Dunderberg, August 19, 2012

Stev | August 19, 2012 | Dunderberg | No Comments

Hidden Glacier

Spence and his 35mm SLR Nikon camera:

Stev and his digital Canon:

Stev hiking up:

Spence bootpacking up Hidden Glacier’s suncups:

…Stev follows…

…and Spence skiing down…

Stevs follow:

Stev:

Spence:

Hidden Glacier:

Jack’s Glacier

Jack’s Glacier panorama:

If you look closely you can see Spence on the right.

Stev hiking below Jack’s Glacier…

Stev:

Spence skiing…

…getting close to the edge…

…even closer…

Stevs:

While we were skiing down some other skiers were bootpacking up.
Kevin and Eric:

Eric:

Kevin:

We had met Eric McGrath at Dunderberg two years ago. He along with family and friends have been skiing Dunderberg for ten years.

Eric McGrath:

Eric McGrath sent me an email with a great write-up about Dunderberg. Here it is:

Skiing yesterday, Kevin, Jack and I met up with Spence and Stev. Thomas and I had met these guys a few years ago skiing Jack’s Glacier. They have set up a website www.patchskiing.com to chronicle their patch skiing exploits. Check out the website, they have some great photos of the Sierra and the summer snow patches we ski. As you’ll see in the photos the snow texture is not always perfect, in fact it is often pretty bad but it allows year round skiing, and as I first heard Rick say, “there is no such thing as bad snow, just bad skiers” so if you can’t ski it then it is your own fault.

Stev and Spence have used the name of “Jack’s Glacier” in their descriptions; hopefully this will cement the name in history. I started calling it Jack’s Glacier as a measure to entice Jack to keep up his consecutive month streak when he was a youngster. They also use other names we have established for some of the summer patches we ski. One notable one is Europe which is above Jack’s Pond or as they call it Alien Head Lake. The Europe Patch takes on the shape of the European continent but lately Kevin has taken to calling it Eurasia. One of the nice things about patch skiing is you can name things as you see fit. In the Sierra there are a number of snow patches that often persist throughout the year. We take to naming them so we have a common reference. I’ll make sure Stev and Spence learn the name “Grandpa’s Patch” which is immediately adjacent to Jack’s Pond. Grandpa Don skied this patch in his 70th year and said he will come back to ski it in his 80’s. With him turning 80 this year I expect to see him soon. Grandpa’s Patch does not make it all the way through the summer so it is best skied in July.

Spence and Stev are consecutive month skiers and Steve is up to 106 months. Jack skied his 121st consecutive month yesterday passing the 120 month mark set by John Pickett, my original consecutive month ski mate. As the old man of the group I currently stand at 213 consecutive months.

Stev has another website called Loloville. It has a ton of photos. If you word search (aka find on page) “Dunderberg” you’ll find more photos of Jack’s Glacier. One interesting thing about Jack’s Glacier is that it takes on a different appearance every time it is visited. Sadly, over the 10 plus years I have been going there I have noticed that it is shrinking from both above and below. The website has a number of pictures that shows how the glacier changes throughout the year and how it has decreased in size over the years. Probably the best experience we ever had at Jack’s Glacier was when Pickett brought up his kayak. There was gentle slope on the glacier that flowed right into the pond. We kayaked off the glacier onto the water. Once on the pond we could paddle onto icebergs and paddle the icebergs around. It was great time.

I have attached a photo from yesterday (above.) I am squatting at the entrance to an ice tunnel extending into Jack’s Glacier. The tunnel was maybe 15 feet wide, 5 to 6 feet tall and extended 40 or 50 feet into the glacier. Kevin and Jack enjoyed a drink of the melting water dripping from the roof of the tunnel. Sorry for the long email, I got carried away, but I am angling to become the official writer for patchskiing.com.

I hope all is well for everyone.

Spence explores…

…a closer look at ice melt and icicles…

…looking back at Stev…

…and again at Spence…

…then heading back out…