Tourmania

I ski alone a lot. Too much probably. But finding frequent ski partners is difficult I've found. Everyone has their own schedules and responsibilities and we can't always be on the same page every weekend...weekend Warrior that I am. So both days this weekend, I skied alone. Saturday, I went out on the Hollemkollen's and skied the Quinn Mountain loop into the backside of the resort and sketched some turns down the grommet-filled groomers. Took 2 hrs and 15 and no skins were used! (This is more a "note to self" for future years looking back on my site, as I've always been curious how long this loop would take me.)

Then Sunday I headed to the same hill and glades that we visited on our Wednesday dawn patrol. It was SO good that day that with the recent new snow, I knew it would be amazing today. I was so excited that I rando'd it up to the top of the hill in and hour 20. That's one good part of going alone, you can only make yourself suffer...

...and it was excellent. I'd guess about 8" of new snow had fallen since Friday night up here...or 4" and 4" of windblown; 6" of new, 2" windblown...you get the idea. Either way, that on top of the 4-5" that fell at the start of the week, it was nearly knee deep turns in spots I had NO idea existed before today. The above little hidden nook that led me to "Bald Knob" (to the upper left behind the trees in this photo). Bald Knob is an inconspicuous little hill that holds an amazing amount of snow in the surrounding trees. The whole southeast-facing ridge seems to get an influx of snow blown in from the northwest winds. Good and bad - lots of snow but also windloaded. The conditions were damn solid today though. No new snow sluffs whatsoever like the little ones we had on Wednesday. CAIC said LOW below treeline! (That's rare.)

I'm trying to get better at not planning my route so much and just going with the flow - where my skis and snow take me. I did a good job today, not looking at a map or GPS for the entire day. I 'knew' where I was, mostly, that being helped by the fact it was a bluebird day, so I didn't worry about getting lost. I admit that it's nice to be free of those habits every once and awhile. Montezuma Joey always said I'd "get past" those things, but I'm not sure I believe him, even now. I'm just a techie at heart.

First run in the glades in the distance. My track is somewhere in there.

Bald Knob in the upper right, and my tracks leading back up to the top.

A group of Pilots leaves for Silverton Mountain Wednesday and then onto the Mountain Belle Hut on Red Mountain Pass for a long weekend. See you next week. Cheers!

PS- THANKS for the excellent cookies KB! Glad you like Spot! He's pretty cool, eh?!