12-13 — 12 -16: Byron and my 3rd annual low-overhead, highly-flexible ski trip.

NB: photo taken on Saturday, after storm

Wolf Creek got 10 feet in the past 2 weeks, and fresh was due for our first day. So we finalized details the week prior, made our excuses and bolted from Phx thursday at 3:30. The drive was mellow and mostly uneventful. we got to see parts of the Geminid meteor shower during the drive. It took shooting stars to a whole ‘nother level – they looked big and bright and you could see the smoke trails. More like the ending part of fireworks than a typical brief shooting star.

Got in to Pagosa Springs at midnight, up at 6:30.

It snowed and was about 10 degrees all day long.

But with numbers like this…

Summit Base: 126 Inches
Midway Base: 106 Inches
24 hr Snowfall Total: 2 Inches
Latest Storm: 2 Inches
Year to Date: 176 Inches

And conditions like this…

…we were there in time for 1st chair Friday.

I was typically nervous about diving into such big conditions. Byron teased me on the way up that he and Matt were talking shit about how long it would take til I started worrying…apparently “leaving the driveway” was the consensus. and that was almost true – I think it took til we passed Phon D on the ride out Bush Highway. But it turned out that i damn near picked up where i left off in March. the low stance, attacking attitude, and frequent small wiggly carves in tight spaces came right back to me on the very first run. .

i felt good in the powder too, but quickly realized this was the deepest stuff i’d ever been in. skills are all well and good, but boarding is so subject to the conditions that you just have to take what the day gives you and let it dictate what you will do. today would be quite epic. 1st tracks on anything but steep pitches buried the board, and i spent part of my first few runs fighting to get out of the most innocuous deep patches in the flats. It probably took til mid-morning til i got it through my head that an easy, beautiful patch of virgin powder was absolute death. On the flip side, for the first time ever the steeps totally did not scare me and it was all i could do to go faster. leaning back on the board to float above the powder buried the back, and leaning forward to pick up speed buried the nose. over the course of the weekend i flipped so many times i lost count, and just resigned myself to keep clawing my way back up to being vertical and pointing downhill again. i’ve come to take a very holistic attitude towards boarding, its a sport that uses your whole body and makes you really embrace the hill, the hike, the kneel-down, the double-black cattracks, the act of pushing yourself up off your ass…as long as there is powder its at worst an exercise in silliness and at best better and cleaner and longer the X. Byron could not fathom this multi-positional mindset, every time he flopped it was a lost ski or an experience in modern yoga to get his act back together. Me…i just watched the world turn in a circle, shook the powder out of my helmet, and tried to use the momentum from my roll to keep moving forward. very different approach to hitting the ground than in mountain biking.

so the operative theme for the day was to maintain momentum, and this meant not letting the churn or the tight tracks i was following get the best of me. the improvements I made last year from riding with Matt and Anita down Canus Lupis were huge. i felt very in control of my direction and the changing terrain. having to go fast to maintain momentum, however, was a challenge. i kept wanting to slow down, and kept sinking if i did. either way it seemed i was gonna go down, so eventually the fear and unease just transformed into a big “aww fuckit, step up and quit whining…just don’t hit a tree.” and then it got to be a lot of fun.

Byron meanwhile was having his own break-in period with the conditions and some new gear. He looked very sexy, and thus he was dubbed McLuvin for the weekend.

It was easy to spot the yellow boots. and the genius of Superbad is that no matter how many times you hear it, yelling “McLuvin!” out on the slope is damn funny!

after about 3 runs, we bolted for the far side and the Alberta lift. without any hesitation, we pointed right to the Waterfall Area. damn damn damn those steeps were just so easy and so fun. i shot down one of the softest easiest powder funnels i’ve ever hit, and splashed down through the bottom with abandon. last year i got stuck several times at the bottom of this run, and the run out to the lift was very long and very flat — i was only on day 18 on the board when we hit Wolf Creek last year, but this year with 10 more days under me, the bottom-outs and run-outs were not so bad. its cool to get better!!! mostly i ran through them in frantic control, and when i had to walk, i just popped off the board and got to it without fretting. it helped with the walking that i’ve given up on my board strap – it freezes and never holds shut anyway, and is such a pain in the ass, the only time i’ve ever needed it was when i was hiking anyway and had dropped the board. i should get a simple clip-on if i can ever find one…

we hit the Waterfall several more times.

around 2 we were both burning our legs and it was coooooooold, so we took a break with proper amenities.

and i saw this bluebird hanging out in the middle of the storm!

