...nwood...

(Originally posted on TelemarkTips.com)

This past weekend sure was a sleeper. As the Thursday weather reports predicted rain up to 8,000' followed by wet snow, my inbox started filling up with messages titled "Bail!" and "Have you seen the weather???" from my Bradley Hut companions to be. I alt+tabbed back to MS Query Analyzer and wondered if I should just come into work instead of taking my planned Friday off. It looked like it would be that, or another solitary day in the apartment mining belly button lint.

Happily, my newly discovered tele-conspirator Alex Goldenberg was not so quick to give up hope. After a night of polling Tahoe residents and watching the radar images, Alex resuscitated the weekend with the offer of a car and an place to stay. Realizing that we were going to need someone to break trail for us, I promptly rang up Rain Sussman and this little skeleton crew charged up 80 at 9pm Friday evening.

The charge, sadly, got hopelessly snarled at Gold Run around 11pm. We ran the battery dry on Alex's Blackberry waiting for Google maps to refresh as we frantically tried alternate routes which devolved into dirt roads and forbidding "No Dumping" signs. Finally at Dutch Flat, Ridge Rd to Alta Bonnynook allowed us to circumvent the cluster, but it was still 2:30 am by the time we were hitting the sack.

We awoke to Squaw Valley small arms fire and a sunny morning on Saturday. But by the time we drove to Pole Creek trailhead it was dumping again.

The sun and snow fought it out all day as we broke trail up the fire road.

We arrived at the hut just in time to exchange a few words with a crew of 6 guys all sporting enormous...grins. Apparently they'd been enjoying some stellar conditions. We asked what they'd observed in terms of stability, and they announced with confidence that the snow pack was rock solid. Regardless of this, we tempered our quivering quads and did a quick shovel shear.

Two rain layers presented themselves clearly with round ice crystals on the sheared surface. This test was on a convex east-facing slope about 10 min from the hut. We decided to play it safe and stay on the shallow aspects. We were not disappointed:

Alex

Rain

Brian

Alex

This was my first trip to Bradley, and now I see why it's so popular. What a beautiful place. You've got to walk outside to the outhouse, but aside from that, Bradley is a palace compared to Pear Lake. Sure is roomy when you just have 3 people in it!

Post dinner Hot Toddies

Sunday we headed to what I think I've heard referred to as Table Top.

Our predecessors had put some beautiful turns up there. By the time we got to the ridge some moderate winds had picked up.

We hung a right to the slopes just north of there. Did a compression test to see how things were progressing. This test was on an east-facing 27 degree slope. It scored a 15 with a ragged fracture roughly 8 inches down. Feeling more confident we set out to farm the amazingly well-preserved goods.

Rain

Alex and Rain

Brian

Rain

Rain making sure there is no snow left for the Alex