Ski Mountaineering

Silver Divide Ski Tour

May 3-6, 2002

Rich Henke



The Silver Divide is not well known. Located just south of Mammoth, it extends for 20 miles from east to west between two major drainages; Mono Creek and Fish Creek. Silver Peak and Sharktooth Peak are landmarks at the far west end of the divide and are nearly 12,000 feet in elevation. I organized a 4-day trip there in 1996 starting and ending at Convict Lake. However, bad weather and large group size kept us from reaching the end. We settled for a shorter loop that year via Tully Hole, Franklin Lake, and Pretty Pass.

In May 2002, we tried again, this time starting from McGee Creek and finishing at Mammoth. Gus Benner, Maggie Filmore, and Harlan Suits drove from Berkeley while I drove from LA. We met on Friday morning May 3, at the Tamarack Lodge parking lot where we left my car. We drove Gus's car to the McGee Creek TH, packed up, did the customary pack weighing, and started walking west. Pack weights varied from 29 to 36 pounds. Our goal was to ski west along the divide to Beetlebug Lake at the head of Long Canyon. The route would then descend to Fish Creek and to Mammoth via Duck Pass. A description of different variations of the route can be found in Moynier's 1st edition of "Backcountry Skiing in the Sierra", on page 76. We used three 15 min maps: Mt Morrison, Mt Abbot, and Kaiser Peak.

Day 1 - McGee Creek TH (7,800 ft) to Tully Lake (10,500 ft) 10 hr 15 min. Walked along the summer trail carrying our skis for about 3 miles before reaching skiable snow. Easy transition from walking to good snow. During a rest break, we saw 2 white ptarmigans, a first for all of us. Crossed Big McGee Lake (10,500 ft) and climbed to McGee Pass (11,800 ft) in windy conditions. Skied to Tully Lake in mostly breakable crust although we occasionally made some nice turns. Camped near water and slept and cooked in Gus's comfortable 4-person Stevenson tent.

Day 2 - Tully Lake (10,500 ft) to Wilber May Lake (9,800 ft) 10 hr. Left camp at 8 am. Crossed icy Rohm Pass just north of Bighorn Lake. Kicked steps on steep hard snow through the notch south of Isaac Walton Peak, traversed west through the notch north of peak 12,221 (11,600 ft) and crossed the John Muir Trail near Warrior Lake. From Papoose Lake (10,300 ft), we climbed to Goodale Pass (11,000 ft) before trying to traverse along the north side of the Silver Divide toward Peter Panda Lake. We ended up kicking steps down a long steep bowl before skiing to Wilber May Lake where we camped.

We chopped a hole in the ice for water. This was our toughest day both for difficult terrain and weather. We had snow flurries for 2 to 3 hours during the day but clear skies at night. We had reasonable skiing on our descents. The area west of Goodale Pass is extremely rugged!

Day 3 - Wilber May Lake (9,800 ft) to just west of Duck Lake (10,200 ft) 11 hr 15 min. Skied toward Peter Panda Lake but found the terrain to be confusing and difficult. We finally gave up and skied north reaching Minnow Creek, a tributary of Fish Creek. Skied most of the way to Fish Creek walking the summer trail at the end. We had to wade the cold waters of Fish Creek (8,400 ft) before walking up the summer trail towards Purple Lake. After a short stint on skis, we walked along the John Muir Trail where it is south facing, clear of snow, and easy to follow. Again on skis, we camped at the first water along the stream just below Duck Lake.

Day 4 - Below Duck Lake (10,200 ft) to Tamarack Lodge (8,700ft) 4 hr 15 min. Today would be a short ski out. Maggie needed to be home early so we couldn't afford another 10-hour day, which is why we stopped short of Long Canyon on day 3. We climbed up icy snow to Duck Lake (10,427 ft) where we watched a coyote walk across the ice. We skied across the lake, up to Duck Pass (10,800 ft) and had good snow descending the pass and back to Tamarack Lodge. We saw ducks near Duck Pass which seemed very logical. We skied to within 200 feet of our car. But the road was being plowed while we were there. Spring had arrived.

Summary: We walked less than expected in this low snow year. When the snow cover gave out we found the summer trails, so there was little bushwhacking. Still to be decided is whether we will make a 3rd attempt to reach Long Canyon and Silver Peak on a future ski tour.


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