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a few years back i went up to koip for my 1st time. the view up there is really sweet. from there you can see blacktop's north face. one look at that peak and i knew i would have to go back there to ride it sometime. that sometime was this past weekend. it was truly an epic adventure with two 12k summits in one day.


this shot was my desktop wallpaper for quite some time.
taken 5/29/06. that was a much bigger snow year!


met up with robert (RJC) and got an early start on things. staging at the TH its hard to believe im gonna carry all that crap on my back for two days!


next morning - hiking up the parker canyon. from the TH to parker lake is a few miles of dry hiking on summer trail.


then at the lake you loose the trail and its cross country to the snow. you dont gain much elevation but its kinda far back. at least the low snow was still there in the canyon. i was happy once this was behind us.


once you get up over the canyon headwall and up a little bowl you reach this nice alpine zone. koip pass is the low point in the middle and where we were headed.


robert skinning over the pass. this was my 1st skin all the way up and over a 12k pass like this.


this is a shot of parker peak. once you are up at the pass there are all these peaks that are conected, mt wood, parker, koip, and kuna. i guess it is a popular area with the summer hikers for peak bagging. i thought it was very interesting how the next peak east of koip was almost completely naked yet koip had so much snow on it!


the 1st views of blacktop were quite motivating for me. felt good to see what we would be riding sunday.


robert chillin on a dry patch on the other side of the pass. there was only one small area of dry and the rest was mellow low angle corn all the way down to camp. that ride sure felt good after climbing about 4k ft with the overnight loads.


once we got down to the alger lakes we picked out a great camp spot and enjoyed the rest of the day.

had i known what was on the back of koip, i would have climbed to the summit to ride this>


next morning we were up and going around dawn. nice mellow quick climb to the base of the chute we intended to ride....


....and some primo corn


the walls of this chute were very asthetic with some really cool patchy black rocks all neatly stacked sideways. i think i can guess where "they" came up with the name blacktop.


robert finishing up


views from the top did not suck. this is the backside of kuna.


and again - what we missed - or i overlooked - on koip. i was really expecting the south side to be dry.


looking south to mammoth


and bitter and ranner were looking quite majestic!


got a million shots like this. so boring. nothing to see up there. moving on now.


found the register and took care of busniess.


and now its time for the riding shots. please excuse the overexposed shit, im such a kook i should look at my meter once in a while.


it was perfect corn snow in the chute. there was some rockfall which caused some major potholes but only messed up a bit of the middle.




riding with the axes wasnt really needed except at the very top, but it was good practice.


the view from back at camp...time to pack up and head back to reality.


i cant resist - one more pic/view from the top of koip. it was fairly easy to skin all the way to the summit. that was also a 1st for me.


looking down the south side from the summit, i really had to fight the urge here. oh well, next time


views to the north also sucked...dana and toooallome


and finally robert riding down from the summit of koip

Bad Ass dave. My feet hurt just from reading the TR Nice Shot of RJC off the top too

yeah, that looks like a pretty fun zone. you need two nights back there imo.

Right on...know what's going on the hit list for next year! Nice work gentlemen

Did you guys opt for the use trail on the North side of Parker Canyon or was there enough snow to gain the headwall on the South side?

Art:


Nicely done guys.

Sickness! This zone sure does look fun!

we took the south side (north facing) which still had plenty of snow, however there was one small dry section at the very top.

Great TR, looks like lots of options in every direction. Big mountains! Thanks for sharing.

Nice! Those last couple pics looking back up at rjc are money... looks like riding on a giant field full of cauliflower heads. (Those are like chickenheads, but much more fun to ride!)

The 2nd installment:

Parker Lake


Dave making his way up to the headwall


Happy to be skinning. Once you get above the headwall the approach to Koip Pass is really enjoyable.


Crossing Koip Pass with Parker in the backround


Camp


The view from my humble abode for the night


AM scenery


Dave climbing the couloir



Dave on the summit of Blacktop


Looking down on our line (on the left) and our camp (on the penninsula) from the summit.


Time to shred the gnar! dave goes 1st






Skinning to the summit of Koip


Dave dropping in


Tracks from the summit










Some fun on the way out


Looking back at the canyon ready for some Mo

Wow - great work & fantastic camera work. Thanks for giving us a look around that neck o' the woods! Man the Sierra is vast.

Dave,

What bivy are you using here? Do you usually bivy?

Nice signature, i can almost feel the speed.

Oh and nice line boys!