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Alpine Extremities

Saturday March 28, 1998

March was pretty dry and sunny here in the Tahoe region of Northern California. Our over 20 foot base from the February storms (notice how I did not call the storms "El Nino") on our upper elevations settled to about a 15 foot base when it did not snow for a couple of weeks. Then winter decided to come back for a while and it is still snowing. A couple of storms into this renewed winter, I finally got a chance to get out to some of Alpine Meadows outer limits (yes, I went there too). Through several visits this year and last I have got lift access to fresh powder on good terrain for boarding. During all of these visits the weather or snow conditions did not allow the Alpine ski patrol to open the ridges, so I had to just look over at all that beautiful and challenging untracked acreage and drool.

Buttress

Promised Land

The storm total for the previous 2 days was 14"-23" and the weather was partly sunny with temperatures around 30 degrees F and 10-15 mph winds from the west. After sessioning the lift accessible terrain right when the place opened, the traverse/hike to Bernie's bowl was open. It is an easy hike. The drop off the cornice was big and fun with a steep and soft landing. Then I rode the top edge of the middle spine and found a rock to chute line that shot me out into the flats of Bernie's bowl. I stayed as high boarders left as I could and got to hit the front-side wind lips (front-side for regular footers). I worked my way through some semi-tracked pow to the last tables at the bottom of Kangaroo. Back to the top on the summit chair and it was time to hike out the high traverse. As I came around the backside of the summit I surveyed the situation and determined that it would be to my advantage to just drop the cornice and work the gully and the ridge in CB bowl. I did not want to be the first snowboarder to make post holes all the way out the ridge. The powder was fantastic and the pitch was nice for letting it run. The lower part in the gully was kind of flat for how deep the pow was; even with a larger board. You have to take the Sherwood chair to get back to the summit chair on the front-side to do it all over again. The next lap I made the decision to go all the way out to the last ridge that feeds you back to Sherwood chair without a major hike. There are so many dips and humps in this hike that I forgot how many times I put a boot in my binding and glided and then hiked some more (at least 5 or 6 times). At the last hump that I planned to hike in the ridge there was just skier's traverses and one other snowboarder and I. We traded off taking the lead as we post holed to where no one had been. All that work and the pay off was: a small rock drop into wind buff and about 1000 vertical feet of untracked bliss through the trees along the ridge to the flats. With a few boot pushes I was back to Sherwood chair. I got some nice lift access freshies boarders right side of Art's knob on my way to the Lakeview chair.

I ran into Kevan Roskam and friend. We decided it was time to check out the outer limits of the outer limits. This area is out of Alpine Meadows ski areas boundary. At most resorts this kind of out of bounds activity can get you in trouble. Most of Alpine's boundaries are national parks and possibly because they do not feel like being cops; whatever the reason, they have a liberal out of bounds policy. You should not ever go into closed areas to get out of boundary access. However, when everything is open; word has it that you can venture out at your own risk. You should be aware of the avalanche hazard when you venture out there, be with a buddy, and have the proper safety equipment (peeps, shovel, probe, etc). You have to rely on yourselves so do not get hurt or you will be facing expensive rescue bills. The fresh snow was a little thinner and starting to transition since this area faces southwest and the sun was peaking through the clouds. The run had a nice pitch for flowing turns through the open trees and dropped us off down on the road. With a short walk along the road we were back at Sherwood chair.

That is "Our Father" over in the middle left of this picture.

After some fun and adventure through "Our Father", it was time to go explore farther out the ridge toward Estelle bowl. The traverse/hike to Estelle bowl is an easy hike but it takes a little while. The drop off the cornice was fun and then I stayed high on the ridge that takes you to the Buttress. I worked my way through a chute and found an appropriate rock to drop skier's left on the ridge. I did not cross a track from there all the way to the parking lot; everybody starts to traverse back to the lifts. Hey, if I can hike all the way out there then I can walk across the parking lot for 20 or 30 more fresh turns. Even though I was tired and hungry, the last run was so fun I had to do it again. During that last hike, I was thinking how amazing it was that I was able to descend over 1000 feet of steep untracked in bound powder at 3pm.

It all made for a nice day even though it is true that I had to do a lot of hiking to get most of the freshies after 10am. If you really like untracked powder this place is well worth checking out. It was a long 8:30am - 4pm kind of day and I explored to almost all of the boundaries of this large resort (and little beyond) and I still did not even make it to all of the hidden treasures. Well, we should leave some secret stashes just that: Secret! Top security! Need to know basis! And I still need to be able to show my face in town. Alpine Meadows attracts the more humble backcountry type of local; so if you are a humble backcountry type I'm sure you can befriend someone to show you some nice stashes. Seek and you may find a well packed boot pack leading to untracked nirvana.

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