want to drove over to the east side for the first time this year - was thinking of doing a couple days up near Waugh Lake just up from June Lake.
Any word on snow over there? wondering if I should plan to hoof up to snow or can i plan on skinning from the parking lot?

thanks for any beta!

This webcam is just up the trail from the Rush Creek trailhead parking lot, might give you an idea:
http://www.silverlakeresort.net/webcam/index.htm

More webcams here - not all are working for me:
http://www.sierranevadacams.com/

Just returned from Mammoth downhill skiing. Jareds do you remember last year? Well, the snow is just a bit better now. The upper Mammoth Mountain has not much snow, what they have is concrete (well almost) and not much of it. Looking toward Ritter and Banner, there is snow coverage all the way from Carson Peak saddle, but judging from where we were (top of the gondola) not much of it. We drove to Sierra View Point in the Whites this morning (another story), the snow line of the Sierra skyline is about 8,500' maybe higher, Whites have absolutely no snow (none) at 11,000'. Sierra needs a few dumps desperately or the spring will not be better than last year. Hope this helps you.

Now, this was two weeks ago (just saw your post this morning), and I think there's only been one storm since then. JD and I headed up towards Mt. Andrea Lawrence for an overnight. Snow conditions were a complete mixed bag at that point, ranging from deep powder to solid wind board (left a nice chunk of my forearm on the saddle below Mt. AL when my binding released... John said something about me being "a little too aggressive" when hitting that slope... go fig). Saw only one other set of tracks at that point of a snowboarder coming down Spook Canyon.

Anyway, hope these pics are of some help.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moosepics6 ... 692632436/

-L

PS: We booted up from the end of the road until cresting above the first bench. Well, John booted. I wallowed. It's what I do best.

[quote="asmrz"]Just returned from Mammoth downhill skiing. /quote]
DANGGIT Alois! I wish I had known you were here! I climbed at Roadside 'til early afternoon then hit the slopes on The Hill at 2:30 yesterday. I can tell you I was sweating ice climbing and freezing my nards off skiing.
Hit me up next time, would love to see you and Penn!

Debbie, when you are here in Idy the next time, give us a call and let's get together. Wine and Paella is on us...

asmrz wrote:Debbie, when you are here in Idy the next time, give us a call and let's get together. Wine and Paella is on us...

I live in Mammoth now. Sent you PM.

For Jareds and the rest of us thinking about Sierra spring skiing:

The following might be a confirmation that the backcountry skiing season is and will be extremely short this year. Just FYI.

BTW Deb, thanks for the PM.

Written by Dennis on March 2, 2013. Posted in Forecasts

Forecast: Owens Valley, Mammoth and Mono County
By: Dennis Mattinson, Weather & Atmospheric Forecaster
SierraWave Media: Radio – TV – Online News
SAT MAR 02 2013

Here we are in 02-March-2013 and January / February 2013 has been the driest in California since 1920. I’ve been saying in my commentary for a few weeks now that we are in real trouble water wise this winter. No matter what happens storm wise this winter, theres no way we can make up for the Jan/ Feb precipitation deficiency. According to Ken Clark, Western US forecaster for AccuWeather, “The season started out like gang busters back in December. Storms brought well above normal rain and snow with the Sierra snow pack 200% of normal at one point. But the calendar turned from 2012 to 2013 and the atmosphere turned off the spigot. The snow pack is now only 60 to 70 percent of normal and dropping. January and February will end up being the driest on record for the northern Sierra. Only 2.2 inches of water has fallen and normal is 17. 1 inches.”

So on to the forecast. After a few days of well above normal temperatures, we will eventually get a cool down starting on Sunday, but really below normal by Wednesday thru Friday, as a couple of systems affect the area. Sunday looks like most of the moisture remains from Yosemite north, so a chance of showers in Mono County. Late Tuesday into Wednesday a colder and wetter storm moves thru. Here there is a better chance at area wide precipitation, with additional disturbances keeping the area unsettled thru Friday. This storm scenario looks all too familiar, namely cold temperatures and too little water. The other thing thats familiar with the Wednesday system is the winds, potential for downslope winds that is. Right now, High Resolution 9-km ARW model shows 50 KT+ winds off the Eastern Sierra into the Owens Valley, lets hope not.

Dennis

heading out this weekend for a couple days.

we have a mammoth-tioga trip planned for last week of march, hope we get some good snowfall between now and then.

thanks for the posts, very informative.

Jared, I'm curious where you're headed this weekend.

All the fresh snow forecasted to arrive up until the weekend has me concerned about avy danger.

3Deserts wrote:Jared, I'm curious where you're headed this weekend.

All the fresh snow forecasted to arrive up until the weekend has me concerned about avy danger.

haven't decided yet, waiting to see how the forecast plays out.

3Deserts wrote:Jared, I'm curious where you're headed this weekend.

All the fresh snow forecasted to arrive up until the weekend has me concerned about avy danger.

Looks like we're going to prob head up Rush Creek from June Lake Loop up past the dams and see what we can see. (keeping an eye on the forecast but it looks favorable)

Can't leave the bay area until sat am early, prob wont get on the trail until ~1pm Saturday.
Can anyone give me an idea of possible spots to camp the first night? How possible would it be to hump up all the way to Waugh lake in ~4 hours? Looks like about +2500' over 4 miles.
Is the trail pretty findable or are we gonna be zig-zagging all over? Just trying to get an idea as time will be tight that first day.

Coming out Monday pm fyi. glad to finally have some snow!

jareds wrote:

3Deserts wrote:Jared, I'm curious where you're headed this weekend.

All the fresh snow forecasted to arrive up until the weekend has me concerned about avy danger.

Looks like we're going to prob head up Rush Creek from June Lake Loop up past the dams and see what we can see. (keeping an eye on the forecast but it looks favorable)

Can't leave the bay area until sat am early, prob wont get on the trail until ~1pm Saturday.
Can anyone give me an idea of possible spots to camp the first night? How possible would it be to hump up all the way to Waugh lake in ~4 hours? Looks like about +2500' over 4 miles.
Is the trail pretty findable or are we gonna be zig-zagging all over? Just trying to get an idea as time will be tight that first day.

Coming out Monday pm fyi. glad to finally have some snow!

I'm not really sure what trail you might hope to find this time of year, but the summer route traverses steep territory on the north side of Agnew and Gem Lakes. The small up between those two lakes is also prone to loading and sliding. I'd check the ESAC website ( http://esavalanche.org/ ) for updates prior to heading out. You'll be plowing through at least a foot of fresh up there. I'd also watch the edges of the lakes for signs of separation: we were keeping our entries perpendicular in January to avoid falling in.

The exit from Gem Lake can be a little tricky, too.



We headed to the left low spot, but found some water on top of the ice, mucking up the snow. We ascended the left side of the short face in the middle of the pic, which was a little tricky between the rocks. I would head right to at least check out if it's any easier.



Should be a gorgeous weekend back there. Have a blast!

-L

MooseTracks wrote:I'm not really sure what trail you might hope to find this time of year

sry just referring to route-finding etc - we're skiing, not looking for a trail

thanks for the info/pics!