Chasing the flakes. Some places have gotten more than others. Blair seems to approve of the variety found in the south San Juans. It was deep, dumping and unstable. Too deep to get moving on mellow slopes, and steeper slopes were moving. Terrain management is key.
"yeah, it looks like it goes" - we find a path to scramble down from a saddle high among the wild sandstone spires using only rock. Connecting the dots - jumping from sandstone shelfs and outcroppings to drop down into a canyon - without touching the crypto or sand embankments, and without leaving a foot print or using a trail. Exploring the fiery furnace - a really cool place, as in cold and rad, in stark contrast to the more known drive-through parts of Arches, the furnace is mostly devoid of trails. Due to the park services efforts, this place is well protected from the impact of the huge hoards of folks visiting the park. Should you go, you'll have to get a permit and even be forced to sit through a 20 min video on human impact and how to travel in the fragile desert environment. Only walk on rock, and in sandy washes - take only photographs, leave no foot prints. If you can't get to where you want to go without scrambling on rock or in said washes, reverse course and try another route. An interesting juxtaposition against the over-priced Arches camp ground, where concrete slabs big enough for F380000 diesel rigs towing 80-ft 5th wheel monster RV's complete with satellite dishes and ever-running generators rule. The fruits of the conservation labor is a well preserved area and wild, mostly lacking trails, and it forces you to just drop in and explore - spires, canyons, slots, waterfalls - just watch your foot print.
Blair - one of the strongest skiers I know, muscles the local fair of windjack, breakable crusts, and sugar snow into submission. We decided to go for another helping. Perhaps a slightly different aspect would offer a similar but yet different flavor? Let's wet our appetites with steep, narrow skinning, with even more sugar snow. Blair wrestles with another delicate, balancy, super-steep kick turn in unconsolidated snow. Our meal ended up being character building, and as always, really enjoyable. Another excellent day in the mountains, bon appetit!
National Parks - called Americas best idea, in some aspects I agree. In line with that American theme might be Arches - a drive through park.
Long weekend in the desert. Life is good. Shireen at 18 rd.
Andrew got a bunch of photos up from the Antarctica ski cruise, check them out at straightchuter.com
Oh, and 4 inches of fluff fell overnight. Finally. But we want more.Skiing is not really fully ready, so how about a long hike in the front range. Mike scrambling along the summit of Bear Peak, Boulder backyard.
And guess whats growing the dark, cold corners of the world?
When in doubt, go higher. After showing some love for the CAIC at this years benefit party in breck, one just could not head back to the front range without skiing, right? Never mind that there is basically no snow in summit? Nothing like hope in the face of futility - we'll just go higher? Skin a little more and we'll find some "good" snow. So we did. Headed up Mt Lincoln on Sunday, nothing like starting the season out with a 14er. And we did actually did find some skiable snow, a strip of wind board in the NE facing gully, with enough new snow and wind transported snow to put smiles on our frozen faces. It did not really matter that we had to boot most of the climb, and boot most of the down, the wind was howling, it was cold as sh_t, we did ski off the summit and nearly 1000 vertical.
