[Eric O]

There are more of these Chicken routes on Little Lakes Peak -- a lot more! The series of names begins with the main chute named after Chicken Foot Lake, which provides perfect runouts below. There are several labeling possibilities yet to go...

Skiing the Chicken Foot and Chicken Little chutes last week was great, but I'd seen other lines on the peak, all of them begging to be skied.

This week I got a chance to go there again with a different crew. My north tahoe buddy Dave called me at 7:15 this morning when I was planning to sleep in (I was just too beat -- or so I thought the night before, after skiing hefty lines both monday and tuesday). At first I made excuses, but then Dave said the others would let me choose the plan for the day. That got me up!

It was really late for starting a backcountry ski day in the Sierra springtime, and it would be easy to imagine everything slushed out to annoying and dangerous depths. But I keep a few good routes under my hat for times like that: runs that face north/northwest/west and don't get too gloppy until late in the day. So we drove to Rock Creek, and skinned 3 miles upstream to the Little Lakes Valley and its namesake peak, the north guardian of Morgan Pass.

Here's Little Lakes Peak as seen from across the valley. Skiers, this is your Rorschach ink-blot test for today. You can click the image for a super closeup if you want to try to link up even more hidden lines.




(Click the image for extra-large reference closeup if desired.)


So last week, three friends and i skied the Big Bird in the middle, a.k.a. Chicken Foot Chute, and the steeper narrower line to looker's right, Chicken Little. Obviously we left something undone!

In Dave's weather terminology, today was a "milkbird" day (as opposed to bluebird, eh) and was quickly turning to "greybird". That helped screen out the sun and kept us from postholing too much on our ascent.

All of my photos ended up being scenes of the ascent, since I ran out of batteries before descending. However, Dave and Bill took some good shots and maybe this thread will eventually get bumped with the addition of the photos they got.

Here we're approaching the peak, about to cross Chicken Foot Lake. As you can see from the previous photo, there are several hidden lines that can't be seen very well from below.



(all of these may be clicked for larger clearer images)




^ Of the group of 3 sweet-looking couloirs in the overview picture, we came back to hit both branches of the left one, "the Wishbone". Jamie starts up the chute.




^ Already steep at the beginning.




^ Dave and Bill following.




^ Dave, like the rest of us, finds it a bit steep in there. In the upper corner of the photo the Ruby Wall is visible.




^ Across the valley we can see the Ruby Wall, and the narrow ribbon of snow where I enjoyed a wild descent the week before. Looking back on it again today I'm sure glad I skied it during the 24 hour grace period after first seeing it, during which the doubts about it were eclipsed by blind audacity.




^ Back to the Wishbone... Dave and Bill notice it's not getting any less steep halfway up.




^ Here's where the Wishbone gets its name. The left branch is narrower than it appears. The right branch had better not be...




^ We split into two teams of two. Jaime and Bill take the left 'bone, Dave and I take the right. Hmm, coming down outta there is going to be pretty tight... fortunately the snow is medium soft. Perfect.




^ Degree numbers don't really tell the story. Let's say "steep enough you have to choke up your grip on the poles."




^ And then it gets to the point where it works better just to press the poles into the snow above you for better traction. You then mantle with one arm while stepping up with the opposite leg. This is highly recommended for steep snow that is also loose or deep.

Thank goodness it wasn't firm, so we didn't have to do this with axes.




^ Camera shootout. The chute was so much fun at this point it was going to be pretty exciting just topping out. The fact that we were about to ski it in soft snow afterward was almost too fun to think about yet.




^ And here is where, er, the Chicken is choked. There's a slim ramp on either side of that center rock. The skier's-right side is ice right now, so the choice was easy.




^ A closer look at the choke.

That's it for now -- Sorry No Descent Photos! -- since the next thing I did was run out of battery life (neglected to charge 'em the night before). We climbed another 200 feet to a saddle, Dave snapped some stupendous vertigo-inducing photos, and we descended. I hope to see his shots from up there eventually. Watch for this thread to pop back up when some of those are developed.

There's more, though, if you can abide w/o photos for the time being. Take a look back at the reference closeup pic. Look closely and see how our branch of the Wishbone tops out temporarily on the snowy "roof cap" of a ridge that sticks out toward the camera. But then you see snow continue from just behind there to a much higher top-out. Right? As it turns out, we scouted that and it's only an easy 20 foot walk downward and across some steep gravel to reach that other branch from where we were. We didn't do it yet because we wanted to ski back the way we came up, and planned to rendezvous with Bill and Jaime to hear what their other branch was like.

