Winter Alta + Pear Lake Ski Hut
12/30/16 — 1/ 2/17
For New Year’s, we had scored some spots to the Pear Lake Ski Hut in Sequoia National Park! While Leo had applied to the lottery at the beginning of the season, we hadn’t had any luck. But someone had posted on one of the many outdoors Facebook groups we are members of that they were trying to sell off these spots because they could no longer use them — excellent for us!
The big decision for me for this trip was whether or not I would attempt to do it on skis vs snowshoes. This was the season I was aiming to learn to ski, and I’d already put in a small handful of days this season. I was just starting to do blues at the resort, so… maybe I could do this? It couldn’t be that hard, right? I ran the idea of renting backcountry skis by Leo, and he figured it would be fine… so… I went for it.
BUT, the trip was planned to be four days (three nights), and I knew I’d want to do some peak bagging in that time as well (I had my eye on Silliman, since I’d already done Alta, and Silliman is the only other SPS in the vicinity of the hut). To accommodate my peak bagging aspirations, I decided that I’d carry mountaineering boots and snowshoes on my back while I skinned in… Genius…
Waking up in the van.
We met up with our friends the night before and slept on the side of the road in our vehicles. The group was Kwyn, Spang, a new friend Kate, Leo, and me. We picked up the permit the next morning and then geared up in the parking lot. The approach to the hut is only supposed to be 6 mi, so we weren’t in too crazy of a rush to get started. This was a mistake.
Gearing up at the trailhead. (Photo by Leo).
I set off with my pack loaded up with food for four days, my cold weather gear, some board games, some whiskey for the new year, and mountaineering boots, snowshoes, and an ice axe of course. Even just writing this now makes me feel ridiculous. Somehow, also, poor Kwyn had gotten on board with my idea and basically had the same things on her back as well. The deal with Kwyn though was that she had literally *never* skied once before ever. We are overly ambitious.
The group heading in. (Photo by Leo).
The first part of the approach is quite moderate and not very steep, so Kwyn and I kept up just fine. Spang and Kate were cruising on ahead. They had much lighter packs, and, well, also knew how to use their forms of transportation (Spang on skis, Kate on snowshoes). It was quite cold out and overcast/windy, so we wanted to keep moving. But, as soon as we made it to the first steep section, Kwyn and I had a lot of issues. The skin track was quite icy and steep in sections, and we both kept falling quite a bit. We took off our skis to boot up for a while, and then attempted to skin again. It went slightly better for me than Kwyn, but it still wasn’t great. Leo generously offered to carry Kwyn’s skis for her. She took him up on the offer, and put her snowshoes on, still wearing her ski boots.
I managed to make it a ways longer on my skis, but then I started to reconsider. I just wasn’t moving quickly enough on my skis, and I was worried that it would take us ages (past dark) to get to the hut. I’d realized I’d made a terrible mistake, and wasn’t sure what the best way was to rectify it. I wanted to get my skis to the hut, so I could try doing some really easy skiing near the hut over the next two days, but I just figured it wasn’t worth it. I had gotten myself in over my head, and I just needed to suck it up and get over it. I decided to literally just plant my ski boots and skis on the side of the trail, set a waypoint on the GPS, and grab em on the way back. I was bummed to leave em, but I was a lot happier hiking in my boots and snowshoes after that with a much lighter pack.
The trail heads uphill for the first few miles, and then drops for a bit. We reached the first big drop. By this point, it was just Leo and I. Spang and Kwyn had grouped behind us, and Kate was far ahead. Leo changed into ski mode to head downhill, while I started hiking. With a second pair of skis on his back though, he was very top-heavy and fell numerous times. I told him it really was’t worth it for him to keep carrying Kwyn’s skis. He didn’t have to be a hero, and he should just drop them. Kwyn likely wouldn’t use them anyways, and he shouldn’t have to carry them all the way in. After a few minutes of urging, he agreed, and we left her skis on the trail as well. Kwyn and Spang were at the top of the downhill by then, so we yelled our decision to them and they agreed.
From there, we just continued slogging to the hut. It was getting later and later, and we were approaching dark. It was such a relief when all of a sudden, around the corner, the hut appeared. We hurried down to the hut and went inside. And there was light! And it was warm! There was a group that had already been there one night, so they had everything going, including the pellet stove keeping the place warm. Finally. Such joy.
