With the calendar reading May and Cali springtime riding in full effect Chris Gallardo, Dan Mingori, and Brooks Goodnight headed to the “eastside” to kill a big peak. The peak is aptly named Deerhorn Mountain due to the way it’s twin summits look like deer antlers. The summit sits at 13,265ft and the roundtrip stats from the trailhead are around 27miles distance and 8,500ft of elevation gain.

At 3:30pm Brooks heads up a dry Kearsarge Pass trail in the John Muir Wilderness.

After a mile or so of walking on dry trail we reach continuous snow and get to put our splitboards to work.

Three hours later we reach the top of the pass.

After a short ride down the valley we reach our camp just as the color is getting good.

Here we find Dan who came out the day before and get ready for the day to come.

The next morning we wake up early and see the day’s first light tickling the top of our goal, Deerhorn Mountain.

Before we know it we’ve had breakfast and start the long hike. The morning crux includes downclimbing a 1000ft or so of dry terrain and finding a way to cross the creek. Eventually we find a snow bridge and start making our way up the canyon.

Dan skinning. Our camp is in the valley in the background.

As we get closer we can’t help but throw up some devilhorns…..errr I mean deerhorns.

We also notice some recent wet slide activity.

After 5 hours of hiking and one blister later we reach the base of the couloir and start making our way up it, Brooks.

The climb up the couloir is straightforward and at the top Dan and Brooks decide to bag the summit. Dan makes the last move.

Brooks enjoying the view from the top.

After a short break its time to ride, Brooks does the honors.

Chris is next.

The snow was great.

Brooks.

Chris.

Dan.

Looking back.

Back at the creek we find our snow bridge shrinking but still passable, Brooks.

The dry, trail-less hike back to camp was our least favorite part but it was all in a day’s work.

Sleep came easy that night after a 10.5 hour day in our boots but I had enough energy for a slow shutter shot before calling it a night.

The next morning we heading back to the car and were stoked when we got there.

To see more pics from this trip, other cool trip reports, or to learn more about splitboarding check out splitboard.com.