Skied Mt. Tom on Sunday. This is the view north from the summit ridge, atop the headwall. Didn't make it up the ridge to the summit (over 13,600 ft.), but the vert of our lap was about 7,400 feet. That's more than a lap on Shasta.
It took us about 5 hours to reach the base of the headwall. Boot-packing up the headwall was a 3+ hour beast-fight. Breakable wind-board with deep sugar underneath. We punched through and sank with every step. Conditions were variable on the headwall. Oscar found a good amount of pow in the skier's left arcing chute, while I picked my way down near our climbing route, finding pow on the spines, and wind-board in the chutes
It was a long day, but this final leg-burning pow-run down to the desert was a great way to finish the day off.