January warm spell

A week ago I toured here with almost a couple of feet of new light snow. Today, after a week of unseasonably warm temps (almost 70 in the flatlands and a high of 58 in Ned one day), the snow turned to...well...shite and quick.  But there's always the north faces that keep that soft snow nice and soft for the most part. 

Today, I headed out on a four hour tour with Hayride and James, who was visiting from the Great White North where they measure their snow in centimeters (i.e., Whistler has a base of 500-700cm right now...WTF?! think about that...16-22 feet?!).  We headed up to Woodlay Ridge and found an absolutely horrible skin track put in by some dumbass on a splitter and followed by other dumbasses (us) to the Northeast glades that were oh so good.  This place has been found out since someone (that shall not be named but rhymes with Lonny) posted directions on a website...so we had to cross a few tracks on the first run but the second run was just perfect untouched by the sun and skis - powder.  There's nothing quite like finding that untouched stash.

James and Hayride heading up above the flatlands.  No wind today...at all...and a high of 32. 

Looking NW towards Skywalker and Jasper.

Saturn? or the sun? Hmm...

James heading down the sun-baked upper bowl.

Hayride dropping into the first run...

...and into the second run.

 Apres-ski whisky shot, IPA pint, and pizza at Backcountry in Ned and wow, a great end to a warm week that quickly turns arctic tomorrow.  We're looking at the lowest lows in 12 years "they" say with a high of -3 on Tuesday...ouch.

3.8

Happy Birthday to me. I awoke to a crick in my neck from sleeping normally (yep, getting older) so started the day out with Advil and espresso - and then another double espresso.  Here's to feeling older and just ignoring it.

More & more creaks every year. Mind over matter I say.

Me and the four-pack on a morning hike.  Basie (far left) has shown us to be the mascot for that NMN sweatshirt above.  He's 13 and a half and is not only keeping up with the other dogs but running all the downhills!

Out for a tour and up to treeline at the tunnel trail.  Two other people in the parking lot, no wind (truly!), and some great new exploratory runs.

Nice alley! Conehead is across the way.  Never been on this side of the creek till today!

All i need is my GPS and some Ensure...

Whaleback = A new-to-me run.  Hayride and I have been looking at this shot from that far lil meadow down there, 1200ft down, for years - literally.  Finally, I just made the trek and it was very very worth it. We will be back.

And now for something yummy. Courtesy of Brother Wolfe (um...THANKS!), Abyss with the smrp shall be very much enjoyed.

 The Woodle liked his hat

Dusk patrol

A new one for me Saturday - Dusk patrol at Ptarmagin Hill. 3-5pm. I just had to run up to get some turns as there is A LOT of new snow and high winds which made it barely turnable but one of the best ever up here. I  had to Wasatch the skin track to get speed for the down!

About 30cm deep!

 Today, headed up for a 3 hour tour to try something out I've been wanting do for a LONG time...I finally did and it WAS all that. A short-ish 1.5 hours to the top, going solo at my own pace.  Lots of people along the trail, but once again, after 1 mile in I saw nobody.

The sun split the clouds helping the wind blow them east.

Top of the top hill, mini hidden lake down there on the right. Heading momentarily into that tree'd glade left of center, then over the far ridge just past the lake. All said, it was almost 1200ft vertical to the bottom...! That's one of the longest runs in this area that I know of.

 This is looking back at the top section. You can see my turns in the middle/right if you look closely.

Such a sweet surprise this tour.  Short at 3 hours, knee deep Colorado champagne powder, and a new spot to bring the Pilots back to very soon. 

Roadtrip

The Woodle scoping out snow in Fruita.  Nobody was at the Kokopelli trailhead so we hiked the frontage road for a few miles and it was great.  Pretty level for the elders, lots of tracks and sniffs for the youngins.

Kenny, er...the Smrp I mean, with RTT and the Gups.  Bear (right) is scooping up snow as he walks.  We didn't expect to see so much snow in Fruita! Or Moab for that matter.

Down to Moab, the view from the River Road.  Looking up at the La Sals from the Colorado River. Coldest I've been in Moab, didn't know it did that! Only 8 degrees and almost a foot of snow.

