Ellery Bowl - north aspects still skiing well...

The latest Eastern Sierra mission, Tuesday 4/12/2011, yielded a super fun day of skiing variable snow, with northern aspects still clinging to their winter conditions.  We skinned up Lee Vining Creek and got up to Ellery Bowl to find some interesting winter snow.  It was a bit wind affected and slabby near the top of the bowl (11,400'), but softer, less punchy snow was available in patches in the trough of the bowl.  Due to our somewhat late timing, Western aspects that had gone through a few melt-freeze cycles were melted and skiing well.  Descending into the canyon  revealed that the heat of the day had turned what had been almost blue ice in the morning to a fast, fun gliding surface. 

Some bushwacking...

A bit of scrambling...

 Some bootpacking...

 And Mount Dana greets us at the top!

Roscoe rips some pow turns.

Molly and Roscoe stop on one of the softer patches.

Skin tracks and turns down the low angle trough of the bowl.