On December 30, 1982-January 2, 1983 Jim White and I headed up the Piute Pass/North Lake trail on a ski tour. After fixing a leaky gas line we left Independence about 9:30 a.m. Thursday and drove to the ski trailhead at Aspendell after getting a Wilderness Permit in Bishop. We found plenty of snow including a few inches of fresh powder on top of a good consolidated base.
We used Jim's new Ramer avalanche beacons for the first time. There were a few other skiers in the area but most apparently were using the South Lake groomed track. We had lunch at the North Lake turnoff and then headed up the road on very good snow. I hadn't been feeling too well and was just recovering from the flu so we stopped at the Schober Pack Station cabin about 2:30 or 3 for the night.
We really enjoyed this cabin and vowed to bring some firewood up in the spring. Friday morning we got on the trail about 9:30 after a slow start due to my having a sinus headache. We continued up the trail in good fashion with beautiful sunny and calm weather. Met two people coming down who had been up several days in the Humphrey Basin. They were beat. The snow was really good most of the time but in sunny areas the crust under the fresh powder was icy which made things a bit slippery.
Sure glad I had metal edges on my skies. The worst part was the section just below Loch Leven Lake where the terrain is steep and rocky. We did fine and were soon crossing the lake as the sun began hiding behind the peaks. We made it to the ridge at Piute Lake, across the creek from the Snow Survey Cabin, at about 3 p.m. and made camp as the temperature really began to drop.
The next morning some people who camped below us said it got down to -8F. Saturday we skied up to the top of 11,423 foot Piute Pass and skied the bowl above Summit Lake. The above mentioned two people caught us at the Pass and also skied the bowl. They were practicing telemark turns going straight down the slope. Jim and I were happy to stick with traverses and kick turns although Jim worked on his telemark turns. We returned to camp with a side trip to look at the Snow Survey cabin and Jim did some more practicing on the nearby slope while I moved into the tent. It seemed a bit warmer this night but was still cold.
Sunday morning we broke camp as a light overcast was moving in. The wind had come up during the night but the clouds were high and didn't appear to threaten a real storm. We enjoyed skiing down the slopes toward North Lake. The icy portions were still there and gave us some worry but all went well. The previously mentioned pair of people did telemark’s straight down the creek which made us wonder about their sanity. The skiing was great, even in the trees but I was getting tired as we approached the campground.
I was glad for leveler going and happy to find Jim had hot water going on the stove at the Schober cabin. Had lunch and two cups of hot tang plus about an hour’s rest. The rest fixed me up and we skied down to the car in fine shape, arriving about 3 p.m. Many people had used the lower road portion for snow play, etc. but we enjoyed skiing down the edge most of the time. It was a really great four days despite my out of shape body. Felt tired but much better after the trip.
