Barb

Guess my season is still going. Earlier this week I went to John’s house (my new BC buddy) to wax our skis. They were both glopping up last time out. We both have DPS skis with Phantom glide. It does. It hold up in spring conditions. He had a wax I had never heard of with a special iron that you hover a few inches over the skis after kind of just “crayoning” the dry wax on. It seemed to work well and there was very little waste scraped off. So with freshly waxed skis I promised him I would tour with him this week and today was the day. We took his side by side to the creek where there was consistent snow. Then we skimmed from there. Creek crossing was a log bridge. In ski boots carrying gear I took it slow and thankfully did not fall in. I kept hitting my watch and pausing it but I think from my best guess we skinned about 2 miles in to an area the locals call the “debris pile” where there was a previous avalanche. Mellow skiing there, then an area of baby well spaced trees Some sections the snow got skinny on the road End of the baby tree section. John is another one of those guys in his 70’s and not of the picture taking generation, so just had to quickly take a few. Arkansas mountain south facing aspect. Meting quickly. Today was low 60’s and bright sun. Applied 2 rounds of sunscreen and still have a lobster face. John is the head of West Elk Mountain Rescue and I got the hard sell today to join. I felt like I couldn’t say no so I am going to what I guess is my first meeting next week.

Life keeps getting in the way. There is a group of ladies going to ski Mt Sopris next weekend. I’ve asked all of them if they want to do it as an overnighter as I don’t think I could skin up over 4000’ in one day. No takers unfortunately. Looks to be some doable (for me ) lines on Independence Pass that I am going to throw out to the same group of ladies to see if there is any interest.

Just a pic of my dog living his best life.

I was racking my brain this morning trying to figure out how this mountain was so steep after looking at it on cal topo. You can clearly see there are mellow descents to the north/northeast really looking at this map and now knowing where all the names peaks are, I realize we started down this line circled. I would really like to try this ski again with the mellower descent

Today I got to see what the cool kids in Marble do when they go backcountry skiing. I met a local the other day mid 70’s. We agreed to meet today at the winter closure gate at Lead King Basin. Our objective was to ski Sheep Mountain elevation 11,575’. I thought we were hiking up with skis on packs until we hit snow, then skinning. Nope. He picked me up in his side by side. We rode up about a mile to where he had his snowmobile parked. Then we switched vehicles. I sat in front and away we went. I actually have never been on a snowmobile before and it took a minute to get used to it. The snow was rutted and spring conditions and there were so many little roller coaster like up and downs. I was really trying my best not to smack his chin with my helmet from all the jerky stop and go motions. We came to a creek crossing and he got stuck on the uphill. So he instructed me to throttle it while standing next to it and he would pull from the front. That worked after a few tries. We exited the main jeep road and got into Sheep mountain road which is very tight and rough. He said there were 19 switchbacks. At switchback 13 he warmed me it would start to get rough. I was thinking “tougher than it’s been already” as we were skirting steep drop offs and almost riding sideways. He wasn’t wrong. We ran into another guy whose machine died. We helped him move it onto what little space there was without rolling down the hillside so we could get by. When we reached the top there were views from every direction. He gave me a very thorough explanation of what peaks were, ski lines, avalanche paths etc. The pictures don’t do it justice. It was so warm today. I asked him if we could go down the gentlest way possible and he said “I won’t do that but come this way.” I knew I was in trouble. The first headwall was really steep for me. Here is a picture from the bottom and my pathetic tracks of side slipping hoping not to fall Yeah, I can hear you all laughing but it was steep for me. We ended up not doing the whole 2000’ vertical and traversed to the snowmobile track and skinned back up. Ha wanted to hang out a bit since it was such a beautiful day. We snacked and chatted for a good hour in the sunshine. he left his snowmobile above the creek and after a sketchy crossing on slippery rocks with ski boots, carrying our skis, we skied the rest of the road to the side by side. Even though I didn’t ski the whole mountain, it was a stellar day!

Haha I guess I am a giant dork, because I didn’t even think about naming it. I will have to think about that.

As some of you already know, I made the bittersweet decision to sell my place in Crested Butte for a variety of reasons. I am glad I got to introduce so many PASR’s to the awesome mountain and town. When I went to get what little personal stuff I had there it was a very slow walk out the front door with a little lump in my throat. 7 years of good memories for sure. So since I am now 100% invested in my current location, I decided to buy this little UTV. The lead king loop is 4 miles from my front door. I am not a “jeeper” but there are amazing trailheads down the road. If you can cut off a 6-8 mile hike, you start out in some really awesome spots. And yes, my Jeep could make it, but my jeep skills are lacking. This machine is smaller and easier to navigate.

Sometimes the most memorable parts of. Europe trip is the transit. Running around looking at signs in a different language and barely making train and bus connections. Glad you had a good trip, minus the injury.

Good review, I wondered about these as well. But since I already have boot heaters with a big battery I thought this would be one more thing on my boots. The wine glass analogy is interesting. I def have a bad habit of skiing with my skis too far apart, guess I learned that way and never corrected it.Trying to work on that.

That’s insane how fast it went down.

If you get an Ikon base plus or full ikon you can come visit me and ski Aspen next year with Dan. Just sayin….

Another beautiful day here before the snow comes in later tonight. Skinned up the Elk Camp side of Snowmass in a t-shirt today. Was 49 degrees when I got back to my car. I like this route. Not quite as hard as Tiehack. Just under 2 miles and 1300’+ elevation gain. Made it up in exactly 1:30. Had a quick lunch at the top of the gondola and skied back down. Light crowds, snow was mushy and soft.

Ok thanks. Still getting my bearings.

Every day is men’s day

Pic #2 is amazing! Where is that?