under bluebird skis and over untracked deepness, skip, richard, and i find the fresh up and down mt carr! turns out it wasn't all that difficult convincing the two to hit mt carr with me. i had stopped at the pendletons' on the way home where linda informed me that skip had already taken the day off, and his brother richard was arriving that evening to ski with them. i set the bait, all about unskied deep powder, much closer than the catamount trail, with the chance of hitting another stash in the afternoon. that seemed to work as later that evening, skip called and told me to show up for an 8:00a start.
i got there on the dot and stuffed my gear into the subaru. we pulled out of the drive by 8:30 and drove north. this time, just before the sawyer highway, we turned east and made our way up to the trailhead. i had my sunglasses on this time and took off across the field, super excited. i was so pumped i made the iconic tracks (the piece of cartoon is by charles addams found in the new yorker) around both sides of an apple tree in the middle of the field. satisfied with the results there, i realized i had skied away without my pack. luckily the other two were still near the car so i shouted back and they fetched it for me. we were off!
while i started with my fast skis and skins, both skip and richard went with scales and no skins, until we got to the waterfall spur trail turn off and some steepness. i cut away a blow down while they skinned up. we continued on and while we hit a few more downed trees, there was only a couple trunks too big to cut out, or at least we decided not to cut them as the ski arounds were fairly easily. at some point though skip started talking 'lunch o'clock' and about where we remembered the trail got pretty tight anyway, we looked for a snack / turn around spot.
skip and richard found a bit of sun to fuel up and take off skins, while i stopped to put on a jacket that would shed the snow coming off the low and loaded spruce and fir branches. when i caught up to them they were almost ready to go down. we snapped a picture and turned around.
there was plenty of snow to swipe a few turns, but speed was limiting factor for me, as it was steep and narrow for the first quarter mile maybe. as soon as it dropped into the mixed hardwoods, things opened up enough to start getting creative. i found plenty of space around the edges and 'off' trail to keep me happy, even when i sat back too far and went down a couple of times. as skip knows--i love to fall. richard, the last man down in that top section, said things were getting pretty quick as skip and i skied off the deep stuff.
soon enough, we were down a quarter or more, squeezing through the two foot cutout of a huge blowdown, then half way, whooping it up and flying the drainage ditches. about three quarters down, at the right hand turn above the waterfall spur trail, i shrugged off into the woods, plopped down in the deep and waited. richard and skip showed up and i convinced them that we could each find a nice line off through the woods here as we dropped back down to the trail below. they were hesitant but as soon as it happened and we ended up back on the trail, there were big smiles all around. the last quarter was riding the skin track with periodic turns off into the fluff.
as we came into the final field, the one with the apple tree and funky tracks, i heard richard tell skip what a good tour this was, plenty worth the effort, without the hassle of driving all over spotting a car on either end of the day's catamount section. everybody got in the car happy. shortly after at skip's, we all got out, just as happy to finally eat a proper bit of lunch.
and shortly after that, we got back into the car and headed over to la salette. actually we got into two cars, as the shaker backcountry was conveniently on the way home for richard. skip and i decided to ski a section we call the glades, tracking up the middle and coming down where you may. it was a wise choice, except for the fact that the two brothers, with their scaled skis, didn't have their skins. after a bit of an upper body workout though, standing at the top looking down, everybody turned excited. this was going to be good--"the best skiing ever!" as skip liked to say.
it really was great snow and a sweet pitch. we left some interesting tracks weaving trunks and ducking branches. i did not see any apple trees to pull the ol' ski both sides trick though. down at the bottom i started skinning back up while richard and skip scaled off to go hit the little sherburne. i finally caught them, no herringboning for them this time, at our big loop through the woods junction, and we continued up to the potato field.
at the height of land i took my skins off and locked everything down for one final go. with my faster skis and the snow a bit dried out compared to in the storm tuesday--when skip and i had skied it--i was back in heaven, going downhill fast. it was fairly easy to catch little bits of air off the water bars. my rhythm was good enough for me to go down what i call the spine, a narrow little ridge with a steep drop at its end. waiting for the brothers down on the main trail i was actually breathing hard.
