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Mt. Mary Austin, Eastern Sierra, CA. 01.19.2008

This peak is named after a famous author who lived in Independence during the late 1800's. She is most well known for her work of literary art titled "The Land Of Little Rain." Check out my favorite passage from this book called "the streets of the mountians" here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=tkYLAAAAIAAJ&printsec=toc&vq=mary+austin#PPA183,M1

This was one long approach. I didnt summit and the snow wasnt that good up high. However it was still an amazing day, with beautiful weather and scenery. I have had my eyes on this peak for a while now. It needs more snow so I'll be returning here later in the season, maybe as an overnighter.


this one starts at the mt whitney fish hatchery which is down this rd. a cool place to visit sometime.


got there sometime around 3am - the night sky was amazing!


i have been here before a know the route the trail follows, but snow covered and dark its not easy to stay on route. hiking with no headlamp and enjoying the moonlight i saw this shape up ahead. it looked unnatural in the darkness but when i turned on the lamp, i saw the familiar sign.




this year there was a pretty bad wildfire up in the oak creek drainage.


diamond peak has a nice looking east facing chute. its a bit farther back there though.


finally - the north facing gullies on mary austin.

sorry no more pics. it was a long haul to get there and getting late. i got down to business and climbed the center chute. it was hard packed wind scoured and not that pleasent to ride. the apron was nice though. it got late quick!

fun thing happened to me on the way out here. there are several crossings of the north fork oak creek that need to be done, and going up i had no probs at all. coming down, i was crossing on a snow bridge while in split mode and it collapsed. that was not fun. lucky only my hands and feet went in the creek. it could have been much worse. so when crossing take your time and make damn sure where you cross is safe. normally getting wet isnt that big a deal, but it was very cold on sat and getting late. as soon as i got out everything started freezing. i kept moving and made it back after dark with no issues. it was a long day, but again an amazing time.

Sorry to hear the snow wasn't that great, but nice work. I've always looked at that mountain and have drooled over that chute on diamond peak. Farther up there is an even steeper chute I guess on the very north side of diamond. It doesn't top out I think.

Exploratory trip anyone?

Way to stomp it Dave. Wish I could see the pics but my web admin thinks photobucket is sinfull???

Glad you didnt get completely wet and have to do a trailside thaw

Dave,
Way to go get it - thats a big weekend in anyones book(except for the mythological creature called WOW) I PM'd you about this weekend!
Bryan

I love that pic of the stars. What did you do to get such a sick photo?

Amazing photos!

that shot was a long exposure (30 sec if i remember correcly). that night the moonlight was very bright and a nice clear sky. plus messed with the levels a bit in photochop.

Love it!