Back on the hill! some runs down the lodge side where we found a few easier steeps leading into some fun blues, i rode non-stop til close.

the hot tub was cold, there was a hot tub guard telling us what not to touch, and a bunch of big hairy guys trying to get in…so we rolled quickly and hit Kipp’s – a 10 table restaurant built on the ground floor of a house. we ate there last year, and the food and vibe were cool and low-key. Byron spotted El Jimedor at the bar, and we drank a shot of our Casa V brand.

we hard-partyers stayed out past 8 , then time to crash.

Peter Rabbit is totemic baby

Saturday was a bluebird day.

we got our first run about 8:50, great conditions, and the mountain was still nearly empty!

After a few warm-ups, we hiked off Treasure Lift to a face that our ex-Ulty friend Tamara showed us last year. Its a very easy hike, Byron poled it all, for a nice deep shot of about 10 turns. It led into a great corner that held powder all day, then a fun easy tree shot, then the Waterfall again en route to Alberta lift. After a few runs down Alberta, we decided it was time for the hike up Knife Ridge we had been eyeing for the last 2 trips.

The hike starts with a snow staircase of about 75 steps straight up, then a beautiful walk along a knife-edged cliff. The trail was pretty stamped-in, so it wasn’t too scary, but looking off to either side was vertigo-inducing.

Knife Ridge, with Alberta Peak in the background

Knife Ridge was humbling, and both of us sucked-ass on the descent. i know with more practice i could get better at this, but it was without a doubt the most vertical thing i’ve tried. we then ended up far into the trees where tracks were hard to find. i flopped, i floundered, and generally looked like a rookie. fatigue, misdirection and sucking combined for us to opt onto the first cattrack back to the lift.

A couple more runs, and then we decided it was time to try the Alberta Peak hike before we were too tired to press on. same climb up the staircase, and similar but different hike out the other direction. Byron was having a harder time hiking in his McLuvin boots, so i went a bit further out onto the peak, and was rewarded with what might have been my best descent ever!

Alberta Peak, looking down on the drop-in

looking back on the trail i climbed

i dropped off Alberta Peak into waist deep powder, and floated down on a cloud of bliss. i aimed for the existing tracks through the treeline, not knowing exactly what was ahead but sure as hell knowing it would suck getting stuck. a short shot through the trees led to an even steeper 2nd pitch, multiple-boardgasm was had!

back at the lodge for a long break and a beer, then out for more runs doing the hike off Treasure Lift til close. the hottub was hot this night, and we went to a nice restaurant called Plaza Grill – Byron wanted some comfy amenities, I wanted a salad bar, Odell’s Porter was served, we were both happy with our choice. and another wild night ending at 9.

Day 3 we packed and cleared out of the hotel, got on our first lift at 8:45. the conditions had gotten a little icy and a little crispy, and the churn from the day before had gotten hard in spots. adding to the fun, my legs were completely shot. i was falling all over the place – i didn’t even get my tired-legs very tired, cause i couldn’t stay vertical for very long. both of us dialed it back a little, and just cruised the easier blacks for most of the day. My one signature run was another hike up Alberta Peak, this time even further than the first, and whatever falling i was doing i left behind for one phenomenal fun run down the first 2 pitched and then straight into the Waterfall Area again. my legs were faded by the last pitch, but it was an incredible 50 minute run bottom-to-top-to-bottom, made even more exciting by the thrill of doing it all alone.

a few more runs, then 2pm came and back in the car, back on the road, back home at 11pm. very tiring 3 days, but can’t beat the conditions and only $350 each for 3 days of waist-deep powder.