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?

Thanks got it for women’s day uphill. Love free swag.

Well today I totally sucked and only made it one mile up Tiehack before I decided to transition and come back down. The temps were low 40’s when I arrived and brilliant sunshine beating down on me. Still got in a solid hour of good cardio so I am satisfied. Buttermilk closes 3/31 and it’s getting quite mushy. All mashed potatoes on the way down.

I’d give you a ride to the shuttle lot and you can slum it and ride the shuttle with me. Basalt will be more expensive as it’s closer.

Carbondale would have some cheap lodging options. And it’s only about 6200’ elevation. I could swing by and pick you upon my way to the mountain. I met Johnny Styles, we was super nice.

This guy has some pretty good POV videos from all the Aspen mountains. He just posted this one of Sheer Bliss today.

I think it’s about $600, so $300 if we split it.

What a beautiful day! Sunshine and temps in the high 30’s on the mountain. Got to Snowmass about 9:15 and parking was a breeze. My neighbor is talking me into splitting the cost of a parking pass w him next season. Gets you free parking at Highlands and a lot at Snowmass with no shuttle required that I have never been to. With no pass it’s $25. Went over to Big Burn and took a warm up run on Sneaky’s snow was crunchy. Then hit the little bumps towards the bottom Then on Jeff’s advice went over to Sheer Bliss lift. And just as he said, I skied right into it and shared a chair with no one. I think I started on the Sheer Bliss trail but then merged onto a bump trail. That was a long, lot of bumps. No picture of it. But here is a pic of people waiting for the cirque lift poma The snow off Sheer Bliss was less crunchy. But toward the last 1/3 of the bump run the troughs were pretty scraped off and icy. Went to the bottom and took the Elk Camp Gondola to the top and skied one run down to the base. One thing about Snowmass is the runs are super long. I’m must have banged my watch and shut off the tracking but before I went to elk camp it was over 6000’. Top to bottom of elk is probably another 3000’ + one of these “runs” is from Snowmass mall to the lift which is about 100’. Love my commute, never any traffic heading home. Blaring the 80’a tunes This view right before the Marble turn off is really beautiful but a picture doesn’t really do it justice. My plan is to suffer a bit and uphill Tiehack tomorrow. My cardio game is sorely lacking.

I don’t have to force myself to go. The sunshine will make it great. I went Sunday and the visibility was so bad. Just white on white on white.

Next few days will be warm and sunny and I am going to get my ass to Snowmass. I will put up a report for sure.

Sent you a pm