TR: Warner Mtns!

The Warners?  Let me guess.... never heard of em?... neither had I until 3 weeks ago.  And I grew up pretty damn close to that 85 mile long mountain range tucked away in the NE corner of California.  The area is pleading to be explored... with peaks that almost reach 10,000 ft; has numerous primitive hot springs near by, and with no visitors to the area.

Although the Warners are in California, it's a bit of a drive for us Bay Area weekend warriors... but you can stop on the way in Lassen to get a short lap in (like we did)... or in Chico to sample some Sierra Nevada Brew straight from the source... wherever your priorities lie...

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A few weeks ago, we were on our way up to the Wallow Huts in Oregon.  We could go through Nevada, hit up the Ruby's... maybe go see how Terminal Cancer has filled in... But when the time came, we were told to go somewhere else.  So we made our way north up to Cedarville, where our friend Dozier moved a while back.

So we left Oakland around 10 am, arrived at Lassen NP around 2 pm, skied in the moonlight off the shoulder of Brokeoff Peak around 6 pm, and arrived at Dosier's place around 2 am.  After trying to soak in his wood heated hot tub, which was hovering at around 211 deg F... we bunked for the night.

On our way to the ski resort, Dosier's car battery died at the gas station... here's a brocken spectre from the exhaust of Nick's car...

Turns out there is decent terrain right from the Cedar Pass Ski Area (rope tow & T-bar... open weekends).  Since we only had a half day to explore (we had to leave by 2 pm to get to Oregon by midnight), we did a few laps off of Payne peak and the ridge that runs north from there.  

Skinning up... you can see the road below.  The "ski area" is just on the other side of this ridge.

Who's that good looking guy skiing in his jeans?

Summit pic on Payne Peak.  Dozier had left us to go get his car fixed by this point.  So we skied down to the "ski resort"... and took the groomer back to the car.  Funky decided to do a final run in his B-day suit.

For the next 10 hours we took turns, driving, sleeping, and getting some work done on the interwebs using Toro's wifi-tethered phone.  That came in quite handy...

The Miley Bros had an extra day to explore the range and turned their attention to the Southern Warners, where the bigger peaks can be found.  Here's Nick's pics... with some of the Southern Warner's pictured.  And be warned, there is a pic of the G-funk junk... LINK

And here's what he had to say...
Below is the link to the pics from the Warner Range section of the road trip I just got back from. This place is not huge, but is worth the drive from tahoe as the terrain is packed w chutes, hits, cliffs, glades and steeps. There's a little ski hill on cedar pass that splits the range giving easy access to some goods. However, the real gems are in the southern range. However, access is an issue in the range... With the help of my buddy Ryan Dozier we did a day figuring out one access point. We'll definitely be back this season when they get more snow!