Hully Gully

Apologies in advance for being long on action photos and short on setting photos. You'll have to rely on my description of the area instead.

Ed visited from NYC this past weekend to slay some light Sierra powder. He picked a pretty darn good weekend as the mountains got hit hard with snow on Friday! We fought silly crowds at Squaw on Saturday and then escaped for backcountry merriment on Sunday.


I blast through a claustrophobic chute in Broken Arrow at Squaw, photo courtesy Ed

We met the rest of the crew along the Mt. Rose Highway at 6am...another early morning. Hatchett, Matt, Chad, and Hobie (dog) piled out of the truck and we headed across a meadow, into a ravine, and across a creek to access the south face of Mt. Rose proper. We began a long ascent of a SW-facing gully to the bench a few hundred feet below the summit, where we reconfigured gear and hiked to the entrance of Hully Gully.

Hully Gully is an aesthetic line that stares straight at Mt. Rose Ski Resort. A common occurrence on the lift at Rose is to stare back at Mt. Rose proper and Hully Gully, lamenting one's choice to ski the resort when there's an untracked 2000' powder line taunting from a mile away. Fortunately, we chose to be on the giving end of the Taunt Stick instead of the receiving end!

Dropping in at about 10:30am, the snow was starting to warm and consolidate thanks to a solid southern exposure. Glad that we weren't there any later, we took turns riding from safe zone to safe zone. We were also taking pains to make perfect turns, carefully crafted to incite maximum jealously in the resort-goers. Hey, it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.

Here are some photos.


Ed navigates some flora, brimming with enjoyment


Hatchett drags his pack heelside


Loving it


Hatchett runs it out


Chad goes deep


Chad picks 'em up while crossing Hobie's line


Hatchett is stoked for Ed


I lay one over near the bottom, photo courtesy Ed


The crew hikes out, entrance to Hully Gully visible far frame right


Aye, not bad for a flatlander!


Chad and Hobie; Hobie's ready for a nap

After a rowdily successful descent, we realized that the five of us (and Hobie, who gets the Sickbird award for straightlining the whole chute) utterly snatched every last patch of good snow from anyone who might come later. Guess they shoulda gotten outta bed earlier :)

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