"we got sixteen inches up at our place!" aaron announced. that sounded like a lot compared to our house, with maybe eight in the driveway, and according to noah, only half that over at skip & linda's.
but aaron lives on the western shoulder of cardigan where sometimes, snow clouds stack up and deliver the goods in full! as we geared up at the winter parking area, 16" seemed a bit exaggerated, but there was somewhere around a foot and that was plenty for us. the pendletons took off in a first wave while i helped adam seperate his splitboard and fit his skins with his home-built tail hook system. when we followed, adam set a fast pace in hope of catching them before they got to the top.
noah slowed the lead group down to put his skins on at the summer pavilion, and we caught up for a picture of the whole gang.
snow depth seemed to inch up slightly with increased altitude. that made sense and kept us on the ski trail, tracking it out a bit to help us keep some speed on the way down. the snow was heavy enough that a foot or more of it would practically stop a skier unless it was pretty steep.
noah caught adam's surprise, and eb catching some happy shut-eye, when someone consented that no matter what snow depth aaron had at his house, there was indeed 16" up here.
that depth made skip smile as well, though shortly after eben's skins started un-sticking. reattaching them a few times got annoying and he and eb decided to turn and go down. noah, adam, and i kept on to the top of the 'chute' and un-skinned deliberately. adam un-split his snow board and we dropped in over a huge cornice. the deep won out over the steep--it was slow, but fun.
we didn't stop much after that, save to switch the lead some. at one point adam went right onto the hiking trail at the waterfall. noah and i stayed on the ski trail. some criss-crossing of each got us to the last section of ski trail pretty quickly. i got a surprise at the little drop i like to take. having just prepped adam to stay left of the creek and weave the trees, i got in my mini-huck only to find noah and skip standing right in my line, oh-well, go right.
from there to the gate was uneventful. while the rest of the crew schussed the track, i went the as many slow, lazy turns as possible route. that made me last one down, but i was happy...
not only was there plenty of snow, the camaraderie was more than pleasant. it was a grand day to be outside and playing!
but aaron lives on the western shoulder of cardigan where sometimes, snow clouds stack up and deliver the goods in full! as we geared up at the winter parking area, 16" seemed a bit exaggerated, but there was somewhere around a foot and that was plenty for us. the pendletons took off in a first wave while i helped adam seperate his splitboard and fit his skins with his home-built tail hook system. when we followed, adam set a fast pace in hope of catching them before they got to the top.
noah slowed the lead group down to put his skins on at the summer pavilion, and we caught up for a picture of the whole gang.
noah caught adam's surprise, and eb catching some happy shut-eye, when someone consented that no matter what snow depth aaron had at his house, there was indeed 16" up here.
that depth made skip smile as well, though shortly after eben's skins started un-sticking. reattaching them a few times got annoying and he and eb decided to turn and go down. noah, adam, and i kept on to the top of the 'chute' and un-skinned deliberately. adam un-split his snow board and we dropped in over a huge cornice. the deep won out over the steep--it was slow, but fun.
we didn't stop much after that, save to switch the lead some. at one point adam went right onto the hiking trail at the waterfall. noah and i stayed on the ski trail. some criss-crossing of each got us to the last section of ski trail pretty quickly. i got a surprise at the little drop i like to take. having just prepped adam to stay left of the creek and weave the trees, i got in my mini-huck only to find noah and skip standing right in my line, oh-well, go right.
from there to the gate was uneventful. while the rest of the crew schussed the track, i went the as many slow, lazy turns as possible route. that made me last one down, but i was happy...
not only was there plenty of snow, the camaraderie was more than pleasant. it was a grand day to be outside and playing!
No comments:
Post a Comment