After driving through Vegas to visit a friend and her family of horses and dogs, we headed north to Santa Cruz to visit a couple with new adopted TWINS...crazy! They have their hands full but looked very happy.  Brad was able to show me a loop from his house after stopping to pick up Dave.  So amazing to ride the Hunter as a single in it's homeland.

Zooming through the lush undergrowth.

At the top of the climb, about to descend into the park. Santa Cruz has some different culture than Colorado, it's cool in a way only SC is.

The Medusa Tree.  Not sure the species actually, but this is one twisted tree!

Jesse on TOP of her crate...not supposed to happen (bad girl, but really funny).

Me dwarfed by the redwoods.

After two days in Santa Cruz, we drove north to Placerville for a bite to eat, then over to Georgetown and Cool.  Check out the signs - especially the name of the radio station.  A really cool area around here for running, bikes, and horses.  Below the snow line so you can ride all year long on some amazing trails.

And on up to Auburn, CA. Foresthill Bridge - 730 feet high, it's the tallest bridge in CA. It's kinda creepy heading over it!

Big oaks and big redwoods on the Foresthill Divide Trail. Awesome rolling 12ish- mile loop just outside Auburn.  Connected this loop with Stagecoach, Culvert, and an old grade along the American River that has become a bit of a downhiller's shuttle run with huge gap jumps and stuff.

Red slicky mud on the south slopes, frosty dirt and leaves on the north sides. Didn't clump like clay thankfully.

Smooth as silk singletrack and mossy trees

Oak grasslands mostly around this area, but higher up on Foresthill you get some rather large Digger and Ponderosa Pines like seen below next to the Hunter.

Now up to Tahoe. I did a solo tour up to Twin Peaks just south of Alpine Meadows. The starting point was a short 5 mile drive up Ward Creek from the house where we stayed. Lots of snow, but the locals said this year was the worst Sierra cement they've ever seen...warmer than normal winters and more rain.  So...i wasn't too surprised to see it the night before my tour, and the day after.  The conditions were low on the avy scale but wow...so crappy because there was a raincrust on every aspect at every elevation.  Still, it was amazing terrain to check out.

Rock and Ice

The view of the lake is so prominent and beautiful, it never gets old.

Twin Peaks from the north looking towards the lake.  I skied the slop below me in this picture.  Great steeper slope with widely spaced trees. 

The fake twin peaks. I took a right instead of a left at one point and ended up here.  When the fog/clouds cleared i thought i was in the right place (never been up here before...these are pretty much "twins" to me!).  Had to backtrack a half hour to gain the right ridge.

My run off the north side of the Twin Peaks. 

Prospecting windslab

These pictures make it seem MUCH more peaceful out there than it was today. It was 18 degrees (not too bad...) with some serious windchill (damn bad!) and the snow pretty much...well, sucked. Hate to say it but it was our first "bad" day at Prospectors, but it's all relative - any day out there is a good day.  The turns just weren't that good today.  The word of the day was windslab.  It was everywhere, on every aspect, even in dense trees.  I've never been witness to such a thing before up here! It's been FREEZING cold here the last few days - sub-zero temperatures and windchills at the ranch down to -37 degrees...i feel bad for our horses.  They seem to be fine but i still feel bad they're out in in all this time!

Today went up to the Tunnel with Heyride, AP, JHK and Heather, to where I thought would be good soft snow.  Apparently I talk in my sleep or email or blog in my sleep because some jokers had the same idea as us and carbon-copied our tour route.  Weird, as I've never seen another ski track in the Prospector area.

Everybody fell today, we were forced to break thru the windslab be it ski or head

Skinning back to try another aspect, yep, still thick windslab.

Here's AP  making breakable windslab turns look pretty easy.

Back up to the top of Prospectors.  We were followed by a few guys. Oh well...all secret spots get found eventually.

AP down run #3...still windslabby on the east slopes...damn it!

Heather in a wonderful skiing pose with James Pk. (and lots of blowing snow) in the background

Aww.....aren't they cute...?

And finally, JHK breaking some crust.

 After making our way off Propectors area finding nothing but breakable windslab hell, we headed to Conehead Peak and Frogger...the run with a thousand cliffbands to avoid.  We safely navigated our way down Frogger, not without some fretting and falling and after almost 45 minutes were back at the car.  Took us longer to get down that run than go up to it.

Heyride down  windslab chute