[jediah porter]

Wednesday 5/19 was my 8th annual, "Now-Jed-has-no-excuse-but-stubbornness" bicycle ride into the Sierra for a ski mountaineering adventure. For context, and if you're really bored, see: 2005 2006 2007 2008 or 2009. 2003 and 2004 disappeared with "the hack."

Goal this year: Mt. Goethe (asterisk: with minimal slogging, maximum turns)

My route took me up to North Lake, up to Upper Lamarck Lakes, up the SE slope of the Keyhole Plateau down it's west slope, up the SE slope of Goethe, down it's North Couloir, back to the Keyhole Plateau by way of Alpine Col and "the Keyhole", and finally down the Keyhole Plateau's Northeast Couloir to Wonder Lakes. Whew, that was a run on sentence. Skiing it all was easier than reading it, I'm sure. Anyway, enough rambling, here are some pictures:

Clear forecast, but early clouds over the crest. Rain at North Lake, up and down, varying amounts of clouds through the day.



Mt. Lamarck has killer skiing! I left these untracked for ya!



This serves as the summit register on the Keyhole Plateau- no pencil.



Summit rocks, icicles, then rimed. Wicked!


Summit of Goethe, second peak of the day.


North Couloir of Goethe, snuck in under that cornice, then bee-lined under the cliffs. Not great skiing, Monday's fresh snow had gone mashed potatoes.


Hardest part of the day was definitely snaking my way north to south over Alpine Col, south to north through the Keyhole (no hole evident, went right over the top) and back up to 13k on the Plateau. No photos of that slog. I've got a grim video of my own narration. The best skiing was windbuff down this NE couloir and corn snow out to the Wonder Lakes.


Pardon the vague and Sierra-specific terrain references. I'm glad to answer any questions. I think the Keyhole Plateau is the best un-heralded ski peak around. Each of the 4 routes I did (2 up, 2 down) is a unique and worthy ski objective. And the summit can't be beat. I really like the big plateau peaks for some reason.

I was 17 hours house-to-house. F1's, Dynafits, Manaslus. Ski crampons and one Whippet. Trek 720 "hybrid" ca. 1995. BOB trailer. Cold Cold World Valdez pack. Musta drank about 8 liters of water.
And I ate all this food (plus an unseen sandwich and orange):


And thus ends a somewhat bittersweet personal ski season (I'll likely ski more for work, probably no more personal missions)... Bittersweet because I skied a ton, did some incredible days out with friends, alone and for work (as a guide for SMG), but my favorite ski partner, and favorite wife, Annie, tore her ACL on Jan 2, had reconstructive surgery on Jan 26 and has been rocking through recovery. She's back rock climbing and running now and will be back to skiing for next season. But I sure missed her out there.

[Jump]

Me likey very much...........

[bbense]

Nice work...

_ Booker C. Bense

[madturtle]

good stuff!!

I do have an important beta question though...how does one correctly pronounce Goethe?
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A good friend would come bail you out of jail. A great friend would be sitting next to you saying..."but damn that was FUN"

[jediah porter]

[B]

Nicely executed, again.

[skidaddle]

Keep up the good "work!"

[oneoldtimer]

I learned sooo much from this thread: The reason I fade out, is one Cliff Bar is way way not enough!
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Let the FORCE be your guide!

[Cedrik]

Your mega-day TR's are great! I count cycling up 168 as a good day . . .

[steeleman]

been waiting for this, thx. lots of ups and downs. sorry to hear about the ACL.

[mchin]

Very cool, thanks for sharing your trip to an awesome looking area.
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