Bradley Hut ski tour

Always looking for an excuse to spend time in the mountains, I jumped at the chance to join a friend's trip to the Bradley Hut at Upper Pole Creek near Lake Tahoe. I met Chaincy during my last excursion to Round Top Peak with the Sierra Club Peak Climbing Section. She single-handedly organized the whole trip, and might I add, did a splendid job, myself and the others had an awesome time. On my way to Tahoe from the Bay Area I picked up Jennifer B. in Nevada City, she just moved to the area like me and was pretty keen on skiing the backcountry, she even did it with a set of racing slick XC skis! Respect.

To save time and get a good rest, Jennifer graciously allowed me to stay at her place in Nevada City. She was a great host and I do look forward to returning to that quaint little town.

To get the Bradly Hut, the approach requires just less than 5 miles of trail with roughly 1200 feet of elevation gain. We took our time and enjoyed the fresh Sierra air, the ample snow pack and mellow incline. We stopped for lunch and I set the camera on a timer and tried to take off my hat, but wasn't quick enough.

It didn't take us too much longer to get to the hut and we arrived to meet a cool European couple, Paola and Torsten. I talked them into putting down their books from reading in the sun and following the trail of the others who were out on a ski tour to the ridge above the hut. It was certainly all smiles from everbody on the way up!

The gipfel (summit) is near!

At the top of this ridge we all posed for the usual summit pose, aided by the timer.

And of course I posed for a cheesy mountaineer pose, made famous from my trip to Austria.

The panorama of Lake Tahoe was spectacular, I don't think even a 180 degree shot can contain it all.

I always love playing around in the snow and examining the trees, this time was no different. Yu, a friend of Chaincys' helped me dig a deep hole next to this cluster in a desperate attempt to find regeneration of young trees on the leeward side of this cluster afforestation. We dug perhaps 8 feet down to find no trees- it was pretty much bottomless!

Since I putzed so long up on the ridge, clouds came and froze the wonderful corn snow we had anticipated on cruising down. As a result, the ski back down to the hut turned into "survival skiing" (as observed by Yu). It was so nice to get back into the Bradley Hut which was stocked with so many comforts, including a stew that was marinating for most of the day. I brought some weissbeirs (hefeweizen wheat beer) which brought much applause and were crushed real quick. If there was anything I would change about our weekend tour it would be to bring twice as much beer or wine! I reckon the others would agree with me too. There certainly was no shortage of good food this trip, myself and everyone else certainly know how to eat when in the mountains!

After sleeping in on Easter Sunday a bit, I awoke extremely refreshed and rested, albeit a bit sore. Chaincy cooked some delicious quesadillas, which we all enjoyed. Then, Yu, Victor and myself embarked to climb to a different ridge than the day before. Victor is colleague of Chaincy, a real dude that seemed to believe I'd eat anything given to me and climb while carrying him on my back. He was of course European, and a capable skier, when going downhill that is (-;

On the way up I wanted to take a good photo of this huge cornice, but went too high for a good perspective. You can't quite tell, but that cornice is 50 feet or more deep, deep enough to build a snow palace!

I continued upwards by following the backside of this knob. A bit of scrambling and some exposure (there was a 150 foot sheer face to one side!) got me to the top.

The saddle next to the knob to my right is where we skinned up to next. From my high vantage point I could yell down to Victor, see if you can find him:

Victor certainly found the best snowfield to ski down. It was candy-coated in a sugar frosting that left me with aching teeth from smiling too much into the wind. I love it when linking tele-turns makes my teeth ache like good mint chocolate chip ice cream (-:

Up on the ridge was full of apple-eaters!

Chaincy had a totally sweet sled set-up to drag her gear up, I was a bit envious and had to snap a photo so I can build my own. Sleds can be such efficient mechanisms for carrying gear.

It was quite sad to leave the Bradely Hut behind, we all such a great time. From left to right: Victor, Eric, Torsten, Paola, Chaincy and Yu. Behind the camera was Jennifer B. Check that solar panel on the hütte, sick!


Yet again the mountains out here keep my heart beating ever stronger.

Round Top Peak

My first chance to hang with the Sierra Club Peak Climbing Section came this past weekend, it was long anticipated! The planned excursion was to day climb Round Top Peak near South Lake Tahoe. Since we were to drive all the way up to Tahoe, it made sense to spend the entire weekend there. I joined Arun, the leader of the group climb up Round Top Peak on Sunday, we also skied at Kirkwood on Saturday. Since Arun is a season pass holder at Kirkwood, he was able to get us special offer tickets for $39 for the day, hot deal! This is half the price of a regular ticket, it is all about the people you know.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera in the car for the day, but the slope conditions were storybook. There was not a cloud in the sky all day, the sun baked the snow into corn and baked me thoroughly too! Despite applying sun protection, it is easy to underestimate the CA sun, it is even brighter shining on snow and at high altitude.

We all stayed in Nevada on the eastern side of Tahoe for pretty cheap at the Sierra Motel. Sunday morning we departed early for Round Top, which is located conveniently near Kirkwood ski resort. With everyone gathered at the trailhead, we were 18 deep! I know Arun felt a bit overwhelmed, but having led this trip for nearly 15 years, he knows the route real well and I knew he’d be up for the challenge.

The trail from the Carson Pass “sno-park” parking area gave way to forest and some careful route finding. It is nice to follow along on a planned trip, because usually the person in front of you knows where they’re going! The forest gave way to rolling hills and our first view of Round Top. The snow conditions were prime in the morning, grippy, semi-frozen crust over loose corn.

In case you are wondering, to ascend snow on skis one must have a mechanism on the bottom of them to prevent you from sliding backwards. Hence we glue "skins" to the bottoms, these are commonly synthetic hair-like fur pads which allow you to slide up, but not in reverse. Getting closer to the mountain, we paused for another moment to get our bearings in this huge basin. I would be curious to see this whole area when it is snowless.

The climb up was pretty straight forward. However, since myself and the leader were on skis, perhaps our route up tended to be steep, on snowshoes it can be difficult to traverse steep slopes. Coming back down, we made sure to take a much more gradual way.

After a while the "shoulder" of Round Top became too steep for skis, so out came the crampons and ice axe! This was really the highlight of my climb, proper steepness! Of course mounting crampons on tele boots is not always the best fit, I managed just fine. It was pretty exciting to swing the ice axe and stomp out your feet in the snow. In the photo below you can see the shoulder where the highest people are.

The absolute hardest part of this tour was the ski descent. The snow was probably the worst quality I have ever skied in my life. There was a solid frozen crust over lighter pow, which made turns near impossible on the tele. Occasionally I get really spanked by conditions, and that day at Round Top Peak was one of them. I won't deny though, that falling on every turn and doing face plants is real humbling, sometimes nature has to reveal who the boss is. Keeps me in check when I start to get too cocky. After awhile you get good at falling and know to just tuck and roll.

We tried to traverse much of the way down, and I surprised some colleagues when I turned around to snap a Kodak. There was some debate on whether to put the skins back on the skis to ascend the few rolling hills back to the sno-park. Since we were waiting for a colleague I decided to do it (but i took them off later), the idea being to make going uphill easier, but downhills were of course slower from the extra drag, others left the skins off.

A final view of Round Top Peak, bye bye for now!