Laurel Mtn dayclimb, CA - Memorial Weeke nd pt 1

“PHOTOS: http://community.webshots.com/album/148337042VdHFnG

We took Friday off to snowboard but it was raining in Mammoth. Only one lift open so we did some condo chores.

Saturday SnowDude and I drove up Laurel Creek Road and parked close to the Genevieve Lake trailhead. That was the gnarliest ride my truck has ever been on. We walked 5 min before putting crampons on. It took 1 hr 20 min to the Laurel-Bloody saddle. Looking to the west, we could see the NE Chutes of Bloody Mountain. We should have brought the snowboards! We took a 20 min break before heading straight up the steep west slope of Laurel Mountain. Another 1 hr 20 min and we were at the summit, 11,812'. Awesome views all around, and we could even see where our condo was. We spent over an hour up there before heading down. We glissaded down the snow from the Laurel-Bloody saddle, then 3 smaller snow slopes. Finally got to use those ice axes! We were back at the truck 1 hr 35 min after leaving the summit. This was SnowDude's first hike since August and he did great!

Met Tessibel, Trendgod, GirlRider and SmokinFatBob for dinner at Gomez'. Asandygal, Skier and a few others showed up too late for dinner, but there was enough "we brought our hiking gear, ice axes and crampons . . ." to give us ideas for Sunday.

I made 2 phone calls about hiking/riding Bloody Mountain on Sunday. They would call us in the morning and let us know.

Awesome day!

more photos later . . . .

(if anyone goes up there, take a notepad for the register)”

“Poor Snow Dude - that post-hike photo makes it look like you almost killed him! However, it's good to see him ingesting that "recovery drink" in the tall glass....”

“Could be the other way around Bman. Maybe the top half of that glass did him in... hehe

Great shots Snows. Nice to have that in the back yard. Looks like fun !!”

“I can see why it was fast getting back to the car.

Great pictures. What camera do you use? Do you use a filter? Your colors always look good, never whited out.”

“Glissading was fun!

The camera is a Canon S50 5.0 megapixel digital. I upgraded earlier this year from the S45 4.0. But now I have to get more flashcards . . . I'm only getting 99 pix on a 256 flashcard instead of 198 when using the S45. I like to use full resolution.

Leaving for Lone Pine in a few minutes! Taking some friends out for their first backpack!”

“YAY!
More Snow Nymph trip reports.
All is right with the world.”