2.16 and 2.17.2008 Eastern Sierra – Mt. Perkins East Peak

East Peak of Mt Perkins, Eastern Sierra, CA. 2.16 and 2.17.2008

This weekend was a tough call, surf or snowboard? I think I bounced back and forth with that thought about a million times. Usually surfing comes 1st, but this time I decided on the mtns. Glad I did, as it was another amazing weekend in the Sierra. Left fri. eve with heavy traffic, trouble ahead trouble behind and you know that notion just crossed my mind (oh yeah its a holiday weekend?!)

I had been looking at Spook canyon for a couple of years now and this weekend seemed like as good a time as any to git er done.

This one starts in this area, Sawmill is the lowest of the high passes TH’s

night shot of the peak with spook and another nice couloir. that glow on the bottom right is division creek powerhouse. it was very nice camping for two nights. bright moon and lots of shooting stars.

looking south, kearsarge in the middle and williamson on the left

overslept the 4am alarm, but better a late start than never. my 1st look at spook. it looked like it would be good, but there were some cliff bands at the bottom that looked like trouble.

camp. this is one sweet place to hang out for a couple days!

low start. you can drive around to another spot a couple hundred feet higher but i liked this spot for camping better.

the lower reaches of the canyon. there was plenty of snow on the north facing side of the drainage making for a nice approach skin.

the entrance contained one rather large pile of debris

climbing up, getting interesting….

unfortunately it got kind of “cruxy” at this point. above me there was a big cliff band. now let me explain that im not really a technical climber (yet anyway) im into this strictly for the love of the descent. i had no protection and being solo i wasnt about to risk serious exposure to get above this cliff. i started trying to scramble and see if i could find a route around it but it was a no go. so i decided to call it and head back to the truck for the day, enjoy the valley and regroup for another spot on sunday, or so i thought….

I rode out to the bottom of the couloir and was about to head back when i started looking at the other couloir to the left of spook. i had looked at it earlier in the year and it looked filled in enough to give it a go, plus it was only 1pm. so i climbed up that one to have a look…

i noticed some tracks coming out at the bottom of this one when i began climbing, someone else had the same idea 😀

only got to about 9500ft in this one since i started so late, but it was an amazing run, with great snow. older powder in the couloir and transitional corn at the bottom.

i ended up going into independence for dinner and contemplated my route for sunday. i decided i wanted to go back to the couloir i had diverted to on sat, and try to finish it.

DAY 2

this time no sleeping in…the early bird gets killed with two stones!?

here comes sunshine! spook on the right and the other one (nameless?) on the left is what i was aiming for.

lower part of the approach… it was easier bootpacking with the hard morning snow

climbing was easy following my bootpack from the day before. up higher the tracks were gone from whoever had been there before me…

only part of this is exposed to the sun and only in the morn. it was very cold all day especially higher up.

some variable conditions existed but it was mostly old powder on the lookers left side.

well this wasnt spook which was what i came up to ride, but it was just as good and a very interesting line

very good snow in this part.

almost a vertical mile directly above the owens valley.

getting near the top, it was a bit exposed up here to the winds and the snow was a bit crusty also.

part of this couloir shares a knife edge ridge with part of spook canyon. at this point my cam battery died! from now on im carrying two batteries, oh well!

anyway my progress was stopped here also a couple hundred feet from the top as there was another exposed cliff band. i wasnt even going to try and find a way around this time. i had climbed far enough so i turned around and rode that thing out. after that it was time to go soak in the hot spring!

here is a close up of the top of both lines. spoooook on the right and my sunday line on the left. spook does look like if there was good snow it would go from the top.

division creek powerplant

blackrock springs rd.

left to right – sawmill pt. – division creek drainage with coliseum above it – and on the right perkins east peak