It had been almost a week since the last snows had fallen, a goodly amount that
saw a great start to the ski season before the first of the year. It had also
been cold since then, barely above freezing during the day and much colder at
night. This left the snow mostly unconsolidated, good for skiing, not so much
for snowshoeing. On my way up from the 
Judah Lodge, I followed along
the edge of the ski runs to make for easy climbing, transitioning
through the woods with the deeper snow as I made my way towards the
saddle on the Sierra Crest between Mts. Judah and 
Lincoln. It took
about an hour to reach the saddle where I had a good view of the higher summits
along the crest to 
the south and my first view of Schallenberger
Ridge to 
the east.
There were no serious impediments getting from the saddle to the highpoint of
Schallenberger Ridge. The traversing across
the SSE side of Mt. Judah was made
easier with well-consolidated snow, without danger of avalanche. The initial
part down 
the SE Ridge of Judah was steep, but
pleasantly so. Most of the snow
was untracked along the ridge itself. I passed over skier tracks at two
saddles that facilitate the easiest crossing from Lakeview Canyon to the north
over to Emigrant Canyon to the south. Above the second saddle I came across a
snow-covered road that was used by a pair of skiers to climb higher
along 
the ridge. I followed their tracks
because they made the snowshoeing easier. The tracks
eventually met other tracks and yet more as I neared the summit. It was then
that I realized this was a somewhat popular outing and there must be easier
approaches.
It was after 12:30p before I reached the highpoint, having taken some three
hours to cover about four miles over the snow - not an easy outing, to be sure.
There are fine views of 
Donner Lake and 
Castle Peak to the
north and northwest, Mt. Lola just discernable far to 
the north. To
the east lies Truckee and the Martis Valley, Mt. Rose rising to 10,000ft behind
it. To 
the southeast are the Northstar ski runs on Mt. Pluto. To the
south and 
west is the Sierra Crest from
Granite Chief at Squaw Valley to Donner Peak just above the old route US40 at
Donner Pass. The 
Southern Pacific Railroad wraps 3/4 of the way around
Schallenberger Ridge, one of the most difficult sections of the Transcontinental
Railroad when it was first built almost 150yrs ago. The snowsheds that were
added years later to shelter the tracks from avalanche are still serving their
purpose.
I spent a short time at the summit having a light lunch and drinking more of
the Gatorade I'd brought with me (but often neglecting to consume when it's cold
outside). My return route would be the same all the way back across
Schallenberger Ridge - it's pretty easy to follow one's
snowshoe tracks in
unconsolidated snows. I decided to ascend to 
the summit
of Mt. Judah for no
other reason than to take a different way back. It was my fourth ascent on
snowshoes and by now a very familiar summit. It was windier and colder atop
Judah, so I beat a hasty retreat off its West Face at a shallow saddle between
the highpoint and the Judah chairlift on the north end of the summit ridge.
Protruding rocks kept most of the skiers off this slope, but it was still
thoroughly tracked over the past week - no fresh snow anywhere within ski area
boundaries is safe from powderhounds. I dropped into the trees, eventually
emerging on one of the numerous ski runs lower down. It was 3:30p before I was
back at 
the Judah Lodge.
I met the boys about 20 minutes later - they had spent the day on the terrain
park and were fairly exhausted. It did not take them long to
fall asleep on the
drive home, though they managed to rouse themselves back to consciousness in
order to consume dinner at the In-N-Out in Stockton. Overall a good day for the
first snowshoe trek of the year, the first outing of any sort for the year,
actually.