On Friday the 20^th, Juan Gelpi and I headed north to Bridgeport to ski Mt Walt.  The previous storm had come through with very little wind, leaving excellent snow all over the range. While we could have had great skiing closer to home, sometimes it’s nice to get out of town for a change of scenery.

The lower section of Blacksmith Canyon posed a bit of a challenge. A thin snowpack of mostly fresh, unconsolidated snow made for difficult skinning. But once in the heart of the canyon, things became much better. After a short climb up the east facing bowl, we gained the next bench and headed towards the summit.

It’s very rare to find powder on these exposed summits in the Sierra. The top of Mt Walt has no protection from the wind, but somehow the snow managed to soft and fluffy.

Views:

As we climbed the ridge, the snow eventually ran out. So we stashed our skis and continued on foot to the summit. A rocky ridge brought us to a notch just below the summit boulder. The last little bit seemed to be more of a challenge than we were looking for that day. A few exposed, bouldery moves stood between us and the highest point. After looking around for an easier we we decided that it just wasn’t worth the fall. So down we went. Back to the snow for some sliding: