In celebration of bluebirds

It's been windy as hell the last couple of days, which only suits when said wind is blowing in a big storm system. The weather guessers say that is, indeed, the case, and that we should have a big fat dose of freshies by the end of the weekend.

We'll see.

In the meantime, here are a couple more photos from last week in the Rubies. If we can't have powder I'm happy to have bluebird skies, gorgeous surroundings, and good company.

A sad day for the BC community

Very sad news from the Jackson, WY area, as Rando Steve and his partner Chris Onufer die in an avalanche.

They were extremely experienced folks up on a day the local avalanche forecasters called "moderate."

A tragic day for their families and friends. Sobering for those of us who are regularly out on "moderate" days. It can, and does, happen to the very best of us.



Steve Romeo



Chris Onufer

Coverage from jhunderground.com

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.