basin>tom

would like to dedicate the weekend’s adventures to kip.

went to check out two quintessential classics of the bishop skyline, basin mtn and mt tom.

quin·tes·sen·tial/ˌkwintəˈsenCHəl/
Adjective: Representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class

carpooled up with a few of my so cal bro’s – rjc and darrick – the only objective was to have fun. weather was touch n go on sat for spring corn (cold temps/winds) but sunday was looking perfect, so we decided to leave mt tom for the better WX day.

the road is bad out there this year, without some good 4×4…. we had a rough 😆 10:30 am alpine start. it was cold, so just hoping the south facing line would soften. mostly it did. so thats basin on the right, with its classic ski line, but we headed for the left shoulder instead hoping for a better chance at finding soft-ish snow. the run is very comparable to the main ski line, just about as long, i think i would like to call it basin side guts

it was a great skin up most of the way. rjc booting up the final section.

when we ran out of soft-er snow it was turnaround time.

darrick got a new venture. looks like he had no probs dialing it in.

darrick surfing the white wave on his new board. tilted? 😉

rjc

great times on basin, as always! then we went to enjoy the rest of the afternoon in the valley, as well as go out to the TH for mt tom on sunday. we got some killer bbq in bigpine town then headed up the old road to elderberry cyn. there were a few folks camped out along the rd so we knew we wouldn’t be alone in the morn. again you need to have good 4×4 or hike from the bottom, also expendable paint!

we got an early start as compared to sat. but if we were going for the summit it would have been nice to get up pre-dawn. the snow was just up a couple hundred ft from the TH but not in the best shape.

booter up the bottom bottom gut

once the sun was up for a bit it was easy skinning, not too warm, but i was sure it would soften up nicely. also darrick informed us that his birthday is/was this monday so this would be a birthday run! sweet! to ride mt tom top to bottom perfect corn great weather on a nice new board, such great way to celebrate one’s birthday!

the middle of the bottom gut

break time at the bottom of the middle gut. we headed to the upper guts and then up to the ridge.

from there you see the most horrible views, i don’t want to bore you with them all. this one is special as you can plainly see the route to feather peak, lurking out there along the crest. :drool:

ok just one…more…

happy b-day man! darrick about to drop into 5k ft of mt tom guts, coated in some primo corn shnow

rjc dropping with mt tom’s glorious headwall in the background.

from here on out it was a leg burner down to the valley and an easy exit after an amazing ride!