we skied back to the cars and split up with a final goodbye to richard. his gps took him right on 4a when we went left, everybody happy.
i got there on the dot and stuffed my gear into the subaru. we pulled out of the drive by 8:30 and drove north. this time, just before the sawyer highway, we turned east and made our way up to the trailhead. i had my sunglasses on this time and took off across the field, super excited. i was so pumped i made the iconic tracks (the piece of cartoon is by charles addams found in the new yorker) around both sides of an apple tree in the middle of the field. satisfied with the results there, i realized i had skied away without my pack. luckily the other two were still near the car so i shouted back and they fetched it for me. we were off!
while i started with my fast skis and skins, both skip and richard went with scales and no skins, until we got to the waterfall spur trail turn off and some steepness. i cut away a blow down while they skinned up. we continued on and while we hit a few more downed trees, there was only a couple trunks too big to cut out, or at least we decided not to cut them as the ski arounds were fairly easily. at some point though skip started talking 'lunch o'clock' and about where we remembered the trail got pretty tight anyway, we looked for a snack / turn around spot.
 |
| posing, on the way down... |
 |
| cutting, on the way up... |
skip and richard found a bit of sun to fuel up and take off skins, while i stopped to put on a jacket that would shed the snow coming off the low and loaded spruce and fir branches. when i caught up to them they were almost ready to go down. we snapped a picture and turned around.
there was plenty of snow to swipe a few turns, but speed was limiting factor for me, as it was steep and narrow for the first quarter mile maybe. as soon as it dropped into the mixed hardwoods, things opened up enough to start getting creative. i found plenty of space around the edges and 'off' trail to keep me happy, even when i sat back too far and went down a couple of times. as skip knows--i love to fall. richard, the last man down in that top section, said things were getting pretty quick as skip and i skied off the deep stuff.
soon enough, we were down a quarter or more, squeezing through the two foot cutout of a huge blowdown, then half way, whooping it up and flying the drainage ditches. about three quarters down, at the right hand turn above the waterfall spur trail, i shrugged off into the woods, plopped down in the deep and waited. richard and skip showed up and i convinced them that we could each find a nice line off through the woods here as we dropped back down to the trail below. they were hesitant but as soon as it happened and we ended up back on the trail, there were big smiles all around. the last quarter was riding the skin track with periodic turns off into the fluff.
as we came into the final field, the one with the apple tree and funky tracks, i heard richard tell skip what a good tour this was, plenty worth the effort, without the hassle of driving all over spotting a car on either end of the day's catamount section. everybody got in the car happy. shortly after at skip's, we all got out, just as happy to finally eat a proper bit of lunch.
and shortly after that, we got back into the car and headed over to la salette. actually we got into two cars, as the shaker backcountry was conveniently on the way home for richard. skip and i decided to ski a section we call the glades, tracking up the middle and coming down where you may. it was a wise choice, except for the fact that the two brothers, with their scaled skis, didn't have their skins. after a bit of an upper body workout though, standing at the top looking down, everybody turned excited. this was going to be good--"the best skiing ever!" as skip liked to say.
it really was great snow and a sweet pitch. we left some interesting tracks weaving trunks and ducking branches. i did not see any apple trees to pull the ol' ski both sides trick though. down at the bottom i started skinning back up while richard and skip scaled off to go hit the little sherburne. i finally caught them, no herringboning for them this time, at our big loop through the woods junction, and we continued up to the potato field.
at the height of land i took my skins off and locked everything down for one final go. with my faster skis and the snow a bit dried out compared to in the storm tuesday--when skip and i had skied it--i was back in heaven, going downhill fast. it was fairly easy to catch little bits of air off the water bars. my rhythm was good enough for me to go down what i call the spine, a narrow little ridge with a steep drop at its end. waiting for the brothers down on the main trail i was actually breathing hard.
we skied back to the cars and split up with a final goodbye to richard. his gps took him right on 4a when we went left, everybody happy.
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