2/21 ski descent TR photos and video

[sdtrackrunner]

I decided to head out on the AT gear again on Saturday to see how the snow is holding up. We got a late start from the tram station at around 9:50 so we had to hustle to have any snow that was more for skiing than slurpees. The temps were warm and the sun was shining for most of the day. I skinned through tamarack directly toward the summit of San J. My friend Matt was on snowshoes (snowboard strapped to his pack) and was able to follow a pretty well established snowshoe track for almost the entire hike. The snow in the forested flats was deep, mushy, and unconsolidated, but easy to travel over with skis. I was able to skin directly up the final east slopes of the peak without switchbacks... the snow was pretty sticky on top due to the mid day melt. We were on the summit at 1:30, had some lunch, enjoyed the views and then headed down for some sweet moderate skiing. Skis will glide almost all the way down to the tamarack trail junction, while Matt had to switch to his snowshoes for the tamarack flat section. There were not very many people going for the summit considering it was such a nice day. We saw 5 other skiers, and 3 other people on snowshoes.

Photos:
http://brentcoe.smugmug.com/gallery/7444170_DhdKp

Helmet cam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC2DYdfkOzM

-Brent

[EMan]

Nice reliving my run of the Sunday before!
The Ents came close to taking you out a few times, haha.

[Perry]

Nice! I like the part between 6 and 7 minutes.

[skisyphus]

Brent,

I saw you and your buddy at the summit. I had been down in the hut waiting for my friend to come up and saw you guys and the other two skiers ski past so I went up to ask if you guys had seen him. This was my second time on top --earlier I met the other 3 skiers in your photos.

I was on AT gear- black skis w/dynafit binding kinda like yours

I skied off towards Cornell and stayed on the sun warmed snow which was pretty nice.

If you cross the bowl between SJ and Cornell and then keep a high descending traverse across Cornell you will get to nice open slope which drops into Tamarack. Since this slope gets late afternoon sun the snow is usually pretty good.

Thanks for the video that was fun---great way to "explain" to the guys at work what I was doing last weekend.

Jim

[NormaR]

brent,
thanx for posting the video! i've been saying i wanted to buy some gear since ski mountaineering would be the blend of two of my favorite sports. your video is pushing me closer toward that purchase. my friends and i hiked Cornell that day and started up the base of San J at 1:05. so you were one of the skiers/boarders we saw coming down. great job!

[lilbitmo]

Nice pictures, great video.

Hope to be able to do that someday.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

[SummitGreen]

that's great footage! when do you think the snow will hold till?

I'm hoping for another quick storm in march to blow by for some fresh powder

[sdtrackrunner]

Glad you guys liked the video. That was the first real test of the helmet cam... so far I really like it. Its the VIO POV 1 in case you're in the market. I'm going to try vivian creek this weekend, no idea how that will go on skis. There are even more ents there.

skisyphus: long live the dynafit binding! Lets try to post on here before we head out so maybe we can meet up some time for a ski.

NormaR: I know exactly what you mean, its the perfect blend of two great sports... its also a heinous gear addiction that never seems to be satisfied. You have been warned.

SummitGreen: not sure exactly how warm it has been this week up there, but on saturday the snow was getting seriously wet and heavy in the afternoon. If it gets cold again it will be an ice rink for sure. The snow should stick around for at least another few weeks above 9 or 10k.

[Snowhiker]

Thanks for the post.

Great pics and the video is very cool.

[Rick F]

skisyphus, sdtrackrunner,

I'll jump on the Dynafit binding appreciation bandwagon. I skinned/skied San J. last weekend. It was my first excursion on backcountry ski equipment, but now I'm hooked. I think I'm ready to try Baldy next. My next free day is Sunday, March 22. I hope there will still be some ski-able snow then.