The hut! (Photo by Leo).
About 30 mins later, after dark, Kwyn and Spang finally rolled in. Kwyn had had a really hard time with the bad gear, but pulled through. We made a nice big dinner for our group and went to sleep, exhausted and happy to be warm and inside.
Sunset from the hut.
The next day, we all slept in, very tired from the day before. We had the hut to ourselves, since the only other group headed back out. Kwyn made us an amazing breakfast of bacon and pancakes, which we all enjoyed after the grueling hike from the day before.
Yes, please.
For the day, I’d hoped to do some recon for Silliman. The best weather day was the day after, so I figured that would be the best time to climb a peak. Before we all headed out, we dug a snow pit together by the hut to get a look at the snow pack. I hadn’t done this in ages, and it was a great exercise.
Snow pit.
Shortly after, Leo and Spang went ski touring, so Kwyn, Kate, and I started heading up towards SIlliman. After a bit, Kwyn still wasn’t feeling recovered from the previous day’s hike, so she headed back to the hut. Kate and I continued up for another hour or so, but when we found ourselves in a whiteout, we figured we should just head back to the hut.
Incoming white out conditions on our short day hike.
The rest of the day was pretty casual. The first group of hut dwellers had headed back, so we had a few new groups show up, including the hut-keepers themselves — Patrick and Lauren. We greeted everyone as they came and made a lot of new friends. We just spent the afternoon and evening playing some games, hanging out, and reading the guest journal. Turns out a lot of other people had underestimated the approach as well and had some pretty funny stories. Before it got dark, Kwyn and I took some turns taking the haul sled from the hut up the hill in front of the hut and trying to sled down. It was pretty difficult to do, holding the sled’s haul poles in place, but it was pretty funny. I used up the last bit of daylight by doing one round of beacon practice with Leo. That night, we played plenty of board games with all the other guests, and enjoyed another nice group dinner with our group. It was New Year’s Eve, so we did a countdown at 9pm together as a group, and passed around a bottle of champagne.
The next day was our best weather day. While all the skiers would of course go ski touring, Kate, Kwyn, and I planned to go up Winter Alta. While it was no SPS (and isn’t even a named peak!), I just wanted to get up high for some views. We knew it should be a fairly straightforward snowshoe. We set out from the hut in the morning (not too early), and headed up the bowls to the south-east of the hut. We took turns breaking trail heading up the bowls. As soon as we got up the first bowl, our destination came into view. We took a route that went alongside the skin track the skiers had put up. For the second half of the ascent, I took the lead on breaking trail, since I was feeling pretty strong. Soon enough, we made it up to the ridge and onto the fairly flat summit of Winter Alta.
On the summit of Winter Alta.
The views were spectacular and definitely worth the hike. I don’t understand some of the entries in the guestbook that talked about how they only made it to the hut and left the next morning — there’s so much to see in this area! We could see dozens of different bowls that looked amazing for skiing, and was great motivation for me to come back when I’m more experienced. We saw all our different groups of skiers headed all over, and it looked like such a blast. I was definitely envious.
It was pretty cold and windy on the summit, so we took a few photos and then started to descend. The hike down was straightforward, and we were back at the hut in half the time it had taken us to head up. It was still early afternoon by this point, so I spent some time just hanging out and reading, while being jealous of the skiers. It had been an awesome day for skiing. It was once again a blast hanging out with everyone staying at the hut and enjoying dinner together.
Group photo before leaving.
The next morning, given how difficult the hike in had been, I was really nervous for the hike out. I insisted on getting an early start this time around. Thankfully, the hike out proved to definitely be easier than the hike in. Only the first two miles or so had some uphill, and my pack so much lighter this time around. I had thankfully ditched my skis at a point where I would only have to carry them downhill on the way out. Sure enough, they were still there. I strapped them to the sides of my pack, with the boots attached to the bindings. I felt very awkward and unstable, but I sucked it up and made it back to the car. The hike out had taken less than three hours, so much easier.
Light on the hike out.
We had hiked out with the snowshoers as a group. Leo and Spang showed up just 10 mins later. We took some time to sort gear and clean up, and then started the drive home. I learned my lesson, and got some great motivation to work on those skiing skills.