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Today's goal was simple: try to ski out over Lamarck Col to the car and get home in time for dinner in San Francisco with my wife and kids. Initially I had wild aspirations of climbing and skiing 13,831' Mt. Darwin, but the cold weather had kept everything very icy and I was nervous to tackle such a large project solo. Moreover, this was the tail end of a fairly thin snow year, so the skiing wasn't great to begin with. I had also decided that this trip was more about ski touring in outrageously beautiful surroundings than ticking gnarly descents, and thus I was content with leaving Mt. Darwin for another trip. Having rationalized a swift exit from the wilderness, I decided I would make it home for dinner. Getting home early also adds bonus karma for future trips away from the family. I raced up the chain of lakes that occupy the floor of narrow Darwin Canyon. Near the head of the canyon I encountered my first homo sapiens since leaving Bishop, two guys doing the Evolution Loop from Echo Col. They reported decent snow to the south and noted how bare it was up here. Looking up at Lamarck Col from the southwest, I must say they were right -- it looked like 1,500' of crummy rock to the top. But my companions assured me that they had seen someone lay a skin track up the col the day before. Unconvinced, I nevertheless bid them farewell and began the climb. And wouldn't you know it, but those dudes were spot on. I was able (with some clever routefinding) to ski the entire way up the col. Along the way I spotted a herd of around 20-25 deer simply cruising down Darwin Canyon after crossing over a steep pass from the Lake Sabrina area. I'm no wildlife guy, but this seemed like an early migration back to their summer stomping grounds in fertile Evolution Valley. Lucky them. Approaching Lamarck Col, I had that feeling you get when you are at the top of a big cilmb and it is downhill all the way to the car. Should be no sweat from here, right? John Moynier in his seminal guidebook on Sierra backcountry skiing raves about the long and mellow descent from Lamarck Col. And although I would love to tell you that my trip skiing down from the pass was magnificent, if I did so I would be lying. Looking down the east side of the pass, a sea of snow-free talus lay before me. The rocks teased me. They mocked my intentions of easily coasting down the nearly 4,000 vertical feet to my car. But it was still early, and dinner at home still a possibility, so shouldered my skis and trudged downward. A few hundred feet below the pass I put my skis back on and skied huge bowls of refrozen crust. The skiing was terrible, but it felt great to be working with gravity rather than against it. Above Upper Lamarck Lake, I found a steep field of corn. I harvested it eagerly; the best turns of the this decidedly "non-turning" trip. I connected the snow dots to the end of the lake and then I was already to dry ground. This was to be a short spring skiing season I could already tell. A pleasant hike downwards past Grass Lake brought me back to the trailhead where I completed the loop. I was at the car at Noon on the dot and wasted no time getting everything packed up and underway. At 7pm, I was having dinner with the family and reflecting on a short but magical adventure.
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