RichardHu
Member
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2025
- Messages
- 7
I drove up to Bishop on the evening of the 31st hoping to get some time in the Sierra in my brief time back in CA. My ambitious plan was to hike out to South Lake on New Year Day and camp there overnight, do some skating on the lake if the ice was good on the morning of the 2nd (weather forecast showed it would be clear all day) and then hike out later that day. I didn't really have any beta about skating the lake and I settled on it because I could take my car pretty close to it and in recent satellite images after a storm blew through the area, the lake was still blue so I knew it wasn't snowed over (and I just guessed that given the elevation, it would be frozen over).
In the summer, the road goes all the way to the lake but in the winter, they close the road about 4.7 miles out. Additionally, New Year Day was forecasted to have about 6-10 inches of snow in the area and I was taking my 2016 Honda Accord so to play it safe, I parked about 3 miles out from the road closure in an area that wasn't too snowy. I started hiking along the road at about 9:30. A couple cars drove by me and I was hoping to get a hitch to at least get me farther up the road but I wasn't lucky. By the time I got to the road closure, the snow was already coming down pretty hard. At that point, I strapped on my snowshoes and continued. My feet were wet and I didn't have snow pants but I trudged onward. Eventually, I was sinking about 3-4 inches each step even with the snowshoes and everything was soggy. I realized that even if I made it to the lake, I would be in pretty bad shape with everything all wet and no way to dry out so I decided to call it and turn around. This is what it was like out there.
I managed to get a hitch on the 168 back to my car, which saved me some extra walking. I was hoping to get a motel so I could warm up and dry things out but there were no vacancies anywhere in town. I half-considered giving up and just going for a trail run in the Tablelands the next day but as I was brushing my teeth in the public bathroom in town, I found some motivation to try again tomorrow. The one thing I did learn from the day was that the road was pretty good all the way to the closure so I didn't actually need to park so far out. Combined with the clear day the next day, that made it feasible to make it out to the lake and back in a day in my assessment. I drove out to the Buttermilks (a precarious drive for my little sedan) and disperse-camped the night with some newfound energy for the next day.
I got going around 9 on Jan 2 from the road closure and immediately I liked my odds a lot more. It was perfectly clear and sunny outside. I left my shoes out to dry the previous night but instead, they froze, and my socks didn't fully dry out so I started the day with wet shoes and socks but warmed up pretty quickly (I had a spare pair of socks but I wanted to keep them dry in case I fell through the ice and needed a change). The first couple of miles I knocked out really quickly but soon, the snow became very deep and powdery. The remaining 2.7 miles were pretty miserable snowshoe walking; I probably sank 4-6 inches on each step but I was determined to make it out to the lake. Finally, around 12:15, I made it to the lake and was initially met with disappointment, as it looked like it was not frozen over.
However, as I got closer to it, I noticed that a large swath of the lake (about one third of the lake, the side closest to the dam) was all iced over so I became excited. I scrambled down to the ice and took out my ice anchor (I see most people online use ice screws but I'm not an ice climber and these things looked like they'd do the trick at like 30% of the price https://www.amazon.com/Eskimo-69138-Shelter-Anchors-2-Pack/dp/B000LX739W/) to start drilling to check the thickness. Each turn of the anchor that didn't strike water compounded my joy and eventually, the entire thing went in (6 inches) and no water. Game on.
At 12:40 after a quick check-in with my parents, I tossed my ice rescue picks https://www.basspro.com/p/frabill-ice-picks around my neck, threw on my skates, and nervously stepped on the ice. I'm actually pretty bad at ice skating (I can move and turn and do the super basic stuff but e.g., I don't know how to properly brake) so I initially brought a trekking pole for balance (and also to stab the ice every now and then to check thickness). There were a few lumps of snow here and there but for the most part, the ice was as smooth as glass and it felt so magical gliding along the lake. There were no other people at the lake.
The freedom was the best part. I didn't have to go in a designated circle, I didn't have to weave around crowds with selfie sticks, I didn't have to be ushered off the ice after a certain time. I could go wherever I wanted to, stop to take in the Range of Light around me whenever I wanted, and then resume whenever I wanted to. Despite only being partially frozen over, the ice was still larger in area than any other rink I skated on before. A consistent gust that blew from the south made things even more interesting: I could skate into the wind and then turn around, letting it blow me back towards the dam.
I pretty quickly ditched the pole since it was throwing off my balance and moved the ice claws into my pocket since the wind was really whipping them around. As the day went on, the gusts blew water from the lake onto the ice so my skating area gradually shrank. Eventually at about 2:45, I got off the ice, packed up my stuff and headed back.
The gust ended up acting like a tailwind on the way back, making the snowshoe back extremely pleasant and much lower-effort. I got back to my car at around 5 and after unpacking and changing into some drier clothes, I drove back into town.
