April 11, 2004, South Peak, Sierra Nevada

Easter Sunday was sunny and warm at Grover Hot Springs Park.  We started the day with a soak at the hot springs with the locals from Markleeville.  Monitor Pass at 8314 feet just opened and provided an easy access to highway 395.  Began heading south towards Bishop. The eastern Sierra Nevada range became more pronounced.  Reached Conway Summit just north of Mono Lake and noticed the Virginia Lakes road had a closed sign but was not gated so we did the obvious.  Do you really think anyone from the highway department would be working on Easter Sunday?  As we traveled further west on the Virginia Lakes road, we noticed the snow plows, grader and blower. A few 10 foot drifts were passed as we gained elevation.  At about 9000 feet the snow became more consistent and the snow covered peaks became more impressive.  As we neared the end of the plowed road at 9700 feet our mouths were a bit open as we looked at all the ski able lines on Mount Olsen, South Peak at 11,400 feet, and Black Peak at 11,760 feet and the local prize, Dunderberg Peak at 12,374 feet. Our usual casual start meant that the chutes on South Peak would be a great place to carve some Sierra corn.  

Parked the camper next to a 7 foot snow bank and started skinning at 9700 feet.  This is how spring skiing should be. Forget the bushwacking, rock spree portages and ski crampons.  Lather on the sun block and start going vertical.  The climbing was a joy.  The only challenge was adjusting to the altitude.  We topped out about 11,000 feet and started a barking festival as we carved in creamy corn.  Decided to make only one run so we could roll out the lawn chairs in the sun and analyze the inside of a couple of Samuel Adams beers.  Life is good.   Decided that we need to return again tomorrow and ski Dunderberg.  Drove down the road a bit and parked the camper next to a stream and spent a relaxing evening planning our next tour.  We could see a cell tower a few miles away and tried our phone.  Yes, Verizon was providing a strong signal in this isolated pull off, next to a stream at 8600 feet in the middle of nowhere. Called all the kids to make sure they were doing fine and planning to work on Monday. You have to live long enough to enjoy making those calls.

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