Submitted by Sinecure (not verified) on Wed, 2006-07-05 20:24.
The above info is great. We did Ellery Bowl on Saturday, July 1 2006 and had a great time. The snow was still terrific, albeit there were lots of sun cups and some of those interesting cones caused by rocks melting their way down into the snow. Super fast skiing would be discouraged since some of those cones are deep and come up unexpectedly (they look like sun cups until you are nearly on top of them).
We hiked up to the choke just below the cornice. We stopped there for two reasons. First, some of our party didn't have crampons/ice axes and getting up from there would have been challenging without equipment. Second, and more importantly, the cornice looked like it could fall at any time and would have wiped us out had we been anywhere near the choke at the time. Our suspicions were confirmed on Monday when two friends went back via Tioga Lake / Dana Plateau and entered from the top. The cornice is indeed pulling away and will fall soon. Be careful if hiking up before this happens. Its a very big cornice and will drop a lot of heavy snow and rocks on anyone in its path.
We hiked up lookers right from the bottom. In retrospect, lookers left would have been a better choice for two reasons. First, it would have provided firmer snow since it gets its sun later in the day. Second, there was a fair amount of rockfall activity on the right (west?) side. We watched a television-sized boulder tumble down across the snow. Being in its path would not have been pleasant.
The snow is melting fast so get up there soon. Oh, and there are lots of fish in the lake.
The above info is great. We
The above info is great. We did Ellery Bowl on Saturday, July 1 2006 and had a great time. The snow was still terrific, albeit there were lots of sun cups and some of those interesting cones caused by rocks melting their way down into the snow. Super fast skiing would be discouraged since some of those cones are deep and come up unexpectedly (they look like sun cups until you are nearly on top of them).
We hiked up to the choke just below the cornice. We stopped there for two reasons. First, some of our party didn't have crampons/ice axes and getting up from there would have been challenging without equipment. Second, and more importantly, the cornice looked like it could fall at any time and would have wiped us out had we been anywhere near the choke at the time. Our suspicions were confirmed on Monday when two friends went back via Tioga Lake / Dana Plateau and entered from the top. The cornice is indeed pulling away and will fall soon. Be careful if hiking up before this happens. Its a very big cornice and will drop a lot of heavy snow and rocks on anyone in its path.
We hiked up lookers right from the bottom. In retrospect, lookers left would have been a better choice for two reasons. First, it would have provided firmer snow since it gets its sun later in the day. Second, there was a fair amount of rockfall activity on the right (west?) side. We watched a television-sized boulder tumble down across the snow. Being in its path would not have been pleasant.
The snow is melting fast so get up there soon. Oh, and there are lots of fish in the lake.