The longest 5 mile traverse

It started out mellow enough. DV8, the Redneck, and the DynamicDuo all met up at the caboose in Ned for a little java and map gawking. The plan was the Windy Ridge Traverse, north to south, because the forecast said it'd be less windy than the previous days. Um...yeah.
Note to self: I need to start listening to my gut more than the forecasts.
This was to be one of those days you remember for a long, long time. Not because the skiing was epic, but because the weather and snow conditions were imprinted (literally) onto your brain, forever.
The skin in was mellow. I had the Karhu Guides and was effortlessly rolling over the rolling trail without skins weighing me down. The others weren't so lucky, but it's a flat approach for the first 30minutes till we headed straight up Benji's Trough to the ridge. That's when I realized there wasn't as much snow here as I expected - it had all blown away in the last couple of days.
Note to self: wait until mid-January to ski here.

As you can see, it's windy here. REALLY windy. Actually, it's the windiest place on earth. I am not kidding. There was a steady 40mph wind with 60mph gusts that knocked me over more than a couple of times. I felt like a drunken ptarmagin up there trying to frogger from krumholtz to krumholtz. The temp was 20-ish or so but the windchill was somewhere around minus 20. No skin could be exposed in this crap. I usually love this stuff, but when my expectations for powder were so high this was a bit of a letdown. Plus, the DynamicDuo - relatively newly converted to the Temple of the Backcountry - were on board and I was hoping to show them a good time. Amazingly, they both commented on how "this is actually FUN!" I'm especially proud that these two - America's premiere MTB couple - could say that under these trying conditions! The Redneck commented something like "You've never skied with Meriwether before? This is NORMAL!" ...Well, what do you expect with a nickname like that?!
Note to self: just because I'm a masochist and like to get lost in the woods (I mean...slightly turned around) doesn't mean anybody else does! Let others play "Guide" more often.

Here's the "bowl" we were to ski. As you can see, there's hardly any snow up there. The lookers left line is where we usually ski and it was breakable crust, windslab with an inch on top, mediocre today...but any turns are good turns in my book. So, that became the goal: REDEMPTION. The lack of snow on our first proposed run, the 2 hour traverse in gale force winds just at treeline, DV8 hallucinated seeing a coyote out with us in that wind, well...we just HAD to get in at least 3 good turns at the final bowl, our destination. That was our new goal. Just THREE freaking turns! That's not too much to ask!? Is it?!

So alas, here's the Redneck grabbing a sweet tele turn - one of more than 3. Five or 6 i'd have to say actually. So redemption was had...and then we hightailed it the hell out of there before getting humiliated by Zephyr, God of the west wind, any longer.

Last note to self: I'm a pretty poor Guide. Guides usually check on conditions of an area before taking "clients" or friends there. Working full time kinda precludes that from happening for me...so I just take friends out and make them tour around (sometimes suffer) with me until (IF) we find some good turns. But there's always that possibility, that chance of finding that perfect snow - the perfect stash. There's just always more to explore and learn about "out there" that it never is a boring day in the backcountry.