January 25, 2015, - Great Scott Bowl

Eager to do something on snow but not enough to drive all the way to Paradise or slog the Heliotrope woods, we toured up toward Source Lake at the crack of 10 on Sunday. As mentioned in another report the traverse to the lake is in better than expected shape, with a few straightforward creek crossings. The beaten track is a bit more up and down and circuitous than normal, might actually be faster to just boot it. From Source we hung a left to go check out Great Scott Bowl. Route up was ok, pretty crusty in places so we booted the top 2/3 or so. Steps should be in for you for a while should you care to go up that way. Where the route normally trends left before popping over a shoulder and into the bottom of the bowl, there is currently an open creek and waterfall. We stayed right of that, making for a bit steeper route and a little sketch on thin snowpack, but no major problems.

We toured up most of the way to Pineapple Pass, but turned just below due to icy conditions. Looked like there was freezing rain earlier in the week, a shiny shell of ice everywhere. The screeching of our edges against it was pretty deafening, but we saw no debris in the bowl and there is good coverage so at least the surface was consistent. Some decent corn on the way down to source and debris from a small natural slide that I'm guessing had happened in the last couple of days before. Track out to the lot was fine, lots of snowshoers on such a sunny day.

Any day in the mountains is a good day!