Last ski of the year

Happy New Year!! Today I went out to the Pass near the Park with the largest group I've skied with since the last hut trip. An awesome crew with a few new faces that were good to meet and great to ski with. For a group of 7, we stuck together remarkably well and worked together even better especially considering it was a high avy danger day out there.

All smiles even in the 4 degrees at the parking lot. It warmed up to 14 or so but on the wind exposed ridges the windchill dropped below zero.


Everyone wonders why I always goto the back of the group, or at least most of the time (I did break a bit of trail today in case you care). It's USUALLY because I'm taking pictures and then doing an interval to catch back onto the group. I also have this 'fatherly' thing going on trying to keep the group together and make sure nobody has any troubles and gets left behind unbeknownst to the rest of the group. Gotta travel safely out there boys and girls!

I took some good "thoughtful" shots of the peeps. Hope they don't mind me posting these....? I love this one because the freaking huge cornice in the back and the fracture line below it shows that it went in the last week some time. Crazy slope back there.

Ok, maybe this is more of a bottled excitement photo of BadCop...? We stuck to pretty low angle slopes to stay safe. Good way to start the season and get the body remembering how to turn again.

Into the sun. Splitting hairs between the windloaded left and the windscoured scree on the right. (Pilot - we skied this last year when there was LOTS more snow, and the next photos you might recall too.)


JT flowing the snow righteously. The last run of the day was the best and longest run of the day. It was a great run to end the year on. The local resort was calling for 11" of new in the last 24 hours but I'm calling their bluff unless they had a Pigpen cloud over them and nowhere else. Here, higher up than the resort that is over the hill in the distance in above shot, we had at most 5" of incredibly light powder over a pretty scrawny base. All of us went home with several "nice" gashes in the bases of our skis.


Peter Rabbit's cabin in the woods. This is a pretty small old mining cabin that people have "upgraded" (very lightly) and sleep in to grab 1st turns in the morning.

Over and out Pilots. Hope everyone has a great New Year's and see you next year. Cheers.