Photos:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=275570554/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Sunday 3/1:
Jumped in with Rom's crew for a backcountry ski trip around Forest Lakes. I had checked the avalanche conditions yesterday (Saturday) and was planning on checking them on Sunday morning too. Time slipped away, and I was rushing out the door without the latest forecast. When I got to the meeting place, there were only a couple folks. Come to find out folks are quite relaxed in the meeting time. Good to know for next time.
We packed everyone up into the cars and headed up to the trailhead. It was pretty warm at the trailhead. I was just in a fleece and t-shirt, and once we got going, had to take off the fleece. This was great for a while, then the snow started balling up (collecting) on our skins. Many folks waxed to try to keep the snow off. Unfortunately, my boots were tearing up my feet again. I had blisters less than two miles in. Stopped to duct tape my feet. We stopped for a quick break in a meadow. It was a good crowd, and having fun. Many jokes were told.
We then continued up the ridge, up some pretty steep sections. We reached a decision point as the ridge climbed up towards the divide. Did we want to go farther up? There was a route down, but it crossed some avalanche terrain. The avy conditions were good, but at least one of the crew didn't have a beacon; so we wanted to play it safe. We decided to just ski down from the ridge we were at.
The snow conditions were quite variable. Lots of it had a crust, and sometimes you would break through the crust. Just enough to throw your balance off and make things interesting. There were a couple sections of some awesome powder though. Since I was just out to get some exercise, any powder was just icing on the cake. On the way back, we came across a cornice that had a variety of takeoff and landings. The biggest of which was around 15 feet tall. We took turns hucking ourselves off the cornice. It was so fun, most of us went back and did it multiple times.
We continued back down and got to the cars around 5pm. We had plenty of daylight still left. Rom and I decided that we would head up the Moffat road to see if we could make it far enough to maybe shorten the distance of a future ski trip. We made it over the big snow mound on the way in. The road looked pretty good, then there was a spot that had a bit of a drop, then the road looked good for a long ways. We decided to go for it, but quickly sunk in and high centered as soon as we hit the low spot. Bummer.
We spent around an hour digging out, but weren't making much progress. All four wheels were just spinning in the air. I started to stack rocks for traction, and tried to jam the rocks under the tires. Rom decided to try to go off to find someone that might be able to help. I kept digging. Soon, another person in another Jeep showed up. Turns out, he helped someone stuck in the same spot earlier in the day. He was coming back to give it a shot in his Jeep. We hooked up my tow strap, and he helped us get back out.
I offered to stick around if he wanted to give it a shot, but since two people were already stuck there and since daylight was now waning; he decided against it. It was the first time I had gotten the new truck stuck. Nice to know it's limits; especially when it really was only a couple hours worth of work to get it out. Could have been much worse; for sure.
Overall, it was a fun day. Definitely got a bunch of exercise, and had some fun in the Jeep too.
Hope you enjoy the pics!
A.J.
Photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=275570554/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Group Room (multiple albums): http://ajoutdoors.snapfish.com/snapfish