With another marginal forecast and high snow level, Jeffrey
joined me for an exploratory day up sheafman creek, hoping to ski a few runs I
scoped out back in October on foot during my excellent sheafman triple loop.
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| sheafman points, as seen from mill point |
We were prepared with shoes so the initial 1500 or so vert
from the winter TH went smoothly and we soon found ourselves at snowline. We motored up the E face of nipple knob,
reaching the summit in a surprisingly quick 2 hours from the car.
We found mediocre to poor skiing conditions off the N side
as we dropped down into sheafman creek.
After slapping on skins, we quickly found the summer trail and headed up
drainage for a mile or so before reaching the slidepath of the aesthetic S
gully of E sheafman point, which we climbed directly. Once on top, I had hoped to drop N into fred burr canyon,
but my desired route looked all too similar to how it looked back in October (a
dusting of snow on talus).
 |
| no dice |
We continued
trending W along the ridgeline, scoping one steep/scrappy/unattractive couloir
after another. We eventually came to a
halt at the prominent rocky fin just shy of the summit of W sheafman point and
decided just to ski the S facing gully below us down to sheafman creek. Surprisingly good corn skiing and a little routefinding
put us down near the creek where we paused to refuel and discuss our
options.
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| jeffrey skiing S to sheafman creek |
 |
| a look back up |
We debated heading up to castle crag and skiing the S face
to mill and exiting via the mill creek trail (we had carried our shoes). However I had a feeling since the sheafman
creek trail sits about a thousand feet higher and its lower portion is
N-facing, it would provide a much nicer egress.
So we climbed back up via a series of snow ramps just E of the prior run
to the small hanging meadow between the two sheafman points. A quick traverse put us atop the S gully from
the morning. The upper quarter skied
poorly but the remainder was good corn and we were soon exchanging high fives
in the runout zone, excited to have skied a new great peak-to-creek run.
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| upper portion |
 |
| highlight of the day |
My estimate for the egress was 2 hours and we skied as far
down canyon as we could before slapping on skins and starting the skin
out. It took us an hour to get from the
bridge to the summer TH (quite a bit of winter downfall) but we were able to
skin about 90% of it. Another forty
minutes of switchback cutting and road running put us at the car. (total egress time of 2.5 hours).
Stats: approx. 7600
vert in 9 hrs car-car
Rose: skiing an aesthetic new peak-to-creek run in mostly
good conditions
Thorn: getting shut down on skiing N to fred burr
Bud: returning for the N couloir and S face of castle crag
at the head of the drainage
Thoughts: I believe
the slide path on W sheafman point just W of the prominent rock spine is a cleaner
run than the E one we skied. The S gully
of E sheafman point is a beauty and should get skied more often
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