I'd love to get better at ice skating, get some better winter gear, and try this again during proper wild ice season (which I understand to be late-Nov/early-Dec in the Sierra). I've seen people make it to Rae Lakes, Evolution Lake, and Tulainyo Lake so it seems like the possibilities really are endless. I got really lucky this time around with the one clear day (a storm was forecasted to blow in literally the next day) but I'm happy that I was able to make it out there and get on the ice, especially after the initial setback on the first day!
In the summer, the road goes all the way to the lake but in the winter, they close the road about 4.7 miles out. Additionally, New Year Day was forecasted to have about 6-10 inches of snow in the area and I was taking my 2016 Honda Accord so to play it safe, I parked about 3 miles out from the road closure in an area that wasn't too snowy. I started hiking along the road at about 9:30. A couple cars drove by me and I was hoping to get a hitch to at least get me farther up the road but I wasn't lucky. By the time I got to the road closure, the snow was already coming down pretty hard. At that point, I strapped on my snowshoes and continued. My feet were wet and I didn't have snow pants but I trudged onward. Eventually, I was sinking about 3-4 inches each step even with the snowshoes and everything was soggy. I realized that even if I made it to the lake, I would be in pretty bad shape with everything all wet and no way to dry out so I decided to call it and turn around. This is what it was like out there.
I managed to get a hitch on the 168 back to my car, which saved me some extra walking. I was hoping to get a motel so I could warm up and dry things out but there were no vacancies anywhere in town. I half-considered giving up and just going for a trail run in the Tablelands the next day but as I was brushing my teeth in the public bathroom in town, I found some motivation to try again tomorrow. The one thing I did learn from the day was that the road was pretty good all the way to the closure so I didn't actually need to park so far out. Combined with the clear day the next day, that made it feasible to make it out to the lake and back in a day in my assessment. I drove out to the Buttermilks (a precarious drive for my little sedan) and disperse-camped the night with some newfound energy for the next day.
I got going around 9 on Jan 2 from the road closure and immediately I liked my odds a lot more. It was perfectly clear and sunny outside. I left my shoes out to dry the previous night but instead, they froze, and my socks didn't fully dry out so I started the day with wet shoes and socks but warmed up pretty quickly (I had a spare pair of socks but I wanted to keep them dry in case I fell through the ice and needed a change). The first couple of miles I knocked out really quickly but soon, the snow became very deep and powdery. The remaining 2.7 miles were pretty miserable snowshoe walking; I probably sank 4-6 inches on each step but I was determined to make it out to the lake. Finally, around 12:15, I made it to the lake and was initially met with disappointment, as it looked like it was not frozen over.
However, as I got closer to it, I noticed that a large swath of the lake (about one third of the lake, the side closest to the dam) was all iced over so I became excited. I scrambled down to the ice and took out my ice anchor (I see most people online use ice screws but I'm not an ice climber and these things looked like they'd do the trick at like 30% of the price https://www.amazon.com/Eskimo-69138-Shelter-Anchors-2-Pack/dp/B000LX739W/) to start drilling to check the thickness. Each turn of the anchor that didn't strike water compounded my joy and eventually, the entire thing went in (6 inches) and no water. Game on.
At 12:40 after a quick check-in with my parents, I tossed my ice rescue picks https://www.basspro.com/p/frabill-ice-picks around my neck, threw on my skates, and nervously stepped on the ice. I'm actually pretty bad at ice skating (I can move and turn and do the super basic stuff but e.g., I don't know how to properly brake) so I initially brought a trekking pole for balance (and also to stab the ice every now and then to check thickness). There were a few lumps of snow here and there but for the most part, the ice was as smooth as glass and it felt so magical gliding along the lake. There were no other people at the lake.
The freedom was the best part. I didn't have to go in a designated circle, I didn't have to weave around crowds with selfie sticks, I didn't have to be ushered off the ice after a certain time. I could go wherever I wanted to, stop to take in the Range of Light around me whenever I wanted, and then resume whenever I wanted to. Despite only being partially frozen over, the ice was still larger in area than any other rink I skated on before. A consistent gust that blew from the south made things even more interesting: I could skate into the wind and then turn around, letting it blow me back towards the dam.
I pretty quickly ditched the pole since it was throwing off my balance and moved the ice claws into my pocket since the wind was really whipping them around. As the day went on, the gusts blew water from the lake onto the ice so my skating area gradually shrank. Eventually at about 2:45, I got off the ice, packed up my stuff and headed back.
The gust ended up acting like a tailwind on the way back, making the snowshoe back extremely pleasant and much lower-effort. I got back to my car at around 5 and after unpacking and changing into some drier clothes, I drove back into town.
I'd love to get better at ice skating, get some better winter gear, and try this again during proper wild ice season (which I understand to be late-Nov/early-Dec in the Sierra). I've seen people make it to Rae Lakes, Evolution Lake, and Tulainyo Lake so it seems like the possibilities really are endless. I got really lucky this time around with the one clear day (a storm was forecasted to blow in literally the next day) but I'm happy that I was able to make it out there and get on the ice, especially after the initial setback on the first day!
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