Sally and I headed up yesterday to see if the recent snow had provided more coverage for the north chutes of San G and the Big Draw. At the Poop Out hill lookout, we were astonished to see snow going nearly all the way to the top of the ridge. Yippee!!!
We crossed the creeks after the Dry/Dollar Lakes junction, donned snowshoes, then started cross country up the left side of Christmas tree hill. When the winter route started to traverse next to the creek (going towards Dry Lake), we started our own route and headed up a ridge. When we topped out, we stayed to the far left of the moraine field. The snow had consolidated significantly and we did not post hole. Woo hoo!!!
Before long, we had a good view of the north chutes and Big Draw. The Big Draw had snow all the way up to the ridge. As I've only done this route twice and wasn't sure about the coverage, we opted to stay with the western most north chute -- it looked like it had the best coverage. Headed up a gully that took us to the "staging area" for the north chutes. We were still in snow shoes, using our elevators. We decided we'd switch to crampons when the conditions changed. Amazingly, they didn't. We pulled out our ice-axes at about 10.5 K and continued up.
At the top of the chute, the snow tongue thinned a little bit before ending in rocks about 50 vertical feet from the ridge. Took off the snowshoes and scrambled up the rocks to the San Gorgonio backbone. We came out at the junction sign for San Gorgonio and the Sky High trail. An icy wind was blowing steadily at 25+ mph. Made our way over to San G and walked up a small ridge of snow to the summit. We enjoyed lunch protected from the wind and could see snow in the southern Sierras.
We donned microspikes and retraced our route back to where we had topped out. Rather than scramble back down through the rocks, we were able to walk down the ridge west of the north chutes -- it was free of snow and offered good footing. From there, it was a matter of deciding where we'd re-enter the snow for glissading. Pulled out the ice-axes and traversed over snow and dirt to a point near our snowhoe track. I went first and started glissading.
The snow was fabulous -- it was easy to control the glissade and self-arrest. As we dropped, I got braver and went faster. When the slope (and our speed) decreased, I moved over into our snowshoe track to see if I could keep going. Bump, bump,. stop. Rats, fun's over. Sally came up and asked if I was OK as there was blood in my butt track. I had barely grazed my thigh with the pick when positioning for one of the runs. Even though my pants weren't torn, I'd scratched my the middle of my right thigh. Tied my bandana around the area to staunch the flow of blood. We put the snowshoes back on to head down.
Retraced our route to the top of the ridge we'd ascended, then headed down a gully to the right of the ridge. Eventually intersected the winter route going up the east side of Christmas tree hill. Took off the snowshoes when we rejoined the trail before the stream crossings. In Horse meadows, I had a wild hair and took us off trail down hill. We eventually ended up on Jenks Lake road about a half mile up from the trailhead. Not doing that again. Based on the outcomes of some of my "routes," I'm lucky Sally still hikes with me. Enjoyed a fabulous cheeseburger at the Oaks before heading home.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
Sally will post pictures soon.
Sorry it took so long to post these photos. 