TR: Great Basin Natl Park 3-12-05

gwest · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 535 Location: vancouver, bc

My friend and I spent 4 days in Great Basin National Park back in mid march. For those of you planning a spring trip, the coverage should be considerably better than last year. The snow was fairly horrible when we went, it was after those 4 weeks of no snow and warm weather, then we had that dry cold front. We managed to mostly ski on the 1% that was good. Here are some teaser pics:

Approaching the mtns from the Sevier desert

deep snow

in a hole?

nice turns

The full TR is here
http://www.met.utah.edu/jimsteen/gwest/Great_Basin_March_2005.html

Rebob · Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 2435 Location: Whistler, BC

Great TR...Gotta get out there!!

funhog · Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:25 pm Post subject:

glad you survived your encounter with the ice axe murder to give us this TR.
_________________
It's all about fun....

Eric O · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 5333 Location: Tahoe City

Please repost those photos in a smaller size, ASAP! The pics are too wide for many people's windows, requiring horizontal scrolling to see the images or read the text.

jw · Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 6318 Location: Nevada

good one gwest,
The photo labeling in the pictures of Jeff Davis and Wheeler with the rock faces are backwards but no matter.
That line you saw someone else had skied is how we approach the ridge to summit Wheeler in the spring.
The depth hoar you found in your pit are pretty typical here, which goes back to a point I've made many times to folks that don't really understand (or care for that matter) is that though the basin and range is considered inter-mountain I feel that most of the time we are dealing with a continental type snow pack.

We are still sitting at over 150 % of normal snowpack out here this season. Shocked

The road to the wheeler campground may not open until Memorial weekend this year, never know though. If so i'll have to consider a trip like yours. Last time I tried a Jeff Davis summit on a day trip from down low on a mid-winter short day, I felt some pain.

By the way I was skiing those mountains to the west (the Schell Creeks) while you were looking at them on your Baldy day.

Powder Mag was over there the week of March 14th thru 18th, you didn't see those fellas?

gwest · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 535 Location: vancouver, bc

Sorry to have upset you erico! fixed

jw - Yeah it was a great trip. We were thinking about the Schells as a possibility in the future. We knew about the powder mag thing, but missed them. They were gonna be up there a day or two after we left.

Baaahb · Joined: 07 Jan 2005 Posts: 15743 Location: Ponderosa

Sweet. Too bad you had all that traffic!

Tri-Ungulate · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 11:07 pm Post subject:

Seaking of which, planning for the annual GBNP get-together might commence soon...

Lot more snow than last year, and I still wanna ski Jeff Davis Ditch.

Nice TR gwest.

(edited to add tripreport search term to thread)
_________________

Eric O · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 5333 Location: Tahoe City

Thanks, gwest! Molto bene!

skiter · Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 3:16 pm Post subject:

AWESOME. I have got to ski Wheeler sometime. Hiked it with lots of snow on it in October of '86. Would LOVE To ski it sometime. Maybe if a posse develops for an '06 trip?! Thanks for posting. Cool

Sole Heeler · Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:33 am Post subject:

-S
_________________
Once upon a time.

powstash · Joined: 18 Jan 2005 Posts: 379 Location: Kamas, Utahhhrr

Great TR. I was just talking with Trackhead I think it was about heading out there in early summer for some corn harvest. THanks for the pics and the stoke.
_________________
Me want powder