Desolation Skiing

A few friends and I took off for a little excursion to Desolation Wilderness this past weekend. Berghorn and I skied in on Friday morning after getting a wilderness permit and sorting out the parking situation with the US Forest Circus, CHP, and some sheriffs officers who thought we were up to no good. Eric warded them off at the back of the car while I talked to CHP on my cell phone in the front seat. Nobody really knew what to tell us, and we ended up just parking along the road (the parking lot is closed all winter - brilliant). If it were to start snowing, we would be towed! Luckily, it didn't. The Forest Service hadn't issued a single wilderness permit this winter for the Pyramid Creek Trailhead at Twin Bridges, across from Lover's Leap. So virtually none of the snow was tracked.

Digging camp on a warm, windless day after skinning up the steep brushy slopes.
Meanwhile, Andrew and The Chiz were skiing in. Eric (Chisholm) brought a massage table up the hill with him, okay, not really, but we wished he had. They got to camp and we had a nice dinner.

Next morning the weather changed. Wind and clouds, and we were nervous about getting towed if it started snowing, which was in the forecast for the afternoon. Eric made breakfast, some amazing pancakes from scratch, and we watched the clouds.

After a while it started clearing up. Chisholm held down camp while the rest of us headed toward Pyramid Peak.


Weather was windy and funky, so we blew off the summit and headed down the awesome east slopes. Andrew dropping in...

Crossing bear tracks

Gunning it for camp

Andrew was pretty psyched on his new split board, hit the steeps and caused a little slider on the last drop. Luckily, we didn't have to use our avalanche beacons.

The weather was supposed to come in overnight and we didn't want to drive to Placerville to pick up our car from the impound, so we blasted out and caught climbing legend Fred Becky's slide show in South Lake. Good times indeed!

Whipped boys watching tv in the hotel after a great couple days schlepping loads up and down the hills. Next time we'll forgo he packs and blast it in a day.


Motivate...

Instigate...

-Jerry
http://www.jerrydodrill.com