A couple of Wahoo’s ski the Gully

It has without a doubt been an odd winter in the Sierra. Early snow, then no snow, then lots of wind, then a little snow, sort of a second winter, and then tonight as I write this on May 11, the season is damn near over around here because it has been so warm. However, I did still get to ski a spring couloir with Hank Williams so it wasn’t a total wash! We teamed up for the Wahoo Gully a few weeks ago, and while we met some funky snow, we also had some awesome corn in spots, and I got to make my second trip to the top of Mount Locke for the season.

Hank drove up from Santa Monica and we met at Buttermilk Road around 9pm. From here it was about 45 minutes of dirt road travel before it got too rough for the Subaru. We both parked our cars in the sage for the night and decided that in the morning we would take Hanks truck up as far as we could make it. After some catching up, we both zonked out in our cars and got some rest before the 5am alarm. I slept okay and woke up totally stoked, made a French press, then we hopped in the truck off to the the trailhead. We both were definitely thankful for the truck and its clearance. The road has some very large rocks in it and a creek crossing or too that have very steep entrances/exits. If you’re going to ski the Wahoo Gully or head into the Humphreys/Humphreys Basin area, you definitely will want clearance to get here.

Once we got up to the trailhead there was another car parked, a truck with a big in-bed camper, and they were all just kind of waking up. We got to talking and they mentioned that the south face of Locke was just prime corn the day before. This gave me a little extra hope for some good snow. We were both a little worried that the snow would soften too soon and rush us off because of instabilities. On the way back we would nearly ski back to the car but on the way up we decided to walk the dirt road up for about a mile before hopping on our skis, this wasn’t the right move, and if I did it again with this much coverage, I would schwack across the creek and take the drainage all the way up to the base of the Wahoo Gully. I had read reports of this being a miserable option, but I actually thought it wasn’t that bad. I guess standards are different, and if the snow-line was really high, then the road would be the way.

In this photo: Zac Barbiasz approaches the Wahoo Gully.

Either way, the approach was quick, and before we knew it we were at the base of the main slope below the couloir known as the Wahoo Gully. From here, we would need to transition from skiing on our skins to putting our crampons on our boots, skis on our backs, and pulling out the ice axes. At this elevation, around 9,500feet, the snow was firm and not getting as much sunlight because of the more mellow angle. So the extra gear was necessary to stay safely on the side of slope. As we climbed up, the face got steeper and the snow a little softer. But as we climbed higher into the gully, the snow that was protected from the steep walls encasing the south side of the chute was becoming gloppy. This made us realize that this snow was wind-drifted from a few days before, and had stayed dry enough and cold enough to not experience the freeze thaw cycled needed for good corn. However, the couloir was wide enough to traverse over to the north side (lookers right, skiers left) to get onto some safer, firmer, more cohesive snow. We basically had to manage very small wind slabs, and remember to keep our eyes on these during the descent. From this point on for about 300-500vft we experienced very mixed snow conditions until the couloir opened up near the summit ridge. The roller balls that had formed days before were from the few inches the previous storm dropped, and we got past those near the top of the gully once the wind drifts dissipated.

In this photo: Looking into the upper portion of the Wahoo Gully.

It was just awesome to get to the top. We were at about 12,000 feet looking out over Mount Emerson and the Paiute Crags. Just absolutely stunning terrain and a place that I have come back to many times to ski. At the top of the chute we had the decision to drop from there and ski the main line that we came to ski, or to keep pushing another 600 feet to the summit. I was a bit hesitant because of the quickly warming temperatures and knew that the window was not long before the snow got too soft to ski a steeper line safely. We talked it out for a second and decided that we could make the push to the top and still have enough time to ski the gully safely. This was largely based on the fact that the softest section would most likely be the steep, bottom of the gully, just before the wide open mellow face that we decided was a low consequence setting.

In this photo: Hank Williams stands near the summit of Mount Locke with Mount Humphreys looming in the background.

We got to the summit after boot-packing our way up the south face. Skinning probably would have been more efficient here, but changing the gear again seemed like a lot of work for just 600vft. When I skied the south face in the February, I climbed scree other than the face, I skied a stripe that was the only existing snow on the bowl down to the drainage beneath Emerson. The Sierra snowpack really is weird. But on this day, the entire mountain and even the summit were entirely covered in snow, and it was fun to stand on the actual summit this time. Last time I was up there, the winds were 60+mph. We chatted for a minute and after switching crampons for skis, Hank dropped first, right off the true summit, making some beautiful turns down the south face of Locke. I’ll never forget watching Hank take off from the summit with the huge face of Mount Humphreys in the background, it was pretty awesome to see and then to watch him carve about 500 feet of perfect corn down to the top of the Wahoo Gully. After watching Hank and seeing him come to a stop, I heard an “Oh my godddd” over the radio. It must have been good! I dropped, made some turns, and agreed, they were definitely “Oh my god” worthy turns!

In this photo: Hank Williams skies from the top of Mount Locke towards the Wahoo Gully entrance.

We met up at the top of the Wahoo Gully which we had just come up so we knew what to expect. Hank dropped first and we stayed on the radio relaying information and keeping vocal about the constantly changing snow quality throughout the middle portion of the gully. The snow wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we made it work by taking it very slowly until the snow got sufficiently better towards the bottom. Aesthetically speaking, this was an awesome line, and I have really been wanting to cross it off the list. So good snow or not, it was a win to make it to the bottom of the gully safely, but the runout down the lower face actually turned out to be a real gem. Much longer than I thought, this slope seemed to go on forever as we each matched turns to make figure eights.

This really was a great day. Grateful to scratch another one off of the list!