Tunnabora in the snow

[themtsarecalling]

Meant to share this write up a while back. Tried to take advantage of the end of the Whitney Portal quota season and tag Tunnabora before the first big snows came. I made it to the top, but not before the snow! Was a bigger adventure than I bargained for, but one of the best sunrises I’ve ever seen.

https://themtsarecalling.com/tunnabora/

[c9h13no3]

IDK man, this looks a bit sloggy, cold, and sketchy.

PS - Ice on a lake tends to be thinnest at the lake outlet/inlet. Probably more important than shore vs. middle. It was always weird to be playing pond hockey on a frozen lake, with free flowing water at the outlet O_O.

[Jim F]

themtsarecalling,

Really enjoyed the TR/photos of your adventuresome Christmas (Friday,12/25/2020) dayhike.

I believe the only car you saw in the Whitney Portal lot when you arrived belonged to a fellow dayhiking Mt Whitney. Like you, he was no "Novice", having an extensive background in High Altitude Mountain Warfare and Survival.

You got off the Mountain just in time! Starting Saturday night through Monday morning a big dump left the 395 closed. The streets of Lone Pine needed to be plowed.

I dayhiked Mt Whitney earlier in December and it almost felt like summer. Iceberg Lake was only showing signs of starting to freeze. I forget what Tulainyo looked like.

Hopefully you have more TRs in the works to share.

Jim

[themtsarecalling]

IDK man, this looks a bit sloggy, cold, and sketchy.

PS - Ice on a lake tends to be thinnest at the lake outlet/inlet. Probably more important than shore vs. middle. It was always weird to be playing pond hockey on a frozen lake, with free flowing water at the outlet O_O.

Make sense. Tulainyo is an interesting lake, anytime I’ve been up there there doesn’t seem to be water flowing out even in spring. I’m guessing there’s some movement under the rubble flowing down to Wallace Lakes. Either way, if I did happen to punch through, I liked my chances better near the shore than the middle

[themtsarecalling]

themtsarecalling,

Really enjoyed the TR/photos of your adventuresome Christmas (Friday,12/25/2020) dayhike.

I believe the only car you saw in the Whitney Portal lot when you arrived belonged to a fellow dayhiking Mt Whitney. Like you, he was no "Novice", having an extensive background in High Altitude Mountain Warfare and Survival.

You got off the Mountain just in time! Starting Saturday night through Monday morning a big dump left the 395 closed. The streets of Lone Pine needed to be plowed.

I dayhiked Mt Whitney earlier in December and it almost felt like summer. Iceberg Lake was only showing signs of starting to freeze. I forget what Tulainyo looked like.

Hopefully you have more TRs in the works to share.

Jim

Thanks Jim! I hiked it a week or two before Christmas, just got around to writing it with the time off. I do remember around Christmas being the first good storm of the season, although the Sierras could definitely use some more before April 1.

[Shawn]

Chris, I really enjoyed your TR for Tunnabora. I guess I enjoyed it a bit too much as I started reading it around 11:30PM and then read another of your TR's, then another and - well anyway it's now a little after 1AM. Let's just say I really enjoyed reading many of your TR's on your terrific website.

Edit to add: I see the HST time stamp did not make the recent time change.

[themtsarecalling]

Chris, I really enjoyed your TR for Tunnabora. I guess I enjoyed it a bit too much as I started reading it around 11:30PM and then read another of your TR's, then another and - well anyway it's now a little after 1AM. Let's just say I really enjoyed reading many of your TR's on your terrific website.

Edit to add: I see the HST time stamp did not make the recent time change.

Glad you enjoyed. New trip reports out (almost) every Friday. A lot of desert ones for now but hoping to be back in the High Sierra soon.

[KathyW]

Beautiful photos! It is nice to see what someone who is not afraid of that thin unforgiving layer of snow sees while out there.

[Wandering Daisy]

Very beautiful with the new snow, but I am glad it was you, not me! I climbed Tunnabora from Wallace Lake years ago after going up to see Tulinyo Lake. I remember little about the peak, lots of talus; more memories of swarms of horrible shore gnats/flies at the lake, that crawled up my ears and all over me. Ugh! At least in winter you do not have to deal with that. That light snow on those steep gullies looks hard! Glad you made it back.