2005, Sourdough Chutes ROCK FESTIVAL June 11-12

wow, what fun day. the weather more or less held.  here's a sample photo of Skip.  we shoveled enough snow to fill the chute for him to ski it ;).



fotos:
 1.  Dege Peak seen from Sunrise Point (hair-pin), and in red are some of the lines we skied
 2.   big boys' toy. and it has big teeth.
 3.  nice turns, joedabaker!
 4.  gregL makes it look easy.
 5.  Frank, hold me...
 6.  BBQ in the parking lot.  Skip, please pass the mustard.

more to come...

that pic. is awsome! :D

Thanks for the great pics Kam!  I've always wanted to ski those lines, and sorry I couldn't make it today.

Sorry, Ron, after the fun on Dege Peak, while you guys were back at the bend in the road grillin' and sudsn', Joedabaker and his usual posse took a bunch of us for a tour of Sourdough Ridge. We tracked up pretty much every spot that looked decent except for the bowl west of Antler, and Dan, Chris and Jessica were taking care of that as we walked down to Sunrise!

Great fun and cool to meet some more of the TAY regulars!

RonJ answers an "equipment" question

Joedabaker was happy to show us the goods

Kristina upheld the honor of the snowboard contingent

Jessica does not look piste here . . .

Kam learns from my mistake and doesn't ram the rocks to skier's right

Matt (kuharicm) checks out his smooth tracks

Matt M. (legs only, sorry), Joedabaker, Darci and Matt K. enjoy the brief sunny weather

Chris (Scotsman) was Master of the BBQ for the "B" group

We tracked up pretty much every spot that looked decent except for the bowl west of Antler, and Dan, Chris and Jessica were taking care of that as we walked down to Sunrise!

The A group (with reference to gregL's B group) BBQ was packed with beef. When the grills were packed up, some packed it in. After some lengthy banter, weather watching, and false promises with remaining folks, only the garden burger bunch (Cass and myself) followed Jerry and Dan up the ridge to find another line. Halfway up the meadow trail I noticed Skip's truck in the distance pull away from the parking lot--Kam riding shot gun. Minutes later the rest of our morning crew, AKA the "B" group, descended from their extended morning tour. Cass and I were heading to the untracked bowl just to the west of Antler peak.  In the lee side of the snowpack we put on our boots and Cass stashed his tennis shoes in the trees. Then we dropped in. The thin cover on top yielded nothing-but-buttah in the big bowl below. The sucker hole was right above our heads. Sunshine and shadows all the way. JW and Dan met us in the bottom of the bowl and agreed that it was one of the best bits of the day. Then, they set up a video camera on a ski pole to document their next adventure. Prepare yourselves for a 30 min. clip of their climb to Fear Factor. As the sucker hole began to close, we climbed out. The meadow was teeming with anenomes just poking up their spring time heads. Fuzzy new stems now glistened with precipitation. At the car, the snowflakes caught the lingering sun, stuck to fleece and smiling faces. Snow and skiing in June!

Great to put faces to TAY names. Thanks for another great day in the mountains. Thanks to Chris Cass for these photos.
--Jessica

Definitely a fun day out!  I'm going back for round 2 today (which reminds me, I guess I should get going to make make that "alpine start" (12:00 noon) :D

edited to update for Sunday:

flash forward to Sunday evening:
Another fun day at the chutes:  Kam, Allyson, and I arrived at the crack of noon, just in time visit with JW & Ron as they returned to the parking lot after their morning of turns on Sourdough Ridge.  
We skied 2 more lines off the north side of the ridge, which several other TAY skiers had visited earlier in the day.  Nice to see several other folks from the Saturday crowd out again today!
The weather was better today (nice views at times when the clouds parted from the mountain), though the snow seemed a bit "grabbier" than yesterday.

Thanks for sharing all your Sourdough Chute photo's they're great ;D.  I'm back from my sabbatical  ;), and while I was away I was thinking woe is me, I'm missing the Sourdough Chute fest,  >:( but then suddenly it was WHOA is me  ;D!  We also had mountains, mountain lakes, bike riding, and BBQ too. You can see a few mountain camping photos HERE.

Wow, great photos guys.  It was really fun to meet and hangout with everyone in such a great place.  
I really missed out by not hitting Sourdough after the grill fest.

, though the snow seemed a bit "grabbier" than yesterday.

Chris-I also noticed that the rocks were a little "grabbier" Sunday.

What a great weekend! It certainly was fun to hook up and ski with the several poster children of TAY. By the way- great pictures Kam and GregL! Good to ski with you! I'm glad you came along for the ridge tour. Like a bunch of Prospectors looking for white gold along the ridgeline.

There was a Scott mitten found up on the hill and may belong to one of crew. If anyone claims it, I have it.
Joe

I was worried about the weather and the snow coverage - and both turned out more than fine.  Sunday was another example of my motto for this sometimes challenging ski season "That was a lot more fun than I was expecting!"  Joe - I did ski that one skinny chute, but I can't say that it was very smooth.

. . . I'm missing the Sourdough Chute fest . . .

We missed your hot hand at the grill too, Mad_Dog, but Chris filled in just fine!

A few more pictures here:

O'Brien Cycles

Hey Guys-

I'm enjoying all the pictures from Saturday and the website in general.  Very cool! I just wanted to let you know that my name is Darci not Dana. Especially, since I hope to go skiing with you all again sometime.  I hope you all are getting a chance to enjoy the sun.

