Backdoor Spring

Hayride up high. It was almost 50 at the house today so we were skinning in shirts and no gloves...crazy for Feb 27th!

Visited the Backdoor Spring with Hayride for the first time this year, and maybe the only time unless we get some significant snowfall in March. I only went once last year too. The coverage was pretty good but as with almost every place I've been this year the snow had no base, your skis, no matter how wide would collapse the snow and you'd go over the bars. You had to be light as a feather and ski with your skis together (mono-ski?) and make subtle movements and long-arcing turns. This happened mostly in the trees and north-ish facing slopes, but it was pretty hard to ski for the most part. We did find some sweet sections in the gully (downhill from the spring) since the west winds whip the snow off the N/S ridge into the north trees and this aspect gets more sun so was consolidated much more than the rest.

Grouse tracks and scat up on the ridge near a really old limber pine

We ran into a couple with a really cute smaller red husky that followed me down the hill as i was skiing. The owners didn't call him back, just talked in their own oblivious world until I stopped halfway down the hill and let the dog realize his owners weren't right behind me. He eventually ran back up, but with a hill that was pretty wind loaded and steep enough to slide just to the north of us, all I could think of was "DUH." The dog was having a roaring time though! I hope he has a long life in the backcountry.

Looking back up at our turns makes it look really deep powder but it was all we could do to not fly flat on our faces. I (unintentionally) stopped here by sinking into the snow to the ground!

Here is me right before the above photo was taken...

Another point that Hayride brought up to me today was that even if your dog has an avalanche beacon, you can imagine a situation where you are with two people and your dog skiing in the backcountry and the slope slides and catches your dog and one of your friends. You have no way of knowing which beacon signal is your dogs' or your friends'. That's a tough situation as you do not have a choice in which signal you dig out first. Maybe it's an even trade, but for some it may NOT be when time is of the essence.

Tomorrow's the 9th Annual DoJoe uphill/dowhill ski race at Eldora so it should be a fun story to tell tomorrow night...