended in two pitches and rested briefly at the base of the slope. Again there was another 2nd lap debate, and we made the same mistake again. Opting for a single lap was the right idea, but next time I’m definitely shooting for more. Soon after we made it onto an open meadow and pointed back towards the resort. We made a hilariously bad path back by making a bunch of unnecessary course corrections along the way, but eventually made it back to the resort and skied some groomers to end the day. The line we skied was super visible at this point and it was definitely on my mind to come back to this zone for the future. However, the next day we just skied some fun inbounds laps at Mammoth resort and headed back early for the long drive home. The following week I’d be back for even more spring touring, but this time I’d be even further from home.
This was the second year of my friend Devin and I’s journey to the East Coast to try and ski Mt. Washington’s Tuckerman’s Ravine. We both went to school in Boston, so there was a well timed reunion in the spring and a good excuse to make an adventure out of the trip. We had originally planned on staying at a friend’s cabin in Franconia with a big crew, but many bailed and we wound up skiing with a trio and still snagging the cabin. So after a long redeye flight across the country, I woke up in Boston and began the drive over to Tucks with Devin & Stink. It went relatively quick, but when we arrived we somewhat hilariously learned of a bachelorette party nearby and had to make a brief appearance. Somewhat unsurprisingly, we also learned that the next day would be pretty bad conditions for skiing: warm weather and rain. The third of our group, Stink, had come from Colorado and was puzzled as to why we still wanted to ski. But Devin and I were hardened from an East Coast upbringing and were unphased. We even bought some dollar store snorkeling gear to help us breath in the rain and give us some good energy for the following day.
We woke up the next morning to more rain and headed to the Pinkham’s Notch trailhead. Once again we would be hiking with skis on our back for pretty much the whole trail. This was also our Colorado friend Stink’s 2nd time touring, so he rented gear, wore an airport style boot bag as a backpack, forgot his crampons, and for some reason did not bring pants. We figured he’d figure it out and made our way up the Tuckerman’s Ravine trail and up to the base of the slope. The year prior we had hiked straight up the ‘chute’ on the main headwall, but this year we opted for an easier climb up the Left Gully in order to avoid needing crampons. It was still a bit spicy with ice patches here or there, but overall we made it to the top pretty quick. We even traversed over to take a look at the chute, but decided the conditions were variable enough to not take the risk of falling (a fall here would not be good). Instead we headed back to the Left Gully and started our way down. Unfortunately Stink’s ski almost immediately pre-released and he slid a hundred feet or so down the gully. He did manage to self arrest and was totally fine outside being a little more spooked for the day. Devin and I figured we’d just hike back up for lap 2 (did it right this time) and meet Stink where he was. This time we traversed even further in order to ski a new line called “Hillman’s Highway”. This was a mellow, but long gulley that ran outside the main ravine. We threw on our snorkeling gear to navigate the rain and made our way down the wet & mogully slope below. Skiing this was my favorite part of the day so far and we were spit out much further down than the Left gully would. Greeting us was the Sherburne trail meant for a ski descent, but given its lower elevation it was in pretty dire shape. The three of us navigated river crossings, lots of rock & dirt, and several sections where we hiked down grassy slopes to save some hiking on the way down.
Soon enough we were back down to the trailhead and done with another big weekend of ski adventuring (~4500 ft of gain). We took a pit stop at White Mountain Ski Co. to drop off some skis and wound up trading a coffee for a trip report (see https://whitemountainski.co/blogs/white-mountain-backcountry-conditions/wet-day-at-tucks-4-26-25). After some good chats with their crew, we made it back to Boston to celebrate our reunion and finally end the trip. Skiing Tuckerman’s ravine was also my 50th day of skiing this season. Although I still had more in the tank (ultimately ended the ’24-25 ski season with 54 days), I was incredibly proud of my effort to ski more this season and develop a strong group of friends to go on more adventures with in the future. Next season I’ll aim for even more days touring and hopefully opt for the 2nd lap every time.
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