Lightning Strike Ridge + Monk Peak

Quick report

Weather

foggy, warm, cloudy, sunny

Ride Type

openTrees

Stayed Away

steepSlopes, convexSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

deepPowder, hard, windAffected

Had an awesome day up Lightning Strike and Monk Peak. North side of Lightning Strike has a nice skin track in place, once on top the ridge we followed it easily to the summit of the ridge. Skied the S face of Lightning Strike which had poor coverage and a nasty sun crust underneath the new snow. Lots of sluffing. Once down close to the LS/Monk col we turned west and easily gained the col just to the south of Monk Peak. The south ridge of Monk was difficult to ascend with plenty of kick turns and some hard wind-affected snow areas. Ski crampons would have been useful. We skied directly off the summit to the east and stayed along the ridge, then carefully navigated through some cliffs (pretty easy) to the LS/Monk col. The north-facing bowl to the Twin Lakes was awesome. The walk back to the car was easy and very straight-forward, despite some reports we heard of fallen trees. The 600m run from the summit of Monk to Twin Lakes was the highlight and an absolute joy!