Trailhead: Twin Lakes Campground – Bridgeport
Summit Elevation: 10,712′
Elevation Change: 3615′
Gabe Metzger and I had fun on this obscure Hoover Wilderness Peak 1/26/26 in very low snow conditions. We were aiming for something new in this area and were forced into the only snow covered terrain in sight. We started skiing up through a nice protected east facing benchy zone of about 1000′ that somehow still had dry old pow. Above that is a really sweet little frozen lake and a false summit with great looking ski lines all over it. We kept going to find the summit of Cirque Mountain and got a new view of peaks to the north. Near the actual summit of Cirque we stopped to admire Crown Point, also in this guide. Both Crown and Cirque mountain are really far from the car and don’t offer a lot of vert. Perfect for an exploration day when it’s sunny and firm for fast travel. I would actually go back in a heartbeat on a shallow powder day to this zone. If the snow coverage were better, we could also have skied corn snow connecting the false summit to Barney Lake. And if there were more snow, we would have possibly skied the steep east side of Cirque’s summit formation.
Touring all the way to the end of Big Slide Canyon is about 5 miles with very little vert. Camping at Barney Lake would be sweet. Side note, this is a really beautiful summer lake to walk out to in a very easy 7 miles. From a Barney Lake winter camp you could ski Kettle, Crown, Cirque and something more well known in Little Slide. I’d also like to go a little further and setup a base camp at Peeler Lake to ski some new terrain, including Cirque. So hold that thought and I’ll get back to you with pictures! If it would only snow enough in a year where I’m not recovering from a surgery AND it’s cold enough AND I have a partner or two. It’s hard to get stuff done. Just keep trying!
Looking for awesome ski and splitboard tours in the Sierras? We’ve got write ups on many common and uncommon tours curated by the owner of the BackCountry, Mike Schwartz.
