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(Fullers2oh is gonna put up some more photos later on. These are just the ones I took. (My new Canon SD800SI P&S is sweet!)
Dave(fullers2oh) invited me on an adventure this weekend and I couldn't resist. Mt. Irvine is out of the whitney portal up the meysan lakes drainage. If you ever have any questions on anything south of Big Pine, ask Dave. Every time I think I've "discovered" something, he's like "oh yeah, that. Here's how you approach it...etc"
We were joined by Henning, his German buddy from socal. Cool dude and strong rider (likes to haul ass).
Dave wanted to get up at 4:00 but I whined and talked him up to 4:45.

The portal has so much awesome granite:


Dave leading the way into the dark. I think he was upset that a glimpse of light was showing over the horizon already


We had about a mile of dry trail before we started skinning:




Lone pine peak:


Some amazing alpenglow in the morning:


The north ridge of Lone Pine peak. This is an amazing climb w/ only a move or two of 5.6. I highly recommend:


It was extremely warm today. Not a breath of wind. I resorted to eating snow on the last stretch of the climb cuz I ran out of water and that was after filling up on some dripping ice.
Skinning in the heat:


After a few hours we turn the corner and get a view of our objective. The chute in the right of picture here:








It was a long grueling climb up the chute. Luckily it was perfect verting conditions as the snow was really soft. I had to wipe snow on my forehead multiple times to cool off. I was surprised how hot it could get at over 12,000 feet.
Finally get to the top and make the short scramble to the peak (13,770 feet).
Looking down our line. We actually rode a different entrance just to the lookers left of this:


Whitney:


Williamson and Whites in distance:


Kaweah's:


Henning poked his head out of the chute a short time later followed by Dave. I'm wondering if I made some more conVERTS:




It was time to reap our rewards shortly after. This was Henning's (hope I spelled your name right) first backcountry in the sierra's and the highest elevation he's been. Considering he came from sea level too, he kicked some ass.

Getting ready:


The top/steepest part of the chute had gone in the shade and had gotten somewhat crusty, but the rest of the chute was nice and soft. Definitely not epic conditions, but considering the sierras haven't had snow in a long time it was some very fun riding.

Henning:




He rode the last 500 vert in 3 turns. I could barely get a shot off:


Dave:










Damn, we do good work!:


I had a great time hangin' w/ you guys and thanks again Dave for the invite. I never even heard of Mt. Irvine before this.[/img]

Another great trip report from the night stalkers. Great pics, I can hardly wait to see the ones F2oh adds.

Have I missed your AK trip reports?

Lol about AK. Rain/snow every day. Then the day I leave a local gets killed in an avalanche right off the road doing backcountry .
I did do epic amounts of drinking and got to hang out w/ Nick Peratta.
The Great Alaskan Bush Co. the day before my flight back was by far the greatest highlight.

Nice work.

The east side does seem a little thin this year.

I know it wasn't a big/average year, but wow.

Guess it's good news for climbin' season.



Jesus! You're camera is sweet! Look at those stars!

do you guys tie ice axes to you and hold them when you descend?

I like riding w/ an axe on steep stuff sometimes usually when the snow is on the firm side. It gives me a sense of security. Really just depends on the conditions, steepness, and my confidence. It's funny, I've seen people riding w/ axes in a few different ways. Some ride w/ them in their lead hands by the handle. Some by the rear hand by the head and some in the rear hand by the handle (how I do it).

Awesome TR! Way to get after it.




But... does anybody else see the irony in riding with an ice axe but no helmet? I dunno - it's maybe like riding a motorcycle with full leathers and a back brace and no helmet or something.

After a trip with Jon Dahl I copied something from him. He has a very short ice axe. I have not seen him ride with it, but he used it during a sketchy downclimb section we had to cross to get to our drop in objective. I got myself an old axe and shortened the handle. The reason I did this was to have one to potentially ride with that would be effective for self arrest if needed yet not as cumbersome to ride with as my 70cm axe. My sorter one is about the lenght of my forearm so I'm comfortable riding with it without fearing self implalement. I'm not really an experienced climber, but have climbed some. This seemed like a blending benefit of some riding safety gear adopted from the TRs I have reviewed here and conditions I have come across that give me cause to think of adding safety measures.

I do ride with a helmet, have every trip for the past 12 years or so. I took that up after going to the school of hard knocks (literally) as I was blind side railroaded in Spain by a runaway skiier who hit me so hard she destroyed my board while it was on my feet.

I keep missing out on the good ones. Looking real thin already.

Not my season. Looks like yours though

Love the Sierra TR's!!

BG thanks for getting this one started....nice shots!

I have had two other trips up the meysan drainage this year, its nice to have some company. Great day! Thanks for joining me Brooks and Henning. It was one long day and both BG and schwalbster pushed right on. BG kicked ass with the boot pack (in verts) up the chute and I was happy Henning made it to the summit (he was maybe a bit concerned about altitude, rightly so). It was about 6k of climbing and 5k of riding. Im so slow I thought with such a LATE start we wouldnt make it but it all worked out very well.


there is quite an approach to get back there. some on dry trail then a good skin to the base of the chute.




brooks is getting smaller and that entrance is looking a lot bigger close up.




most of the chute gets some good sun exposure which helped to soften things up a bit, but not too much




this last little section seemed to go on forever!


Schwalbster coming down from his summit scramble....


and entering the chute...


...and streaking by at mach speed


now its BG's turn










henning on the lower section. some funky snow, nice and soft, but not too soft. no signs of instability.




looking back on the day's work, well worth the effort.

More sweetness, great update of photos. You guys rock. It looked like one beautiful day to be out riding with pals.

Nice shots Dave! I'm pumped up for more!!!
I'm still drooling over Coliseum ya know