But anyway, in checking out that upper finish, I found that it also has a tail of its own that dumps all the way into the main Big Bird for the longest line on that side of the peak. Outstanding! A little more scouting around and I began to realize just how great this peak is, sporting at least six variations, all long and super high quality, and so many of them able to be seen (or even traversed) from each other at the top. Incredible... you could hike up one chute of your choice, then ski down a different one just because you wanted to adjust the sun aspect of your descent by a few degrees, or because you saw better snow in the other one. Plus, the ability to photograph or watch friends in the other chutes from wherever you are is pretty unusual.

So I think i may have found a new favorite. Watch for more from this area in the future; there's a lot more to do. It's not big like Mount Morgan right next door, and it's three miles of low-angle skinning from the road end. But there's no doubt I'm going back.

Skiing down, by the way, was fun if a bit gloppy. The choke was a blast; i had to straightline a short section and nearly crashed into our friends who were following our boot tracks up after already finishing their other branch of the Wishbone. We skied down and they continued up, and in fact they ended up skiing the higher longer line into the Bird as i just mentioned. A good time was had by all.

Stay tuned for reports from the Northeast Gully (Mendenhall route) on Laurel Mountain, and the Para-chute on Pyramid Peak, just south of Mammoth. Sometimes all I care about seems to lie just south of Mammoth!

[Simo]

yet another amazing TR Eric.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, you guys are lucky over there! I've still gotta wait 37 days for the ski season to open....don't know how long I'll be waiting for snow

Thanks for the TR.

[Eric O]

Lucky?! We paid for this snow with snow dances and the sacrifice of many a ski!

Sorry again for the lack of descending photos on this TR so far due to my running out of batteries. After all, nobody else that day was on freeheel bindings, so they were all expected to straightline it, not much for the camera to capture

You like the Wishbone? I need to get back there and ski the other side of it. I was peddling the steepness concept in the photo captions, but honestly the route never does anything that would scare the daylights out of you. It's just one turn after another without all too much exposure. I hope to return there with many a backcountry pal.

[drop'n'in]

I had hoped to post a TR called "Following in Eric's Footsteps", but our internet satellite system is down AGAIN.

EDIT: Managed to get a few photos up. Eric, I hope you don't mind if I just throw them in here, since we're talking about the same place. Not trying to hijack your thread.

After reading Eric's great TR's from last week, a friend and I skied the Chickenfoot Couloir last Saturday. We drove over from the Central Coast and crashed at the corral parking area at the end of Rock Creek Rd. It was my friend's first chute ski, and his first time in crampons. He is an excellent telemark skier though, so I knew he would be fine. I hadn't showed him any pictures, just told him I had something in mind I tought he would like. At the first glimpse of the chute, he was a little trepadatious, but strapped on the crampons and said "Let's go!"

The main chute was filled with icy debris, and I was a little worried about how it would be to try and ski it.


However, since we were 'following in Eric's footsteps' we adopted his mantra: "I'll worry about how to get down later". The upper right branch was filled with untracked boot deep powder.



As soon as we topped out the sun disappeared and the winds picked up. We had to downclimb a few feet from the ridgetop to put on skis. The upper section was amazing; powder like this on the last day of April?


The heart of the chute was still pretty firm in places, but had received just enough sunshine to soften the chunks.





The apron was steep, sweet corn. Needless to say, my friend is hooked on chute skiing now.



Thank you Eric for turning us on to a sweet line. And as you say, that peak is covered in possibilites.

[bcrider]

Another keeper eric!

Way to go.

[funhog]

holy moly that looks steep!
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It's all about fun....

[iceclimb]

Eric you're really making me want to move. These trip reports are great.. keep them up so I can stay sane through our too long summers.

On another note.. not being from your area I don't know the mountains... so I gotta ask... in that first photo, there is another mountain BEHIND and right of the one you're on.... what about THOSE lines......


rob
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Liberte de calcaneus!

[Julian]

Looks like fun! I hope to see a "Skiing the Nooks and Crannies of Highway 395 by Eric O." at some point in the future.

[trackhead]

Nice lines.

[joesnow]

I'm not so sure that Eric is all that lucky. It must be frustrating to live in the heart of a range full of incredible lines, only to find yourself stuck trying to ski all of the lines on just one mountain. Or worse, all of the lines in just one canyon!

.......But I don't feel too sorry for him.



- Great trip report by the way! I have a feeling you're making lots of people second guess all of their major life decisions.

[telenater]

Teaser for one of the other TRs that Eric mentioned....

[Teletori]

Sweet TR again

Keep em coming...

[Eric O]

[Eric O]