It has been a weird season this year with regards to the snowfall in the Sierras and I haven’t been able to get much out in the Backcountry. This weekend however was dedicated to earning our turns and I had a blast doing so with my buddy Kyle.
We decided to ski Carson peak on Saturday and for Sunday the plan was tbd based on the conditions. All we knew that we wanted to mainly target north facing slopes at high elevations based on Kyle’s experience in the mountains this past couple of weekends.
We didn’t get on the road on Friday evening until 8.30 pm and spent the night in Kyle’s camper somewhere between Lone pine and Olancha along the 395. Next day, We left for June lake early morning and wanted to get breakfast in town before starting our tour. Unfortunately, most of the places in town were closed and the only place open for a bite was Eagle’s landing restaurant at Double Eagle spa. We were hoping for a 9 am start but all this delayed us by an hour.
The late start wasn’t too concerning for our objective since Devil’s slide and North bowl are primarily North facing and there was a decent NE wind which was supposed to keep things on the cooler side. The highs were also going to be below normal so there was little risk of rapid warming.
During the week while planning, I discovered that caltopo has weather shading and sun exposure overlays which is really useful to make decisions about timing.
We started at around 10 am with skis on our backs and soon enough the trail took us into Devil’s slide. The guidebook mentions about taking the ridge line to top of the run but we decided to put on our crampons and head up the slide.
Kyle almost at top. 
Going up Devil’s Slide: pic courtesy Kyle
It took us about less than hour and half to top out and I was pleasantly surprised by our pace. We encountered one falling rock which whistled by past us so that might have something to do with it. Overall, I wasn’t too concerned since there was barely any warming of the snow and the wind kept things on the cooler side.
Once at the top, We had to find the route to link North bowl on Carson peak and luckily for us there was a set of tracks which led us right into it. This small traverse was east facing and the snow softer on this aspect which concerned me a bit and I wanted to set a hard return time due to this.
After following the tracks a bit up the slope, we got into trees and were able to put on our skins and soon enough we were in the North bowl. Kyle was eyeing the top of the bowl and I was on the slower side so he took off while I skied down to some rocks in the middle of the bowl and waited for him. The snow was in great shape and we got really nice turns in the bowl.
The wind kept things really cold and the east face skied really well but surprising Devil’s slide was still on the firmer side even at around 2pm. It didn’t ski as well as I would have liked but it wasn’t on the icy side either.
Skiing Devils Slide 
Navigating some rocks
We didn’t immediately get on the summer trail and tried to ski as far down as we could and after some bush whacking and navigating we were back to the car at around 3 pm. It was time for some food and drink at the June lake brewery but there were no food options over there so we drove down to Bishop for dinner since on Sunday we were planning to ski down south.
I have wanted to explore Bishop area for a while now and I convinced Kyle to do something near Lake Sabrina. Our plan was to ski North Couloir on Mt Lamarck or one of the Paiute ridge chutes which are also North facing. We didn’t know if the road to North lake campground near Lake Sabrina was open or not so the actual objective depended on that, along with how motivated we were for an alpine start since Mt Lamarck is a longer hike.
After dinner and some groceries in Bishop, we got to Lake Sabrina around 7.30 pm and saw that the North lake campground road was closed along the 168. We decided to head towards Paiute ridge chutes since a 4 am start for Mt Lamarck wasn’t appealing to either of us. I was under prepared to face a cold morning and 7.30am start sounded lot pleasant than hiking on a chilly morning.
We got going at 7.30 am with skis and boots on our back. The plan was to stash our hiking shoes or sandals in my case somewhere along the trail. It took us less than an hour to get to start of the trailhead at North lake campground where we put on our ski boots and continued along the trail to Paiute pass.
There were couple of interesting stream crossings but nothing too crazy and we did see one possible ski line but we were targeting something North facing and those would be closer to Loch Leven lake. Our pace slowed down a bit as the trail got tad steeper and it took us another couple of hours to get to Loch Leven lake and to the base of our objective. We had decided on identifying something by 10.30am and we were right on time.
The bottom section was the only part where I did little bit of skinning and Kyle decided to just boot it up the chute. The snow in the chute was firm and there were some sections which were wind loaded but the snow had consolidated so we were not concerned about any avalanches. Kyle led the way bottom part of the chute with me leading the top section. The climb was pretty uneventful and we were getting really excited for the ski down since the snow looked and felt fantastic.
Booting up the Chute 
Excited for the ski down
We got to the top at around 12.15 pm and the views from the top were spectacular. We spent about 45 mins at the top before skiing down.
It was time to harvest the corn and the top section of the chute was money, it skied like a powder run but surprisingly enough the middle section was firm and I had little bit of difficulty. Not to mention that one of the buckles on my ski boot broke on the hike in and I had to duct tape it.
I skied down first and went down the main chute but Kyle decided to take a different line.
Kyle making some hop turns 
Taking a break 
Dropping In
We didn’t take any pictures of our turns in the chute which were super fun and worth the effort. Instead of skiing all the way down to the lake we took a traverse through the scree to find another slope to ski. After that some bush whacking brought us back to the summer trail and we hurried back to the car and got there around 4.15pm.
Overall, It was a great weekend of adventure with fun company with many more like these to come.