2.24.2008 Eastern Sierra – Lookout Pt.

Lookout Point, Eastern Sierra, CA. 2.24.2008

This is the real lookout point! A while back now I posted a TR and mistakenly called Sawmill Pt, Lookout. Anyway, back then after I checked out Sawmill Pt. I made the decision to go and check out the bigger sister peak which is just south of Sawmill drainage. These two nice peaks sort of stand guard over the entrance to the Sawmill drainage. There is something about this section of the Sierra that has me returning week after week.

After working very hard all day sat. I was able to escape LA and get up to the mtns, sometime after midnight. It was an exciting drive because I knew what would be waiting, some deep powder! Along the way I saw a small building in Independence which had partially collapsed, and later found out it was from the winds on sat eve. As I was driving thru Lone Pine the power went out. It was storming pretty good in the valley.

I woke up and got to the TH after snapping some shots. It was looking beautiful as usual in the valley!

a 1st look at the area i would be heading to. the sun made a brief appearance, popping up over the inyo at sunrise.

the oak creek fire burned a lot, this area was not spared.

the owens valley is the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow

the center of this photo is the entrance to the gullies on the east face of this peak. thats where im headed. barely visible in the upper right corner is the peak.

this gate grants entry to an amazing place! having never been to this spot before it was nice to find a rd that lead right to where i wanted to go!

the planned route was to head up the center then to the lookers right there was a gully that lead up right to the summit, again barely visible here.

probably the lowest start i have ever had. usually in the south most places start between 6 and 7k. the nice thing was i had to hike only 800 ft to get to the snowline and start skinning.

the storm clouds hanging over the sierra were dumpig several feet of new snow. i figured there was no rush with this hike, the longer i took the deeper it would be! looking across the valley to mazourka pk. mazourka canyon is a really fun mellow downhill mtn bike, with almost 5k ft of descent.

kind of surprised even the low snow was powdery, a bit wet but not the usual slushy slurpee low snow.

heading up into it.

there were some very nice treed sections all the way up this area

soft sweet powder!

the sun kept peeking out thru the clouds and it was sort of sunny and snowing at the same time. the storm seemed to come in waves, it would snow very heavily for a while, then back off, then dump again.

the views out across the valley were nice.

getting my 1st peek at the upper section.

the “gully” was lined with these really cool terrain features. riding some of these on the way down was so sweet!

the upper treed sections were amazing.

getting near the top it was really dumping.

looking down about a vertical mile into the valley.

from the top looking out into the clouds…random mysto spot….this has been added to the list 😀

nice little ridge line

time to drop! this was an amazing run, definitely the best of the year so far. almost 5000ft of powder. i rode this thing out in one clean shot. it was quite a rush. face shots and knee to thigh deep powder till the lower section.

well if you made it this far thanks for taking the time to check out the pics 😀 sorry i dont have any riding shots as it was another solo mission, although this one would have been nice to share. im so happy to have gotten this one done with the conditions as good as they were. its tough to describe with words how i felt – still feel, words really cant even begin to describe the stoke.

till next time…aloha!