The snow is finally coming - time for tramshoeing :)

[Ellen]

Howdy All

Woo hoo!!! Looking forward to playing in the white stuff. I'll be on the first tram up with friends on both Saturday and Sunday.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[EMan]

Mark & I are also planning on seeing y'all on the 1st tram.

Think I'll bring the skinnies since my new hiking boots aren't broken in sufficiently and my feet aren't in the mood for my old Invernos...

[Ellen]

Howdy EMan

It will be great to see you and Mark in the boarding area tomorrow

It's always interesting to go from hiking in shorts and t-shirt in the desert one weekend to snow atire and associated gear on the following weekend.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[KathyW]

Wow, this is going to be great - lots of people to break trail.

[Ellen]

Howdy Kathy

... lots of people to break trail.

Yes, I remember when you assisted the rangers in breaking trail last fall after the first big snowfall

It will be great to see you out there, my friend.

I'll be on the trail with Lilbitmo.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[bluerail]

two of us trying a c2c tomorrow...hope you guys have the trail good and packed by the time we get up to long valley.

with luck we'll make it pass the bar.

[KathyW]

I'm not going to make it up the tram today - I'm hoping to head up tomorrow though.

On a side note - Be careful with your internet shopping. I was hit with a pile of fraudulent charges in the last few days because someone hacked into my ITunes account. ITunes has been no help resolving this issue, but my bank is working on it. I spent hours yesterday evening and then again this morning dealing with this issue and wasn't able to get ready for this morning tramshoeing trip. I've had to file two fraud claims so far and it looks like I'll be filing a third one because I still have pending charges.

[NormaR]

Ouch Kathy! sorry to hear that. i have had my debit card hacked twice first time wiped-out my checking though the bank replaced it within 10 days. now there's an alert on my acct so they caught it when the transaction was requested, blocked it and locked my card. hope your damage resolves quickly.

[lilbitmo]

Kathy we dearly missed you, sorry that you have to deal with hackers stealing from you. Hope you get it all settled before the holidays are over.

I had someone swipe my card at a gas stantion counter one time, next thing I know it they were buying 6 inch heels, garter belts, and other items from "Fredricks of Hollywood", that was the first week (I called my wife and said did you use my "out of town credit card" to buy some stuff for Fredricks?) her answer was "No, but I'm glad you noticed it before I did or you would have had some explaining to do - true story - next week they bought of all things a $1,000 worth of "Puzzles" and had all of them shipped to Banning - so my thought was there's a "Midget out there (6 inch heels ) parading around naked for someone while they build Puzzles" - go figure.

As far as snow shoeing today, the wind was relentless on the ridgeline near Cornell - long story.

I let Ellen post and then I will add to that.

[Ellen]

Howdy All

In a word: Brr...

Met Patrick and Bryan in the boarding area, which had a good assortment of snowshoers and BC skiers. Eman and Mark were also on the first tram. Dropped off the permit and headed out sans snowshoes until we reached the Sid Davis drainage. After Patrick and I dug ourselves out several times we donned the snowshoes -- Bryan had wisely put his on earlier.

Patrick's pre-trip weather report -- "Partly cloudy with a slight chance of fun" turned out to be right on the mark. We had an uneventful climb to the outhouses in Tamarack. It wasn't too cold even though it snowed on and off. No sign of the sun. We caught up with several BC skiers and followed them out of Tamarack.

The ridge we were switchbacking up seemed a bit steep for the old Tamarack route. Although we had a GPS, we were content to follow the skiers. The snow was primarily soft but had occasional hard areas. It shortly became clear that we weren't on the right approach for the Miller saddle. At this point, Mark, Bryan and I headed straight up to get on the top of the ridge and orient ourselves. Once there, we were disappointed to discover both visually and via GPS that we were on the ridge just east of Cornell Peak.

The Iceman picked this precise point to blast us with artic gusts and blowing snow We discussed our options and decided to retrace our steps back down to Tamarack valley. The skiers shot close by us on the way down, which was a bit unnerving. Once in Tamarack, we talked about whether or not we wanted to try for Miller. By this point, however, we'd had enough of the cold and the weather was deteriorating significantly.

There were several more inches of snow when we reached the ranger station and headed up the cement. Said our hellos to Patrick and boarded the tram -- the white out reminded me of touching the void. Patrick and Bryan took a rain check (make that a snow check) on lunch at La Casuelas so I feasted alone.

So, are any fools (er, snowshoers) interested in going out again tomorrow?

Miles of smiles,
Ellen