Trailhead: Green Creek Rd
Elevation: 11147 ft
Route: Green Creek Couloir on Kavanaugh Ridge
Difficulty: Moderate spring ski
Aspect: North
This trip is for those of you who would love to ski a narrow couloir but who are only moderately OK skiers. Green Creek Couloir is long but at a consistently moderate angle and forms good corn in the spring. It's wide enough to make good turns. The only downside would be a harrowing journey through an aspen thicket to gain access.
Looking up at the climb
Trying to eek out a few final spring ski turns, we travelled down the well maintained dirt Green Creek Rd out of 395 to look for any north facing terrain that hadn't melted out. We were amazed to find Green Creek Couloir looking pretty good! This route travels to the high point on Kavanaugh Ridge (not that Kavanaugh) named for Stephen Kavanaugh, a miner who worked a gold vein on this ridge around 1900 (not that great of a name origin anyways).
Lost in the aspen thicket
In the parking lot, some friendly folks directed us to the best spring crossing, marked on our attached CalTopo map. They assured us this would minimize our bushwhacking through aspen thickets. There was, unfortunately, still a great deal of bushwhacking through aspen thickets. There's a lightly cairned trail that makes this a little better but it's still painful especially with the entire ski kit on your back.
Quaking aspens are a very cool species, despite their propensity to grow thickly at the base of ski runs. Their bark can perform photosynthesis. Many trees can grow out from a single root system, which means nearby trees are often genetically identical clones. This means you're often fighting your way through not a forest of trees but actually a single organism! They enjoy colonizing disturbed areas (avalanches, mudslides, fires) which again explains why they often stand between you and a nice ski run.
The view from the top looking towards Matterhorn Peak
After winning our war with the aspen, we cramponed and booted up the couloir which is quite long (3000 vertical). The views from the top were expansive, with Matterhorn peak rising to the north, Dunderberg to the south, and Mount Conness/North Peak just visible to our west.
Starting the descent
The ski down was remarkably fun, and I was proud to keep the ski side down the whole way making narrow turns through the corn. Timing is important for this run as I'd imagine it would be much more difficult if the snow was still firm.
At the end of the day, we again stopped at the Mono Cone in Lee Vining. I would recommend a freeze with mint chip ice cream and rootbeer for maximum refreshment.
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