Day 6 - Thursday Nov. 30 - Dawn Patrol

This was a morning not soon to be forgotten. I met Jer, CJ, and David at the base of Little Cottonwood at 5:30. We enjoyed the sounds of Antony and the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now on the drive up the canyon. We parked at the Grizzly parking lot (this time without having to dig any vehicles out of ditches). It was extremely cold as we prepared our gear for the skin up. By the time I even thought of trying to get a drink from my camelpak the tube was frozen solid. The ascent was long and tiresome. I still am not in the shape I need to be. The sun began to show as we reached the summit. It was beautiful. The exercise and the view alone made it worth the early alarm this morning. I was on my boss's skis today. Mark allowed me to use his 171 Insanes with Hardwire 3-Pins on them. My first excuse was that my Havocs were at the shop, but in all seriousness I really wanted to ski this ski - especially on all this snow. We descended in the Silver Fork East Bowl. The turns were phenomenal. The skis were a dream. The snow was deep and light. There was nothing you were going to find me complaining about this morning. David did find a nice little rock band that met quite firmly with his skis, though. We reattached our skins (my first time without taking my skis off first), and again began to ascend to the top. This turned out to be a little more difficult. Here we were breaking our own trail, I had to get back for class, and Jer's skins were not staying on (he hasn't put a tail kit on them yet). After a number of switchbacks and a few choice words coming from the ever clean Jer, we again reached the summit and began our descent on the South facing side of the hill. These turns were equally as great! The snow was deep and the rocks were few. We all had several lines that just seemed to really work out for us. When we reached the parking lot I hurriedly gathered up my gear and left for school as I was encouraged by the sounds of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I was able to make it nearly on time and have no problems there (although I did get a few funny looks at my mode of dress). All in all it was a great day with only one or two hitches that slowed us down. One thing that I found out today was that I NEED a pair of Insanes. That ski was a blast. I also really enjoyed the binding. It skied just as aggressively as I pushed it. I am not so sure Stacy is happy about these findings, but she will just have to learn to cope.