After Secret Lake Thanyne and Josh wanted some pow. Having lived in the Sierras for 13 years I knew that we could find somw down south. We started off in Mammoth and headed northwest - on foot. We were joined by Shayne Pospisil and Joey Papazian. It took us some time to gear up in the parking lot and we didn't hit the trail until 11am - way too late to make it to our goal. We were a crew of seven. Three of us on split-boards and four on snowshoes. Shoes are always a little slower than splits but the guys made up for it by charging. After a few hours we decided that we would not make it the 7.5 miles to our planned camp and would have to stop for the night. The guys picked a beautiful spot with a great view of the Ritter range. Spirits were high with the prospect of fresh pow and a possible visit by a good friend. We just didn't know when he was coming and we hoped he could find us.
In the morning we traversed a slope only to find our way blocked by a cliff - littered 2,ooo foot sun-baked/now icy slope. To get to where we needed to go we HAD to go down. I was feeling a mutiny brewing as the thought of not being able to get back out was on everyones minds. We're not mountaineers - we're snowboarders! Billy-goating is only for a few brave souls and no one was feeling up to the job. We had pretty much decided to abort plan A when tom came ripping through the trees in ski mode. Tom Burt is a great guy with a lifetime of mountain knowledge and a "get it while it's good" attitude. He took one look down the face and said "what's the problem?" He had only a day and a half to get some and he wasn't going to settle. With renewed confidence the gus followed Tom down the face and into base camp for the next three nights.
The line into the lake was a great morning wake up. One thousand feet of climbing to pow! The only problem was that the line traversed directly over a raging river, and in a couple of places falling was not an option. This was fine for a few of us but for some it was GRIP-DEEZ and the Weekly Top Forty! Definitely an adventure. What awaited us was well worth the risk though. The lake was surrounded by powder. Endless featured lines in the trees, thousand foot long chutes, and roley-poley nuglets perfect for jumping. Josh and Thayne stayed in the trees for two days, Tom and Joey rode lines and Shayne, with a knack for finding good light and jumps, got in the air.
We had a ton of fun on this trip and we owe our thanks to Tom. Had he not shown up when he did we might have not made it to pow. Even though he had to leave early his spirit stayed with us for the rest of the trip. Everyone made it out alive and well, with a lot of new-found experience. All told we travelled 27 miles in search of powder in new places. We dropped a lot of dollars in effort and were rewarded with a jackpot of fun. Thanks guys - Edmands
