April 3, 2013, CircumnavEarlicious

Thanks to the ulrich's dudes who posted that the teanaway was driveable to the beverly turnoff. The spur road is snow covered except for a few short patches in the first 500 feet. I suppose it will melt out to the trailhead in about 2 weeks.

I was hoping that the first creek crossing would be snow covered, but not. It was easy crossing in boots even in the afternoon. Upon reaching bean basin, the creek crossing to earl was still snow covered. Yay. Things were frozen solid, and I needed my new ski crampons to make it to the NW shoulder of earl. Booting would have been tiresome since the snow pack was soft under the initial layer of frozen. Skied a few turns toward ingalls creek then skinned to the southeast side of earl. Things were a little too soft at 11am, but still fun. Skinned to the summit and skied the SE bowl again. Still a little soft but quite good, minor donut action. Then at about 1:30 skied the west facing chute of earl under perfect corn conditions.

Things need a little more consolidation since after that initial layer softens, I would auger into the concealed mush below. However this was easily managed by choosing a slightly more northly aspect.