Day 18 - Friday Jan. 5 - Dawn Patrol With BD

My standby touring partners all bailed on me yesterday saying that they were not going to be able to go with me this morning so I needed to find someone else. There was no way I was going to miss the first turns from this storm. I called Mike Schultz from Black Diamond (he is in my ward) to see if he wanted to go. He said he was already going, but that I was more than welcome to join. I have to say that this was a bit nerve racking. I have no problem going with one or two new people, but to go with the whole BD crew (not to mention the PowderWhore guys and many others that ended up being there - about 20 total) kind of scared me with questions like whether or not I was going to be able to keep up. We met across from Porcupine Grill at 5:45 and I got in the car with Mike and Jaime (spelling unknown - pronounced 'hi-me'). We made our way up to the Alta Lodge where we parked and began our ascent to Flagstaff. I was ready to work as hard as I needed in order to keep up, but once we got started I found that it wasn't going to be a problem. I am in better shape than I give myself credit for. I kept up with the "B" team no problem, but then waited for Mike and Jaime (Jaime is new to this whole touring and skiing thing) at the top - which was really cold, by the way. We skied down into Day's and the snow was sweet! Way deeper than I thought it was going to be. Even during the skin up I thought we were going to have dust on crust action happening with about 8 or so inches of new snow, but NO! It was probably 18 inches deep and I didn't hit any of the old stuff on the North facing aspect. We skinned back up and due to time and physical restraints (not mine) we decided to ski down the South side and call it a day. Even the skiing on this side was great. It was dust on crust, but the hard stuff underneath didn't throw you out of your turns too much. The light was flat, though, causing some weird things happening closer to the road. I did set off a pretty decent little sluff in a gully while crossing it - that was pretty cool. I didn't take too many pictures today because I didn't want to look like a goon and I didn't want to take the time. Sorry.
Rate of Ascent: 13 ft/min 2244 total feet ascended in 2 laps in 2:36.49