The sun was breaking in and out of clouds, but the drizzle has stopped so I venture out and look for some light in the mountain landscape. As I drive towards Donner Summit, the high clouds open up and reveal the fog layer hovering over Donner Lake 1,000 feet below. The snow is saturated with fresh rainwater, and the warm night temperatures are precluding the formation of corn snow. Large soggy blocks of cornice are breaking of up high and the roadside banks are calving like ocean facing glaciers. Snow surface is that of pudding, with weak spots forming over tress, rocks, and old wind scoured ridges that had become submerged by the record breaking snow late spring snow fall.
Clouds still obscure the higher summit peaks, but Donner Peak captures the lower morning light, with the adventurous skiers tracks just barely visible from a few days ago. The abandoned train shed is very obscured - keep in mind the face normally exposed of these sheds shows 16 foot walls as a formidable barrier to skiing down this aspect of the mountain. Now, a quick hop and you've forded the glide crack on the downhill side and on your way down to the lake below.
After checking the time of the sunset, I set out from home, walked one block, put on my skis, and skinned up the ridge between Royal Gorge and Soda Springs, what I call Royal Springs ridge. Here I can see an unobstructed view of e saddle of Donner Summit. The clouds were building again, and a caldron of atmospheric activity was boiling up from the valley to our west. I was hoping for a dramatic sunset with the multi-layered clouds, but as soon as the sun dipped into the moist air near the horizon, it was lights out.
I "ripped hide" - removed my skins, and had a glorious ski down through the buttery spring snow before all light was gone from the sky.
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