Darci

Sorry, Darci, I'll fix that! At least I got the first two letters right, better than my turns in that little cleft in the rock!

though i was bummed to miss saturday, i was glad to get out for a "mini" chute fest on sunday  :D.  ron j and jw, it was good to run into you in the parking lot, thanks for warming up the slopes for us!  cass and kam--3 cheers for the crack a'noon club! ;D

Just now getting around to getting up some pics from this last weekend's ROCKFest...
What with me trying to get used to a new camera, the pictures are not much to write home about but, nonetheless, seem sufficient to give those that couldn't attend a bit more visual info on the conditions.

After leaving early on Saturday (we missed you, MadDog, especially at the barbie that you graciously loaned us ;) looks like the camping trip was furitful, tho... we could us one of those fish on the barbie :D) and not hearing of anyone else returning on Sunday I thought there was a chance I'd be skiing leftovers solo on Sunday.
As I approached the last hairpin on the road up it was obvious that it had snowed lightly and tracks we'd left on DEGE PEAK were not visible from the hairpin.
No more had I parked that JERRY came driving up.  Ema, Pete, Stefan and Becky then showed, followed by Nick, Rich and Kenji and the Greg and his son.  Before we knew it we had a SKIER QUORUM and headed up towards the Antler West bowl.

It turned out that the cool weather overnight had refrozen all the tracks from the day before and the dusting of freshies from the night before hadn't helped as the wind had been out of the north and scoured all the fresh off the refrozen.
As Jerry and I watched the others work their way down the skinny line of refrozen "chicken heads" we became less and less enamored with the prospects of skiing that bowl.  So after the last one headed down and there was no one left to photograph, we headed west in search of a line that might have survived the skier onslaught from the day before.

Sorry, Ron, after the fun on Dege Peak, while you guys were back at the bend in the road grillin' and sudsn', Joedabaker and his usual posse took a bunch of us for a tour of Sourdough Ridge. We tracked up pretty much every spot that looked decent except for the bowl west of Antler, and Dan, Chris and Jessica were taking care of that as we walked down to Sunrise!

No worries, Greg.  Besides, you guys missed THIS ONE so Jerry and I still had a virgin chute to have our way with.  I got some fairly good footy of the Jerman skiing that one -- I suspect he'll get around to putting in his viddy when he gets to it.
We worked that line until the snow at the bottom got a little grabby, then traversed out the bottom towards the line above the top of the main trail out of Sunrise.  But, alas, Nick, Pete, Becky and the rest of the gang had already nailed that one by the time we got there.  In most years skier action in the chutes just smoothes out the snow and makes the skiing better but the lack of consolidation on much of these north facing slopes this year convinced Jerry and I that it was for us time to fire up the barbie again.  
We ran into "Nooner Patrolers" Joe, Carol and Mark just as we started down the trail and Kam, Allyson and Chris in the parking lot.

So, how late did the rest of y'all ski before calling it a day?

After we did three of the chutes it was either the Freemont glacier or Burroughs. Since we could see two long runs in the distance, Burroughs was it. Made all the way to 7800' point just below main Third Burroughs summit. Low viz but best snow of day there as crust held. Standard SE run off Second nice. The steep east wall coming off First got the adrenalin pumping. A natural kicker/cornice exists for the young and invulnerable. If heading up this weekend, the trudge to Third may be still worth it.
Got back to cars after six. We were hoping Ron would be there with brews and barbie but alas, everyone had left.

Very good time!  Dan and I are working on a full account of the action. Until then, here is a short trailer to tide you over 8)
      Preview .... Sourdough Rock Festival

We ran into "Nooner Patrolers" Joe, Carol and Mark just as we started down the trail and Kam, Allyson and Chris in the parking lot.

So, how late did the rest of y'all ski before calling it a day?

Ron-Carol, Mark and Da'baker went and skied A Chute to the basin and booted up PL Chute. Where I spotted Greg (good to see you again) good to hear you skied that chute! We headed to Antler where the sun took the edge off of the ice and made some great corn skiing to the lake. We lounged and ate lunch booted up to the saddle and the group called it quits.

Good to ski you both daze!
Joe

here is a short trailer to tide you over 8)

Nice trailer Jer :D !  Looks like the Sourdough Chutes produced some goodies.

(we missed you, MadDog, especially at the barbie that you graciously loaned us ;) looks like the camping trip was fruitful, tho... we could use one of those fish on the barbie ):D

Thanks, it's always nice to be missed, and yep, those fishes they were so delicious on our bar-bee. 8)

Better late than never:
the  crew heading up Dege Peak
gregL laying down the fat turns
Joedabaker hopping the sloppy stuff
matt: big, fast turns
the ear canal
turn #3 of 4
el toe

Jerry, excellent video!  and nice photos Greg, Ron and Skip!
here are some more..

saturday
1. joedabaker carving corn down Dege
2. gregL lets 'em run...
3. ronj having his way with it..
4. Skip
5. that's right.

sunday
1. road to Sunrise.
2. Cass skiing a Sourdough chute.
3. Allyson dishing it out for the crowd...
4. Allyson and Casswipe (pronounced 'Cass-we-pay').
5. Allyson.

Hey, I liked that video  :)

And this pic could be in a car ad:
road to Sunrise.

Phil: thank's man, BTW you're Mt. Maude epic was great! Good call on the car add.  

JW-Can't wait to see the vid. Us dial up guys have to wait for the visit to the high speed library.

Kam and Skipper-Great pics! I like the form on RonJ and the point Em attitude of GregL. The clarity of the Rainier shot is superb!
Joe

JW, great preview viddy -- fun tune, too.
And yeah, I also agree with Phil, Kam's road to Sunrise is a cool pic... the title reminds me of this shot.  
You guys just keep adding cool pictures... is there no end to the fun here  ;D

Tried to resurrect a few more with focus/exposure issues in PhotoShop . . .

skip

Scotsman

kam

JW

Matt M.

Joedabaker

Nice trailer, Jerry! Can't wait for the full length version!