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Left San Diego Friday around Noon. It was nice to leave and see open freeway instead of a sea of brake lights.
I was going to meet Fullers2Oh and BGNight at acampground just outside of Independance CA.
Got to Lone Pine about 7:30 and waited in town for Dave. This was the scariest part of the trip.
The local Sheriff kept cruzing by and I was waiting for him to Release like an avalanche and ruin my night but luckily Dave showed up and we slipped out of town to the north.

Alpine Start

we camped near the trail and as soon as everyone had their shit together we were going up the road



We were heading up to Armstrong Canyon Today. A place Dave loves

Finally started seeing some snow on the road at 6000 ft



BGNight and Fullers2OH enjoying the sunshines return to the Golden State





There were a couple of creeks to cross



As we gained altitude the desert gave way to Snow





BGNight pauses for a drink. He is one fast skinner





About an hour later we were getting to the Canyon Proper. The scenery had chaged quite a bit



We had planned to hit up the headwall in the background. But my slow ass and constant filming slowed us and we had to redirect to a closer chute






Mr. BGNight kept getting smaller and smaller





Fullers starts up the chute




Due to the time and snow conditions I decided to find a good spot to film from and dave continued up. By this time BG had made a corner and was no longer in sight



OK.....Im ready on my end




I did have some nice views as I waited for the drop.







BGNight dropped first into a mixed bag of conditions. Some crud...some glaze and some fun.
Most of the riding I filmed so sorry for the limited riding shots. Maybe Dave will add some later.

We did find some nice powder in the trees and I got a few shots of Dave as we exited the canyon around Sundown










It was another Great day in The Sierra. Thanks Dave and Brooks.

I jumped in the car and headed south. Most of the weekends I would spend Sunday doing the same thing....but I was on a mission. I wanted to
bookend my day in the mountains with a day of good surf.

Made it home at 1 am ...went to sleep...woke up..took the Huskies out for a run and got the boat loaded.

Made it out to Dolphin Tanks at 12:30 sunday afternoon. As I rounded the point the wind was howling and I figured my day of waves had been blow into Mexico. But lucy for me it was only the wind howling down the canyon off point loma. I pulled up to the reef to see 6 boats and a calm surface,


And consistant 4-6 foot waves with about 8 people out. I proceeded to do my other form of slashing. Freaking amazing day out surfing with a few people on peeling waves.

What a great way to wrap up a great weekend.


And just as I pulled the anchor and was getting dressed I notice 2 guys sitting on a Jet Ski holding up a red flag. Turns out their battery cable had broken and the ski wouldnt start. It was about 4 pm and the sun was getting ready to go down.
Lucky for these guys I agreed to tow them back to the harbor.

So for a wrap up thats one day at 10,300ft and one day at sea level on 4-6 ft and one at sea rescue.

Life is an adventure

Great TR, Tex. Of anyone on this board I think you make the biggest commitment towards finding untracked snow. Looks like it was well worth the drive.

Tex, nice TR and I'm glad that your ride was on the snow and not in the squadcar. Good to see BG, Fullers and you got some sunshine and snow riding.

Great day, can't wait to go back to Armstrong Canyon. Glad to see you got some waves Tex!!!
Thanks for showing us this area Dave.

Here's some pics. Didn't lug my good camera up and at one point dropped my point and shoot only to see it slide away on the windboard about 200 feet and catch some air over some rocks. Luckily Tex saw it and got it for me. A bunch of my pics had the shutter stuck halfway shut so I didn't post those. I rescued a runaway glove of his later so it worked out.



leaving the bushes


where I dropped my camera


Dave


This is a breathtaking view


I'm gonna go back for this someday:


Here's the one section of really good snow I found:


Some pics on my drive home:


I've seen a TR on this. I just might have to do this soon.........stay away kthnx.


He votes Democrat:

Sweeeeeeeet

Wow - great pics and beautiful terrain. That is a noble destination for sure. BG - how'd you get that great eagle shot?

Walker canyon outside my car from like 100yds w/ a 420mm lens. I cropped it down a lot to make the bird bigger.

Oh, and Tex. I can't wait to see myself riding frozen slop/windboard in HD!! I'll be sure to turn down the volume

How wide is that chute at the end of your TR, the one you are targeting for sometime later? Looks pretty narrow.

I dunno. Wider than it looks. I can't find the old TR. It's not too steep either, but it's reeeeaaally long. It's a huge terrain trap, but conditions as they are it seems like a good time to do it.

We just went up this canyon yesturday (Tuesday). Fun canyon with a nice mix of terrain, if you block out the bushwack to the entrance. It looks like we started a little earlier, so I was able to get the headwall at the end of the canyon, while the other two I was with hit the same line you guys did. I thought the snow was pretty good overall. Variable, but some nice buttery shots. [/quote]

[/quote]

Nice job, did the other guys hit our chute in the sun? Was it good?
Were there other nice gullies to the lookers right of the headwall? It's hard to tell what goes through that face.

Yeh, the other guys hit the same chute and probably in as much sun as it was going to get (around noon), but only did the lower half. It did not look too good, a bit overly sun affected on the apron.


I sense you are thinking about some of the sqeaker shots on the right side. A few of them went part way, but with the sun angle would be dangerous with rock fall and sluffs. I herd plenty of stuff falling while I was booting. The direct right which was sluffing a bit and the main large left ramps are nice and filled in with a great pitch. I went up the main left and exited on a right fork about 4/5 of the way up. The snow was really good in this far cirque by the headwall. Hellish knee deep booting though.[/quote]

sorry it took so long to get these up. 1st i misplaced the memory card with these shots, 2nd i was still recovering all week from the last weekend so i was feeling a bit lazy. glad you guys came out for this trip it was fun. tex thanks for filming! bg good to have met you...i agree with tex's comment you are one fast hiker!

so let me jump back a bit. i had a very long day last fri, and fri eve i was still working on getting back to my truck, got a bit of the altitude sickness on my way down and it really messed with me. so it screwed up the plans for the real alpine start on sat morn and for that i'm sorry. i also learned a lesson here....if im gonna meet people dont plan a big day just before.

anyway now onto the overdue pix...


the tree there on the bottom marks the end of the road to goodale, its a good landmark to shoot for.


this lower part is usually a dry bootpack


tex making his way up with about 2000 lbs of camera gear


the canyon proper, with nice wide approaches on the left and right sides, its an amazing place to be. the only negative was that it seemed like the winds did their thing and made the fresh snow go bye bye.


there goes bg with the verts!


getting late...


bgnight




bg making the best of the not so good snow conditions.




tex riding with all that camera gear!


tex heading thru the trees in the lower canyon


bg


tex looking like he's about to drop in a big white wave. i think lower walls of the drainage held the best snow


tex