The last day of April seemed like a great day for another evening dusk patrol at the Pass, so Dan and I made plans to head up and meet Joe for some after work turns. I left work in the mid-afternoon and made my way to Dan’s, and we made good time up Highway 58, stopping to gear up at the Gold Lake snowpark.
We made the short drive to the Pass, parked the car, and headed across the parking lot to skin up. The snow was going fast on the front, so we elected to head up KP and try skinning up Eagle’s to meet Joe, who had been up already for a couple of hours making turns on the backside.
We made good time up to Eagle’s, and were both pretty surprised when we saw the run — it was melting really fast. It looked like there was one line that would go, and upon closer inspection, it indeed went through.
We linked back up with KP, and soon were lounging around up top with Joe. The first order of business as usual was to get the beer on ice, then dry skins and get the board into ride mode. About 7 minutes later, the beers were cold, and I pulled out my offering for the day, an Imperial Hazy IPA from Elysian Brewing Company https://www.elysianbrewing.com/.
Before we headed down, I pulled out the tripod, and snapped a shot of the three of us on top, a few moments before dropping in on RTS.
We shoved off, making turns in the soft snow, and headed towards RTS. Dan grabbed the camera, and snapped a few photos of me enjoying the turns heading down with beer in hand. The snow was in really good condition, and we worked down to the bottom, with obvious intentions of heading up for another lap.
Once at the bottom, we ditched packs and Joe and I set the bootpack back up. We arrived at the top about 20-25 minutes later, and I captured a shot of Dan topping out just past the steep headwall.
At the top of the Success Patch, we geared back up and headed down for a second lap. This time, I snapped some pictures of Joe and Dan as they skied down. Joe came ripping by me, and a couple of the below shots show him harvesting some pretty nice evening snow on the last day of April.
I headed down, then stopped just above the fallen tree that came to define our 2020-2021 season, and took a shot looking down at the skiers below. Dan’s just finishing making turns in the pic below, and Joe is waiting at the packs. Then, it was time to put the camera away and enjoy some more really nice turns down to the bottom.
At the bottom, we checked our watched, and decided another run was definitely in order, and it was nice to re-utilize the bootpack again. This time, we headed back up to the top of EPA for a run from the very top, stopping to admire the views at the top of Success looking out over Odell Lake and Diamond Peak.
We hung out on top for 15 minutes or so, and then dropped in for our third and final run of the afternoon. The clouds were starting to roll in as we shoved off, but the snow was getting better on each lap. I shot a few more photos, including the two below of Dan, and then we milked turns back down to the bottom of the run.
I came down last again, after the skiers, and enjoyed each and every turn right to the packs. Looking back at the run, it was looking pretty fine with our 9 tracks right down the middle of it.
From the bottom of RTS, we headed out via Lois Lane, and then worked our way over to Swoosh, which was starting to melt out quite rapidly. It skied really nicely though, and we were able to ski most of the way back down to the bottom.
Near the base, we skied down the haul road to where the snow patched out. Joe continued walking/skiing across, but Dan went down trying to get his ski off, and I wasted little time pulling out the camera:)
We milked the last few patches down to the base, and then made the short hike out to the cars parked out front. Looking back, it was a bit sad seeing the snow melt so fast on the front, and it really hit home that winter was definitely over.
We didn’t hang around the highway for too long, and headed back down to the snowpark for some cold drinks and grilling activities. The brats definitely hit the spot, and capped off another excellent day of dusk patrol turns at the Pass. Until next time….
