Well, it's better than it could be...

One of the genuine joys of being a local is that I don't have to play Russian roulette with my ski days. If it's nice out and it just snowed, I ski. If it's been a while since it snowed, I don't. That doesn't guarantee good conditions but it does at least give me a shot at them.

This year, as craptastic as it's been snowpack-wise, has yielded up some pretty sweet skiing. Have I had the huge blower powder days I've enjoyed in the past? Well, no. But that's not to say that excellent turns can't be found when one goes looking.



The USDA's measurement gnomes tell us that the Lamoille #5 Snowcourse site is at 48% of normal this year. Any way you slice it, that sucks. It means that lower-altitude, non-sled-access skiing requires a real PIA of an approach. It means that there are a whole lot more of those "unmarked obstacles" that seem to want to eat a girl's skis. It means that it takes longer for old tracks to fill in, whether they're made by skis or snowmobiles. It means that some of our favorite lines may not fill in to the point that they're worth skiing at all this year.

That said, even a make-do year in the Rubies beats just about anyplace else on Earth. At least in my opinion.





By the way - click on the pix to make them bigger. It's worth it. The first three are of my friend Mike Glasgow, the last one is a pic that Mike took of me.

Thanks, Shane

I never get tired of this. Thanks, Shane, for the memories.



++++++++++++++++

Snowing with some enthusiasm out there right now. My ski partner bagged on today's tour (understandable). Went up yesterday for some XC, ran into a couple of heliski guides who reported thin but marginally skiable snow on Snowflake. They'd done some digging and the garbage had melted out on that slope, anyway - last weekend's snow was all that was underneath.

Will ski XC again today, tour tomorrow. Likely to stick with low angle trees, but we'll see what we see.

Ullr's howling

Well, it's been more than a month since my last blog update, and we're still waiting for real skiing to arrive. Some folks I know have been out beating their boards up for terrible turns in Ambrosia and the Dollars, but it hardly seems worth the effort and the base damage from what I can see.

Ullr has sent the storm, though, and it's been howling outside for several days now. The snow is starting to accumulate north of here, and there are even some flakes falling in the Rubies. The forecast is for snow for the next several days... with the howling wind and the sugar underneath it's going to be scary, scary, scary for a while.

My dad lived in this valley for more than eighty years, and used to tell the heliski guys that you couldn't count on skiable snow until the end of January. This is one of those years that is proving my old man right. At least - I hope it will, and I'm sure the heliski guys are hoping he's right, too.

Patience, grasshopper...

The bitch is back

La Nina, that is.
















I took the sled up to road's end for a look-see to see how things are shaping up for skiing. The answer - not yet, and likely not soon. :( It doesn't look like the snowmobilers are going up much past the turnaround, and for good reason. There isn't anything close to adequate snow cover yet. It was pretty obvious what I was going to find, but I threw the skins on anyway and headed uphill, more for the exercise than anything else. I turned around just short of the Launching Pad, as it was clear that I was just going to tear up my skis coming back downhill.

Kevin M. was up there too, for much the same reason. He skinned all the way up to Liberty Pass. He said that it never did get any better. He got about six turns in First Dollar, but it was really dicey and not worth skinning up.

He summed it up pretty succinctly: "That sucked."

The good part is that I got that first-day shakeout done, the sled runs, the boots still fit, the new skins stayed where they were supposed to stay, the dog loaded onto the snowmobile willingly, AND I got some exercise. I'll be honest, though - it'll take a fair bit more snow for me to want to bust out the snowmobile again. I'll be sticking to hiking, ice climbing and XC skiing for a while.

I have some old skis that I was going to give to a friend to turn into a fence. I'm thinking they need to be sacrificed to Ullr instead.

Road closed for the winter

Very fast update - the Lamoille Canyon Road is closed for the winter at its usual spot, just past Pete's Corner. I ran into a USFS law enforcement officer (LEO) up there today - he's issuing citations for folks who drive past the closure, so be advised. There's not a whole heck of a lot of snow on the road yet, very drivable, but I guess they're being proactive. Or nanny-statish, take your pick.

Anyway, some friends of mine have been up making turns - skied the Lake Shot on Friday. I was up on XC skis today (sweet!)... busy with work tomorrow but will head up Wednesday for a real ski report.

Ice ice baby!

I haven't put anything up on this blog for several months now... for whatever reason, I posted a couple of late, late ski days over on my Trails blog rather than here. People were asking about trail conditions so I posted ski pics for them... think I got the message across?

Ruby Mountain Trails

Anyway, while a couple of people who don't really like their ski bases much have been up there skiing on the rocks, I've been taking a pass and doing some hiking and ice climbing. It's beautiful up there right now, even with the lack of skiable snow.

From an ice climbing trip with friends on Saturday:

Gotta love ice climbing. The approach almost always involves a ridiculously steep walk up AND a bushwhack! Fortunately, this climb, aptly named Season Opener, is one of the easier approaches.

My friend Bruce and my dog Cody got to spend some quality time up there.

Jeff hadn't climbed ice more than once or twice, and hadn't done it at all for a couple of years. My husband Ken gave him a quick "Ice Climbing 101" class.

And then belayed him as he gave it a whirl. Jeff was STOKED to get up there!

Why bother with a rope?

I've never been one for high heels...

Erik showed up just as we were packing up to go drink beer... did a couple of quick rope-free laps since he'd gone to the trouble to get all dressed up and everything...

Sweet canyon view... and one that only the climbers and mountain goats get to see.

I think given the conditions that ice climbing rather than skiing is likely to be in my immediate future. This isn't too terrible in the scheme of things.

Sled in Terminal Cancer

Corn season is here, and that means crunchy early AM starts, bluebird skies and a very happy dog. His little short legs have him awfully tired when we're enjoying the powder we've seen this year! Corn snow is much more to his liking.

The snowmobiles have been having a field day up there and I bagged on a trip up Full House because of it... the entire east aspect was tracked up and I couldn't see a decent line from the peak. This week's snow combined with sunshine should heal it all up... hopefully the sledders will get excited about yard work sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I think I'm going to need to shift my ski-day goals to less sled-accessible terrain.

Not that there's much of that to be found these days. On Wednesday, a film crew was up recording a snowmobiler who ripped up Terminal Cancer. We always thought that line would be safe from the snowmobiles... not any more. They hired a helicopter to get him off the top, so hopefully that'll discourage the locals from trying it.

I've pretty much written TC off to the out-of-towners, who have it so tracked up these days bumps are likely forming. Still, though, I always thought that beautiful, beautiful line would be safe from the profane sound of jet-fuel-powered sleds. Not any more.