Skiing the Basin Couloir. Bishop, CA

Last Saturday Hank and I skied Basin Mountain. This beauty tops out at just over 13,100ft but the East Couloir which we skied tops out at about 12,800ft give or take. To reach the true summit takes a little class 4 scramble..would’ve been nice but it wasn’t part of the objective and hey, the view from the top of the couloir was just fine and as beautiful as it was..I didn’t really have the desire to linger..time to send! Recap: Arrive in Bishop on Friday totally bonked out from a week of running and work. Sleep in car for three hours, make a camp fire, Hank and crew roll in at about 10:30pm. We all crash out immediately. Hank sounds the alarm at 6am like a champ. Everyone knows I would’ve slept in so thanks for always being up and ready Hank! Beautiful sunset, hot coffee from the Jet Boil,..lets roll! Whoops, pop tire just short of trailhead, ditch car and head off for a 6,000vft climb up the first 1,500vft hard-packed couloir which we boot packed all the way up and through the basin just to above the base of the main, east couloir at about 10,000ft. Here we took a breather and slapped on the skins, for what turned into a lung buster, zig zagging our way behind three other skiers which we had met at the top of the first couloir. And then, boom, right before the summit you are greated with a massive view of the inner Sierra and an up close and personal view of Mount Humphrys, a California 14er. The view brought back great memories of the PCT and running long routes in Sierra from a few summers back when I lived in LA and would hit the mountains nearly every summer weekend. At the summit we share some laughs and take a bunch of photos, eat some snacks, mainly a mix of Skout bars and gels, couple sour patch kids, and then we all prepare for the descent. Always being a nice guy, Hank suggests the San Fran boys ski first since they laid the uphill track. It was nice to have so many eyes on each other, definitely a little added security. As the first three drop one after another staggered about 30 seconds apart, Hank takes some sick photos then we discuss safest downhill routes and where our exit points would be if something did go wrong. However, we had been accessing the snow quality the entire way up and there was very little evidence of instability which we only found in one small area on a convex area just shy of the bench beneath the main couloir, which looked PRIME the entire way up. On the convex point, the main snow concern was two day old wind slab resting on top of a layer of ice. No bueno, but it was short lived and we moved swiftly. I skied first and Hank and I agreed on conservative turns, which sort of happened.... stopping so often to switch roles of photographer/skier. Hank is a much better photographer than me, so I definitely win out on that deal. Right away I said holy sh*t these turns are all-time. Eight to ten inches of cold fresh and moderately dense pow perfectly spread on a 2,500vft, 35 degree, and couple hundred foot wide couloir. I skied for about 800-1,000vft before I stopped to let Hank ski down a bit past me. This was particularly awesome because a), it was his first time skiing big mountain backcountry and b), he was so stoked as hell! The hootin’ and hollerin’ says it all. I couldn’t help myself and had to let it out as I cruised by Hank!! As we all gathered below it was alllll stoke, and then more stoke as we reached the basin only to find Pete and Grant had boot packed up to enjoy some hiking and get some footage of us descending. Also an awesome bonus because they both are legit photographers. From here we would all break, San Fran skiers went first, us two next, then Grant and Pete glacaded the bottom couloir and met up with us about and hour later at the cars where it was 70 degrees and sunny! Brent shows up with Gabby at the Gear Exchange and we all head back to the Spot to enjoy some food and beers. We admire some amazing east side stars and see some good shooting stars too. Turns out nobody knows where the Little Dipper is.... Then we zonk out cowboy style amongst the boulders. No wind and mild temps made for a perfect night outside.