After we finally got a solid snowfall... and a cold snowfall... it seemed like an opportune time to take advantage of the low snow line and do Pyramid Peak from US50 via rocky canyon.
While there was a pretty decent amount of snow lower down, there was still a lot of manzanita to navigate around / over on the lower slopes. Breaking into the bigger trees was definitely a relief and the going was a bit faster.
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| Big green tree! |
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| Finally starting to get out of the dense lower forest. |
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| ...And into the subalpine meadows |
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| Frosted tips! |
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| XTREME RIME (framing pyramid) |
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| Looking north from the summit of Pryamid |
Higher up snow was definitely still a bit thin, which was more or less the theme this year. Still lots of good snow to be had, but we could not directly ski off the north or east faces of the summit. It would be nice to come back sometime with a deeper alpine snowpack and be able to properly ski right off the top (versus backtracking and skiing down the way we came up)!
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| Visibility was insane. We could clearly see the coastal ranges. |
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| Big open bowl |
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| and endless drainage drop |
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| Very fun bumps! |
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| bumping around! |
The drainage we picked off the summit was awesome. So much fun popping around. Still had to be a bit cautious as I didn't know what was on the other side of the bumps... but fun!
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| Looking back towards the summit of Pyramid. |
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| Desolation wilderness |
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| Sierra at Tahoe! |
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