Solitary Isolation

Kyle’s recent report on skiing the Isolation Traverse in a day got me excited to break out the skinny skis for the first time this season and give it a go. His report has a lot of good information on strategy and conditions so I won’t repeat that here. I started a bit before 1am and it took about 17.5 hours from MP18 (2 miles before Eldorado TH) to Pyramid Lake TH, which is by far the longest day of skiing I have done.

There is about as much snow on the traverse in early June this year as there was in early May last year judging by the bivy boulder NE of Isolation Peak, which is still mostly snow covered. With the stormy weather we are having now it should stay in good condition for a while longer.

When I was planning this trip the forecast called for mostly sunny conditions. The day before that changed to mostly sunny with a chance of showers with a lot of disagreement in the weather models. Weather was worse than forecast with persistent clouds developing not long after sunrise and light snow above 6,000’. This made the Backbone Ridge traverse and the Neve Glacier descent slow and somewhat sketchy. I was thankful to have some familiarity with the terrain (e.g. avoid the massive wind scoops that form along Backbone Ridge) and a GPS track from when I did the traverse last year. The upside was cool and firm conditions all day, but I missed a lot of the views. 

The logistics of doing this traverse solo are difficult since the start and end are 40 miles apart which is much further than I would bike. Fortunately my girlfriend Marianne helped me out, dropping me off on Cascade River Road and then meeting me on the other side at Pyramid Lake. After watching a rescue a couple weeks ago I decided that I should have some form of satellite communication for remote ski trips and bought an InReach. This proved very helpful since Marianne was able to track my progress from Marblemount and I was able to give her an ETA, which was off by a couple hours but much better than nothing.

North Face of Johannesburg

Ragged Ridge (Kimtah, Katsuk, Mesachie)

Point 7733

Lost Marbles

McAllister Glacier

Fresh bear tracks heading to Wilcox Lakes 

Marmot carrying shrubs for its den

Rainbow on Ruby Mountain

Ross Dam