EISPIRATEN

Last winter as i summited San G from the north ridge i had eyed Jepson and was blown away by the beauty of the mountain and knew i would get there eventually to climb a chute. In January of this year as i viewed Jepson from Charlton Peak, i picked in my mind the north chute with the biggest cornice as the one i would like to do first.

Fast forward to April and with the snow now consolidated, Dave G and i headed up the South Fork trail last Wednesday for a chance to climb that chute. It was one of those days you hope for... perfect weather and great conditions. What we got was a great snow climb, a beautiful summit and a way fun glissade descent of Big Draw. Pretty much a perfect day in the mountains!

The January view that lured me


Dave heading toward the Jepson north couloir #1


Steep is good


G-man is digging the climb


We nod Hello to Etiwanda, Cucamonga & Mt. San Antonio


Summiteers at 11,205 feet


Chillin'


Dave checking out Big Draw.


The illimitable inventor strapped a camera to his headlamp for a glissade video!


Perfect snow conditions allowed us to begin our glissade right from the top of Big Draw


A look back at our glissade and boot track. Way FUN!


Jepson's beautiful northeast face as we descend Big Draw


Lovely Limber Pines in the drainage below Jepson


Deer at Horse Meadow


Our steed awaits in the setting sun at the quiet TH parking lot


rest of my pix are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma ... hFace42711#

Looks like a blast, Norma! What time did you get started and when did you head back? I think I'll head up there this Sunday for a day attempt.

norma r wrote: ↑ Pretty much a perfect day in the mountains!

Ditto on that, Ms Norma!

Got a few snapshots of me own: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21042415@N ... 633318840/

Burchey,
we began at 7am and finished at 7pm. no speed record as Dave and i always seem to enjoy the journey and take lots of pix. plus the summit and views were so nice that we took a 30+ min summit respite.

Nice TR-great work Dave and Norma.

Norma and Dave, great to see you two back out, very, very nice TR and great pictures - still some good "white" to be had.

Dave what did the "Incline-O-Meter" say the angle on that slope was near the top - looked to be very steep - niceeeeeeeee

And how soft was the snow on the way up?

Thanks for sharing.

Nice. Great pix, glad you got that one out of your head at last 8)

Nice. Miguel climbed the route a few days after you. That view from the summit of Charlton also lured me up the same couloir last spring.

Looks like a fun day! How did the helmet cam glissade video come out????

Nice norma and dave...like those pictures, fun time...

mark

lilbitmo wrote: ↑Dave what did the "Incline-O-Meter" say the angle on that slope was near the top - looked to be very steep - niceeeeeeeee

And how soft was the snow on the way up?

Thanks for sharing.

Hey Patrick, the highest angle I measured was 46 degrees. The snow condition was just about perfect. You could almost get away w/o crampons if you kicked hard.

hvydrt wrote: ↑Looks like a fun day! How did the helmet cam glissade video come out????

Hi Mark, in the excitement of dropping in on Big Draw I neglected to turn on the "Ghetto Cam" . I did get one of Norma though while I was wearing it.

That looks like it was a lot of fun. Jepson looks like it's the best option for fun in the snow at this point. Maybe the "chute of death" over on the NE face of San G still has good snow too.

KathyW wrote: ↑Maybe the "chute of death" over on the NE face of San G still has good snow too.

A friend and I have been eyeballing that chute, Kathy. Ever done it?

Dave G wrote: ↑

KathyW wrote: ↑Maybe the "chute of death" over on the NE face of San G still has good snow too.

A friend and I have been eyeballing that chute, Kathy. Ever done it?

I was planning to do a solo Jepson Dayhike Sunday....but if someone wants to join, I'd be down to check out this chute of death.

Dave G wrote: ↑

KathyW wrote: ↑Maybe the "chute of death" over on the NE face of San G still has good snow too.

A friend and I have been eyeballing that chute, Kathy. Ever done it?

I have gone down that way a number of times, but without snow. Anymore, that's my usual way down when I do San G via the South Fork Trail in the summer/fall. It's a 10 or 15 minute scree ski and you skip 3 miles of boring switchbacks. We were going to do it as a snow climb once in March a couple of years ago, but ended up doing the same old route up the chutes on the north side. Sometime I'll do it when there's snow. The area I'm really interested in checking out when there's good snow conditions is Glacier Valley. In December I climbed up the ridge from Poopout hill to Point 10,230 and then traversed to one of the chutes over there dropped down, but there wasn't enough snow yet; so it wasn't fun like it would be with good snow.

If you're ever over at the Mill Creek Ranger Station when their open, you can pick up one of the Defenders of the Wilderness Maps - it has the names of the areas like Glacier Valley, Christmas Tree Hill....etc. on it.

Burchey wrote: ↑

Dave G wrote: ↑

KathyW wrote: ↑Maybe the "chute of death" over on the NE face of San G still has good snow too.

A friend and I have been eyeballing that chute, Kathy. Ever done it?

I was planning to do a solo Jepson Dayhike Sunday....but if someone wants to join, I'd be down to check out this chute of death.

Hey Burch, I'd join you on Sunday if it wasn't for that Mother's Day thang.
I'd have my own personal "death chute" waiting for me at home if I went climbing.

Wait, chute of death? In the NE Bowl?

Dave - understood, trust me. You're cracking me up man.

Question for those more familiar with this area. Can you point this death chute out on this lil ole map?

DCIQ:

Dave G wrote: ↑DCIQ:

Awesome, thanks Dave. That's what I guessed. What are we looking at mileage-wise on this baby - 19ish round trip from South Fork? Yeah!

Burchey wrote: ↑Awesome, thanks Dave. That's what I guessed. What are we looking at mileage-wise on this baby - 19ish round trip from South Fork? Yeah!

That might be a bit high, but it would be a full day.
Be sure and post up on what you find.

We glissaded down part of it late June last year. It is steep near the top but looks like fun to climb up.

https://picasaweb.google.com/mrkmcormic ... FootRidge#

Will do Dave, I need to remember those mileage estimates for the trails include a lot of useless switchbacks in spots. I'm going straight up.

This map shows what I always think of "The Chute of Death", but there are lots of chutes you can take to get up San G. A friend called it the Chute of Death after going up it in the summer - it's hell to go up in the summer, but heaven to come down if you like scree skiing.

http://kathywing.smugmug.com/California ... ifLMQ-O-LB

Thanks Kathy!

Hmmm, Kathy's chute looks a little more deadly. I wonder which is the true DEATH CHUTE?!?!?!!

I think any of the chutes work. Here's a view from the Onyx summit area yesterday afternoon:



Not the same view, but I took some other pictures of the SGW from Butler Peak:

http://kathywing.smugmug.com/Trail-Runn ... 08_N4XFhGR

The snow looks like it might still be good in some of those chutes. I thought about heading up there today when I was on Butler yesterday, but my body is telling me it needs an easy weekend; so I'm going to go look for some flowers instead and wait until next weekend to go play in the snow somewhere.

Dave G wrote: ↑ "Ghetto Cam"

HJ

This screen grab shows the route we did on Sunday. It was 14.7 miles according to Garmin. Of course, Garmin also said the summit was in the wrong place
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... f4&theater