Climbed and skied Mt. Bancroft via the east-facing bowl above Lake Caroline this morning. Start time around 7 from the closed upper gate (~10.8k), summit 9:30 and began descent around 9:45. The bowl is getting pretty thin/rocky in the middle, but I was still able to ski all the way down to the lake by cutting hard left across a thin, rocky traverse for about 100 feet (see photos #2 and 4). Best to think of it as 2 nice, consistent but distinct pitches of about 600-700 feet each, mid-high 30s angle. From Lake Caroline I had to briefly remove skis to find a couple of short exit chutes that led from around the base of Bancroft's east ridge down to Loch Lomond (photo #5 looks back up on one of the chutes), which can be skied around on the west shoreline (the chutes are hidden from view on the way up). Then another couple minutes of walking, after which I was able to ski to within about 1/4 mile of the car (~11,000').
Snow was perfect corn on the descent with a hard freeze, then a couple hours of sunshine to soften things up just enough, followed by increasing clouds which kept the surface from getting too mushy.
On the way up I skinned from about 11K to 11.6k, then hiked, then used an ice axe and crampons from about 12,250' all the way to the summit.
The road seems to be rougher than I last remember, was pretty close to the limits of what a 2016 Forester can handle.
Surprisingly fun day out with probably about 2000 (albeit not continuous) feet of skiing...not bad for June in a lackluster season!
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