After a super dry spring, summer and fall, snow falling in the mountains was a welcome sight. The forecast was calling for around 12 inches of fresh, so Dan, Joe and I made plans to head to the Pass on the first day of December and check out the conditions. I met Dan at his house, and we headed up the highway to meet Joe, who had spent the night near the pass in his pickup truck. After a quick pit stop at the snowpark, we pulled into the Pass to take care of a few patrol related items.
After we got our patrol obligations taken care of, it was time to head out. There was about a foot of fresh snow at the base, and it felt good to have the skis and skins on the feet and to be breaking trail again. By the time we headed up Timber Glades and made it to the base of High Lead, there was about 18 inches of snow for a base – definitely more than we were expecting given the way the recent storms have fizzled in comparison to the predicted forecasts.
We worked our way up to the top of High Lead, and decided the snow was so good that we’d run laps on the frontside for a little bit. Our first turns took us right back down High Lead, and then we skinned back up and checked out Charlie’s. Both runs were awesome, and skied really well.
With two laps in the bag, we decided it was worth the investment to make one more lap on the front of the mountain before heading over and checking out the backside. As an added bonus, we were able to reuse our skin track for a fourth time. The third time down the front was equally as good as the first two…
I was surfing the snow on my homemade Jamie Lynn 160 Lib Tech split, which I really like in corn or a few inches of fresh snow. It definitely doesn’t have the float of my powder splits, and was a bit more work to keep afloat on, but as the pics below show, it didn’t hold me back too much…
With four runs in the bag on the front, it was time to head over to Peak 2 and check things out. We stopped at the top of EPA and chatted with Quinn (a fellow patroller and friend) who had come up with a friend and was getting ready to drop into Timburr. We all agreed the area was looking good and were cautiously optimistic they may be able to get open soon if the weather cooperated.
We made the short skin up and over to Peak 2, and the snow stake was showing 30 inches. To our amazement, the couple we had talked to in the snowpark earlier and who we had watched skin over to Peak 2 while we were lapping the front hadn’t skied Northern. We pulled out a couple of beers to celebrate….
The coverage on Northern looked really good, and the nuisance trees that were there a few weeks ago had been cut by the area, so the lower half of the run was baby butt smooth. We set up to take a few pictures, and dropped in.
There was probably 18-20 inches of fresh snow on top of the residual, and although it was slightly wind affected, it was pretty sweet. At the bottom, it began to snow again, and we set to work punching in a track back to the top of the hill for one more lap on the back.
The second lap was just as fine as the first, and Dan snapped a few pictures of me near the bottom with his cell phone. I tried pulling a wheelie at the bottom, and to my surprise the shot actually turned out. Meow.
With 5 runs in the bag, we were starting to get a bit tired, and agreed it was time to head over to the front for a ski out to the truck. We skinned up and over Peak 2, and staged at the top of EPA for a final run on the front. We chatted with the area owner, who was track packing down some of the snow (a good sign for a future opening), and then set off down Success, which looked good.
After we each hit a couple of rocks, we nixed that idea and worked our way through the trees to Timburr, and enjoyed a rock-free run from there. We finished the day off by exiting the lower mountain on By George, making powder turns right down the the truck and patrol room.
Sitting in the patrol room after skiing 5000 feet, while drinking a beer and enjoying some chips and salsa was a welcome treat. As we loaded up our gear in the truck and got ready to hit the road, we all agreed it really looked like the area could open in the next wee. After last year’s miserable season, that was a welcome sight!
