We arrived at the parking area just before 9AM to relatively calm, but cloudy conditions.
As we heading up the hill, the clouds, wind and snow started moving in.
Dylan lead the way as he charged up the hill following an established set of skin tracks. I huffed and puffed while trying to keep up. You'd think with all the trips up Cervidae lately that it would be easier. Must be the altitude.
As we got higher the wind really picked up and we had horizontal snow blowing in our faces. You have got to love horizontal snow! Since it was blowing like crazy we decided to not continue up to the summit and stopped just above the lunch tree. Once there, we pulled our skins and took turns heading down.
The snow was absolutely fantastic! Boot top powder over a great base. In no time we were down the hill quite a ways with big smiles on our faces. We quickly put the skins back on and headed back up the mountain for another lap.
Once we made it back up to the lunch tree again we huddled in out of the wind and snow to share a chicken salad sandwich and a cup of tea. It was time to continue up a bit further to make another lap. As Dylan was clipping into his bindings he discovered that one skin was not adhering to the ski. Crap! How do you fix this? We had no clue on a repair and now could not continue up. So stripped the skins and headed down for the last run.
The snow was still fabulous and even better once we were in the trees. In no time we were down.
Unfortunately, we were so caught up in the great snow that we went down a little too far and had to do a little extra walking to get back to the car. Oh well, no worries.
It was a great start to the season, hopefully it just gets better!
