Elephant's Back and Hump

We toured the Elephant's Back and Hump area from Carson Pass starting at 9:45 am. The winds have hammered the region from seemingly all sides.

At Elephant's Back, we saw the usual large cornices off the top. The NE slope off the top was pretty firm. At the bottom of the first slope of the NE bowl, there were large sastrugi due to winds from the opposite direction. (See first photo).

The second slope had powder snow. At the bottom, there were surface facets. (See second photo).

We skinned towards the peak northeast of Elephant's Back. Off the ridge, near to the peak, tile sized slabs broke off as I stepped on to the north facing slope. (See third photo and location of pointer).

We descended on that ridge then entered the slope at a much lower point into the trees. Snow was powder in the trees, heavy at times.

We continued descending powder snow through the trees to just below Red Vista Road then skinned southwest back up to the road and took it back to Carson Pass.