Let there be corn!

(Check out my new Spot Messenger page, it's linked down on the right. Now, whenever I use my Spot, you can see where the hell I am even if I don't know where I am.)

Top of St. Vrain Mountain. Audubon, Paiute, Sawtooth and Red Deer Mtn's from left to right.

Sunday saw me on the new spring ski setup (Trab FreeRando lights that I got for 40% off at Mtn Outfitters in Breck, thanks Zoom and MK!) brutalizing myself up Rock Creek on the most direct route up to the top. I wasn't in a hurry but I tend to go as fast as I can when I'm skiing alone. The great thing about April skiing is the potential for powder days on a solid snowpack, and on non-powder days you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to ski the high peaks. It takes the snowpack longer to warm up with the lower sun angle and lower temperatures. Overall, the snowpack is probably not as good to ski or as "set up" yet on some of the steeper north-facing slopes ,but on the south and east faces - the slopes we've been avoiding like the plague all winter - I think that it's their time.

Longs Peak from St. Vrain

As you can tell, this is one really mellow slope. It's the perfect early spring cruiser run. You can get your early corn and get it safely. I was one of several people up here that were thinking the same thing.

I reached the peak at about 11:30am, and instead of waiting for the higher east face to warm and soften up a bit, I went west to the saddle and skied the steeper (but not by much) south face. It ended after approximately 800 vertical in scree so I benched west and bootpacked up to a S/SW saddle that had a nice looking ski run less affected by sastrugi moguls (the wavy way snow gets with high winds). It was a dreamy run...i always forget how much I love corn. You almost can't mess up (...almost).

The above was my 3rd run, this time down from the false summit of St. Vrain. The little rock cairn in the foreground is the only perspective you have on this hill. Riding down this last run, I couldn't help but grin when I realized I was effortlessly carving the corn on the longest continuous run I've had all year. Spring is here my friends, and let there be corn!