Right Fork

Took a trip up Right Fork with Mike today. A lot of walking for not a lot of turns, but it was beautiful and well worth the time. Our original destination was in Seitz Canyon, but we got word from the heli-guys that they'd hit the line we were going for and, well, that would have been a lot of walking for unexpected moguls. It was very, very cool of them to give us a shout.

Dawn broke on the standard Right Fork bushwhack. There's an old, unmaintained trail up climbers right in that canyon. My husband and the other ice climbers used to keep it brushed out, and it's fairly popular with snowshoers and so it's findable for the most part - at least in daylight. Miserable travel in a few spots, but pretty.

We got to the bench in reasonable time, considering the bushwhack, but it appeared that we'd missed the window for my original objective by a few days. The out on Gilbert was bony and full of moats and breakable crust. Un-fun. We took a pass.

The heli had been up there over the weekend and there were a lot of tracks, but even so it looked like fun could be found in these chutes. It was.

Once we got above about 9400' the snow got pretty nice. Creamy, sun-effected powder. Made for nice skinning and a very mellow climb.

The view down Right Fork.

Lake Peak, Wines Peak, and some of the Ruby Crest Trail route.

The first several hundred feet skied beautifully, and those chutes were short but tasty. There was some nice untracked in there, and some big marshmallow humps downhill.

Unfortunately, once we got below 9400' we were back into the crap snow for a mile-plus of down. We got some bonus turns once we got down to the bench, though. It had turned to sweet corn at that point.

And - if any reminder was needed that this, indeed, spring skiing...

All in all, an excellent day - even though I'm going to get to practice my p-tex skills before I take the Gotbacks out again. At least now I know what they're made of... all the way to the inside...