Eric L. from Sierra Pacific Coffee and I went down for a winter Eastside backcountry Ski trip. Since the release of the new eastside skiing book, all of us have been drooling for a chance at some of the newly described lines. With my new Deuter Cruise 30 pack, Black Diamond Verdict skis, and a whole bunch of other gear on my back, we headed out to see what we would find. After starting on dirt and hiking for about an hour around the north side of Convict Lake, we then donned our Black Diamond skins and Eric, his Prior splitboard, and we got to skin for about 45 minutes until we hit the couloir. Once at the base, we put on our crampons and started booting up the thing. About 100 feet wide in all locations and with very little sunlight hitting the snow, the snow conditions were variable to say the least with some avy debris and other sluff. We hiked for about 3 hours until we made it about 7/8ths of the way to the top where a rock choked the rest of the path. In a heavier snow year, this probably would not have been an issue, but this year it was. Being at a real steep section, we decided to down climb about 100 yards and then put on our boards for the descent. A killer trip that will be repeated sooner rather than later!
- Dave down in the bottom left of the photo. Good shot to see the steepness of the couloir.Eric shows some sluff coming down with him.Close to the top
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