Dark Patrols

Hayride skinning up about 5:30pm, with a sliver of a moon hanging above the trees.

Doing some catchup on the blog here...got so much snow in the last few days that I'm shoveling, skiing, mucking and everything OTHER than writing! 

 Hayride and I got out for a dusk patrol that turned dark on Thursday on the skinny skis.  It had just snowed 3" and for some reason the snow was super fast.  We picked the right wax somehow and never put on skis for the 800ft vertical up to the hut from the parking area.  I have to agree with Hayride on this one: Skinny skis with the right kick wax on rolling terrain is the closest thing to mountain biking singletrack on skis.

Saturday night we headed out for a Dark Patrol ski at Ptarmagin Hill.  It had snowed all day and there was no wind somehow.  So after all else had left the hill, we headed up for boot deep powder in the dark.  Headlamps on even before we got to the top of the 1st run, they definitely were needed as the moon was most definitely NOT full.  All the tracks from the day's skiers were covered already and I'd estimate about 10" of new snow had fallen so far.  We just HAD to do another half-run after the 1st because those were the best turns of the year.  The effortless floating of turns through powder with the snow flying up into your crotch area at each turn...well...it's just good...and it's even better in the dark.