Meriwether Fabrications: The Thumb

the author. photo by the Pilot

Yep, another tour...how did you guess? I guess if you don't like skiing and seeing beautiful alpine scenery, this blog could get a bit boring...but it's your choice to read. Somewhere around April I'll start cycling a lot again, but for now it's just the regular commutes in the cold and as much skiing as I can afford!

Dubba skinning up the east face of the Thumb with James, OH JAMES! in the background.

Saturday was a highlight, with the welcomed addition of a newbie to our group - MK Eurosport - the Pilot, Dubba and I all headed out to do a favorite tour of mine on "the Thumb" previously known as "the Rib" as it looks more like a thumb on the topo than a rib. None of them had been on the thumb in this area, and since NOAA was calling for almost 40degrees with hardly any wind...spring skiing in January! So we went a bit higher than usually allows and scored some softish snow above treeline in the protected areas on the lee side of scree fields. Then upon skinning back up, we noticed some very good shots of pretty good powder in the dense northeast trees! These were the famed trees that I have been searching for since the Avy2 course three years ago. My route finding just came together today (relatively guys, I know finding Quicky Couloir wasn't as quick as it could've been!). I think it was the lack of wind and good visibility that helped out my navigation.

The Pilot on the shady side carving some turns looking east.

It was one of those days where you don't expect to find anything good to turn on, so we were just heading out for the tour. The reason being, it's been warm. Very warm here since Wednesday with no snow in the forecast for another week, at least. So sad. Highs in the low 50s in Ned made for some crusty south-facing slopes so we benched around north from Quicky to the run above Secret Trees. Cutting across the open windscoured treeline slopes on the thumb is usually a bad idea in January but today it was solid. Rock solid in fact. Secret trees did not disappoint, as usual, and the traverse to more northerly terrain proved to be highly successful. Eurosport and the Pilot deemed one area "Nugget" and nearby area "Jibpark" for the untracked powder stash with bumps, rocks, and downed trees that these areas provided. It was nearly impossible to go down these tree runs without getting at least a little air!

At the bottom it was asked... "should we do another?"

"Um, yeah...I think so!"

...and so it was a few more times.