Eastside Ski "Mini-Safari" -- Matterhorn Peak & Virginia Lakes

I joined up with a few friends for a couple of days of car camping and BC skiing in the Eastern Sierra.  Along the way, we found some bad snow, we found some good snow and sometimes we found no snow at all.  Here's our story.

"Operation Desperation":

Once again I hooked up with BC splitboarder Chris Gallardo and his trusty dog Sierra, this time for an outing in the Eastside peaks near Lee Vining and Bridgeport.  My good buddy EB came along as well, looking for a much needed rest from work.  EB and I arrived in Twin Lakes at around 10pm after a beautiful full moon drive over Monitor Pass.  On our arrival, our spirits dampened somewhat when it began to rain.

Undaunted, we woke up, packed up our wet camp and met Chris for our first "ski" tour up Horse Creek Canyon.  Our destination:  Matterhorn Peak.  Slight problem, however -- there was no snow for the first 1,400' of the trail.  Hiking up the trail with skis and snowboards on our back, we looked absolutely desperate for snow.  We dubbed the trip:  "Operation Desperation".  As if that weren't bad enough, the weather turned on us and spoiled our hopes of getting to the summit.  We settled for a nice run through some steep high chutes and then back down Horse Creek. 

Woke up the next morning feeling sort of crappy (those fish tacos...), but we drove up to the Virginia Lakes area to find some better snow.  We found skiable snow from the car up to the summit of South Peak, and a nice descent which included some wind-buffed powder.  We kind of wimped out after South Peak, electing to head back to Tahoe rather than do another day on the eastside.  We didn't do as much as we thought we would, but we had a great time nonetheless.

Click on the link below to see the photos.

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