An Eastern Sierra Goodbye

During the second week of our trip, it got really warm. Unless you wanted to start before sunrise or ski mush, this limited your options. We felt like the north slopes of Carson Peak by June Lake would be an excellent morning tour.

The parking lot was strangely crowded, more crowded than we had experienced during the entire trip. A group of Freeride Bros with Shifts and Kingpins sized us up in the lot, asking which line we were skiing. They seemed relieved when we said we were just skiing Carson Bowl.

We post holed along the summer trail until at the base of Devil’s Slide, a north facing gully. The snow finally had a slight refreeze around 9k, but was soft below that already.

The east facing aspect getting from Devil’s Slide to Carson Bowl was already deep mush. But Carson Bowl itself was firm and pleasant to ascend.

For a relatively low Eastern Sierra peak, Carson Peak offers a unique view. No fewer than five large lakes are visible, the largest of which is the distant aqua blue Mono Lake. Reversed Peak sits in the center of a perfect ring of lakes.

At the ridge, we heard voices. There were a few parties ahead of us, going over the true summit to likely ski Pete’s Dream, a steep skiing test piece. Word must have gotten out the line was in good shape or something; that would explain all the cars at the parking lot!

For Logan and I, this was our final Eastern Sierra tour before heading north once again. We relaxed and soaked in the views one last time.

When it was time to ski, the Carson Bowl was ripe and enjoyable. The position was magnificent.

The snow was bad below Carson Bowl, but we quickly descended through it to the trailhead.

While Carson Peak may not have been the most epic finale tour, it was pretty much summed up our trip together – scenic, enjoyable, Type 1 Fun with friends.