Srgt. Awesome

As of yesterday I didn't have much planned for today in the way of recreation, I wanted to get some things in order before our impending vacay so I wanted to get something in quick.  There was a line I had been eyeing for a bit this season not all that far from the house and it seemed tame enough for a solo mission so I went for it.

Absolutely beautiful day out, 40-45 and lots of sun.  I made my way to the trailhead and was at it by 10am.  Decent amount of cars in play but not too bad, I think it was a lot of people snowshoeing and walking dogs on trails that I wouldn't be on so it was all good.  I did bump into one other guy gearing up for a skin up...he asked me if I had ever skied this spot before and when I said no I could see a subtle wince, like he wished I hadn't found it but he warmed up and was actually friendly and we ended up meeting up about halfway up and he let me tag along a bit.  I will be very cryptic in this post as to where this locale is so that Mike will not bump into any other first timers (at least any that found out about it here).

 

going up...

Things started off with a haul up a road that is closed in winter.  Great place to get everything warmed up, unfortunately I hit it right when the sun was beating down perfectly on the path so it kind of warmed up a bit too much but it was manageable...and nice soaking up some sun.  I bumped into Mike again at the top of this road before we jumped into our line of choice.  It was really interesting terrain, undulating, with some cool features.

This obstacle was a bit sketchy

The skin up went fairly well, the snow was extremely variable.  Crusty in spots, spring corn in the sun, still a bit powdery up high and in the shade but all in all very skiable.  There were a few tricky spots due to some gullies and short steep pitches or some sort of buried feature to get around.  I was pleased with how steep things got towards the top, the last headwall was unskinable and I had to strap my poles to my pack and use the skis as anchors and boot up.  There were some big boulders but luckily enough snow to fill things in, almost looked like a spot that is probably some sort of frozen waterfall when there isnt enough snow...

 

looking back down from just over the last headwall

I topped out shortly after and transitioned for the down.  I rode pretty conservative due to the variable snow but that headwall could be amazing in light fluffy snow, very easy to turn it into a two or three stage pillow line as long as it was deep enough.  The rest of the ride out was fun, little features to jib and the snow was workable enough to get a good up/down rhythm going and stay moving.  Mike was even nice enough to share a bit more local knowledge when I bumped into him again towards the top on my way down so I will definitely be back again to check things out further.

gotta love it