First ski tour of the season

 

Today's tour was...how do i say this nicely...challenging.  We've received almost 2 feet in the past several days so we thought it was about time to put on the planks and head up to the Portal.  Well, we need more snow. 

This looks really serene but we were hitting rocks just a foot under the snow almost every step here.

 Hayride, JHK and I headed up and did our best to stay positive on what was some of the most "interesting" conditions we've experienced.  The recent windstorm had knocked down a ton of trees here too and with only 2 feet of snow...not many trees were buried yet.  It was like trying to find your way through a corn maze that hadn't been cut yet.  There was no *good* way through, it all pretty much sucked.  Just keep bushwhacking and you'll eventually get to the top.  Hayride brought up how a recent article in Backcountry Mag stated that the ideal skin track is right around 12 degrees.  Yeah. That ain't gonna happen.  We were heading up to Squirrel Huck Gully and if we stuck to that rule, we'd have skied to winter park and back before getting to the top.

Who needs 12 degrees? Let's BOOTPACK! If anyone followed our skin track they died out there (self-inflicted).

 Once at the top, we were surprised at the calmness of air (no wind).  That made me pretty happy (shocked) since it was hovering around 0 degrees F.

View over to Crater Lakes

JHK at the 'top' - Marmot Poop Rock.

 

The best 10 turns of the day right here...and they WERE good!  Never-mind it took 3 hours to do the 3 miles to get here.

Hayride lower down for another 5 turns.

Can this be counted as training for the Olympics...?

Hayride getting his carve on

 All in all, we got back to the car almost at dark.  Our ski bases didn't look quite as bad as I thought they should have.  Maybe the cold temps helped protect our bases (hardening)?  A shot of whiskey to warm our insides helped, but we were pretty whooped.  My body hasn't felt like that since...well, the last time I was at the Portal.  Winter backcountry season is here!  But I think we're going to wait a bit longer for more snow to fall before heading up to Squirrel Huck Gully again.