anyone have recent conditions on shasta for:

1: climbing casaval ridge.... is there good snow coverage? or icy? etc?

and

2: backcountry skiing avy gulch...is the snow hard, icy, etc from avy gulch back to the bunny flats parking lot.

thinking about drivng up there possibly next week for some of both...

anyone have (relatively) current snow conditions for skiing the gullies behind mt morrison and mt whitneys upper boyscout lake? how about MR gully itself? thats too steep for me but patty might want to ski it...???

these are two alternatives to skiing+climbing shasta that we are thinking about next week... THANKSSSS. happy holidays...!

telewoman.... i read your post in the other forum entry from a few days ago. thanks for that info.

The coverage around the Mammoth area is fairly good for the early season. I haven't looked up behind Morrison, but I did see tracks on McGee Mountain recently.

There was also some avy activity last week on McGee Mountain. I just checked the ESAC website, their advisory was 'low' for yesterday.

I skiied the MR Route quite a few years ago. The face above Boy Scout isn't terribly steep but the gully itself is and ends in a cliff. We skiied the gully on belay right from the top of Whitney in two ft. of powder..great fun but you wouldn't want to fall.

thanks telewoman...! saw your pictures on your website. i think we might go to shasta in late january for a bit more coverage. looks exciting!

thanks greg... looking forward to heading to mammoth....

thanks dusty... cool to hear you skiied the MR. we may just limit our skiiing to BSL and below this round... still wondering what the snow conditions are like right now...

david

Jan 1 and 2: we just skiied Shasta on tons of fresh snow up the bowls and ridges below avalanche gulch. Awesome awesome snow!!! Also saw a team of 3 climbers headed up casaval ridge methinks... Snow requires snowshoes or skis. Casaval ridge has plenty of snow for climbing. Also saw two climbers hanging out around The Heart in avalanche gulch.

Dec 30 and 31: we checked out Sierra backcountry ski conditions at mt morrison and convict lake. We climbed to little Morrison bench and snow coverage is sparse for skiing but doable for climbing with snowshoes. Lots of bush and shrub exposure. Bummer. We skiied in mt wood backcountry near June lake. Pittiful snow coverage with plenty of shrub exposure still despite a low snowline.

added a few pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/joshuatreerunner/SkiingShastaWithPattyWinter2010#