Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Day 62: Nevada Ruby Tuesday

Who needs 15 inches of 3 percent? The Sherpita JD picked me up at 5:00 AM with plans to either do a long day locally, or to head west. The sky still appeared overcast above SLC, and I was tired from working until two the night before. While living in the Midwest, when given the choice, the answer was also north and west. Thus, we went west. West to Elko and the Ruby Mountains of Nevada.



JD had never been before, so the first stop was the striking Terminal Cancer. I had a fun solo trip last year, but the conditions yesterday were much much better. At the trailhead, a single skier was just waking up. We said hello, put the boot track in, and then had first tracks down the whole thing.

The Up:







The Down:







At the bottom, we flipped it and went back up, planning on exploring deeper into the range. Near the top of the peak behind the TC, JD lost a ski while skinning and we watched it slide well over a thousand feet before disappearing over a cliff. His binding pre released while hiking (Trab race binding) making two days in a row we've had a rough time with gear.

This is where it ended up.



Luckily, we were able to find a parallel chute and traverse underneath the ice flow to retrieve the ski.

Jason, happy not to be post holing anymore:



Here's a pic of our unplanned descent.



From there, we followed another drainage back into the alpine. Options were abundant and we finally settled on a nice powder shot from a high ridgeline.

A little of this:



A little of this:



And a little of this:



Led to a frozen camera and fingers so no pics on the way down.



The Rubies are a beautiful rugged range. I'll be back for sure...maybe next Tuesday?
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3 comments:

  1. brian p. harderFebruary 4, 2011 at 10:37 AM

    I've heard of that line. Nice photos. Makes me want to road trip. Little bit of a haul from J-Hole. Hmmmm...

    Looking at that floe you climbed around begs the question about ice climbing in the area. So...is there any???

    Glad you're getting after it.

    Cheers, Brian

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  2. SLC sherpaFebruary 4, 2011 at 2:05 PM

    Hey Brian,
    Good to hear from you. There are definitely abundant ice flows out there. This was the biggest I saw but I suspect there are many others out there.

    Hard to drive somewhere when the Tetons are in your back yard. But then again, what am I thinking leaving the Wasatch?

    Nice job in your last race. Powder keg in your future?

    ReplyDelete
  3. brian p. harderApril 5, 2011 at 10:47 PM

    Andy,
    Funny I'm coming back to this post after cruising a bunch of others on TGR and TeleTips. My wife and I are headed to SF via Elko and the Eastern Sierra around April 30.

    Would like to hit TC, for sure. Do you think it will still be in? Any beta on driving directions you could give me?

    Just write me at my email.

    Way to get after it. I need to come down there and ski with you guys although I do have a few objectives still here.

    Cheers,
    Brian

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