Backcountry Ski Trip Report: Weekend at Sequoia

I spent last weekend skiing the backcountry at Sequoia National Park. It was both the first time on my new AT gear and my first time backcountry skiing since 1995. It turned out to be a great weekend. We got close to 2 ft of fresh, dry powder between Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. The biggest surprise to me was how dry it was. Although not quite Alta dry, it was pretty close. It dedfinitely wasn't the typical Sierra cement I've heard so much about. The snow line was only at 3,500 ft.

Each day, we drove up to the Wolverton parking area in the morning and went out from there. On Saturday, I was a bit apprehensive about going out in the middle of the storm. But for the most part, we stayed in the trees and my buddy John (who lives in 3 Rivers just outside the park) was very familiar with the terrain and assured us it was safe. We started off on the Pear Lake trail before breaking off to go to the top of the peak we call 9979. The initial hike to the bottom of the bowl took about 3 hours. I was pleased with my stamina. I had no problems keeping up with John and apart from my lungs, I didn't feel all that tired. After another hour, we made it to the top of the bowl. It's a nice north facing bowl. Visibility in the bowl wasn't great. But we could see. Although the terrain was great (low grade bowl leading to widely spaced trees for about 900' vertical), I skiied terribly. The AT boots were a lot softer than my downhill boots. Consequently, I had trouble keeping myself centered. I was either too far forward or I was leaning back. At least on the first run, it seemed that I couldn't link more than 5 turns without falling. I fell more on our two runs that day than I had all season long combined. By the second run, I knew what to expect from the boots and started getting the hang of the new boots. I could now link 8 turns before falling.
On day two, we got off to a late start. It was decided that we had to ski with the girls that day. We didn't actually go on a full fledged tour. Instead, we again went to the Wolverton parking area and did laps up the hill directly across from the sledding hill. It was affectionately known as the "Beginner's Slope." But apart from the very top, it had a good intermediate/expert pitch. There were even a few rocks to jump. The big advantage to the "Beginner's Slope" is that its only a 10 minute hike from the parking lot. The disadvantage is that the run is only 400 ft of vertical. So it takes quite a few laps to get good vertical. We were the only ones who thought it was worth skiing. So it was completely untracked. The snow was excellent (8-10" of good dry powder). In fact, it was probably the best snow we had all weekend.

On day three, we went back to 9979. Thankfully, we were greeted with a bluebird instead of a snowstorm. When we got to the base of 9979 bowl, we headed up the trees to the right (when facing uphill) instead of skinning directly up the bowl. We made good time and broke John's record with a time of 2:59 from the Wolverton parking lot. For our first run, we headed down through the trees we had just skinned up through. That face is northwest facing so the snow at the top was already pretty crusty. But once we got further into the trees (thinner and more exposed to sunlight at the very top) it was very good. We got some excellent video. Tyler and Carl quit after the first run. Tyler was tired and Carl's boots hurt. Dave, John and I went up for another 2 runs. We did one more run in the trees and finished it off with a run in the bowl.
All together, we climbed close to 10,000 ft of vertical throughout the weekend. For that, we got in only 9 runs. It might seem like a lot of work for not a whole lot of skiing. But it was absolutely wonderful. I actually enjoy the skin up. I like the fact that it forces me to slow down and enjoy the scenery. The other big thing is that you're guaranteed first tracks. Consequently, you have none of the anxiety that you have at a lift serviced ski area on a powder day. There is no mad rush to get to the powder before its tracked up. So you just end up taking your time and enjoy the day more. I know that I was spoiled with the snow quality that we had. But we were the only ones out there and it was great.