Kelso Mountain

With settling in at the new pad, but still NEEDING to get skiing some corn, DV8 and I thought we'd head out for some quick-ish turns. What could be quicker than a 2.5mile round trip from the car to the top of Kelso Mountain? ...or so we thought. That 1.25mile and 2400ft vertical took us well over an hour somehow and the entire trip took as long as any other trip. So much for getting home early!
I was hurting this day, but even DV8 recognized the harshness of this climb. It was a mixture of the new punchy 6 or so inches that fell the nights before and the "alternate route" we took on the east ridge scree field to get OUT of that snowfield that was so taxing. But it had one of those feels of "this-will-feel-funner-in-retrospect-when-we-get-to-the-top"...and it did. The views of Greys and Torreys was just spectacular. It felt like we were looking at K2...and dreamed of a future adventure on the northwest couloir of Torreys for that 2800ft vertical descent. But back to the now of then for the 2300ft descent of Kelso which was hard enough for my weak and tired body. We both had to stop many-a-time just to get to the bottom (having that no-so-hardcore feeling?). The snow was NOT corn, it was late April powder at the end of May - HEAVY stuff that made us jump turn and struggle on a slope that shouldn't have been so difficult. Similar to Bancroft, it was powdercorn.
We had an audience of 3 Italians which made my turns that much more important to pull off. Of course I bailed a couple of times catching an edge or two ("stupid American pinhead!"). From crust at the top to sludge rollerballs headed towards the Italians (I missed) to nice wet corn at the bottom...it was a pretty sweet day all in all. The spring ski season still hasn't really started here at the end of May...and that is sweet since we'll be skiing until next winter!

Check the new movie. Music again by the Dog Faced Hermans:
http://www.dropshots.com/meriwether#date/2008-05-27/21:14:39