Day 42 - Friday Mar. 9 - A Few Laps Up the PM Ridge

I met CJ, Arlo, and Jer at Jer's house this morning at 5:30 (CJ called me at 5:29 to see if I was coming - as if he has reason to doubt me). We all piled into Jer's VW knowing that this would be our most carbon neutral means of transportation. For those of you who are unaware, Jer is on BioDiesel (only 20% during the cold months). We listened to Weezer - Weezer on the drive up in order to get pumped. We were hoping we would become equally as pumped as that guy on the VCast phone commercials where he listens to the new Fall Out Boy song, but I have come to understand he was just acting and he was paid to do so - I no longer know what to believe if I can't believe TV. After the decision was made not to head up Suicide Chute we made the rest of our way up to the Grizzly Gulch parking lot. It was here that we gathered our necessary goods and began our true ascent up the ridge. CJ was in front and he just began bootpacking it (it was rather hard packed snow at this point). I made the following humorous comment: "So I was reading the other day on TelemarkTips that they have this new invention called climbing skins. I don't exactly know how they work, but they somehow allow you to climb up the mountain with your skis on! Doesn't that sound like a novel idea?" At least I thought it was a humorous comment. We decided to ski the first open bowl area up the Patsy Marley ridge. After instructing Arlo on the art of skin removal whilst keeping the skis attached to your feet, I checked out the snow for myself. It was, surprisingly enough, really good skiing. The snow was soft and the turns were good. I was feeling particularly well today and my turns were really on. We quickly reskinned and began our ascent for a second lap. We saw a few people out at this point, but not too many. The second lap was equally as enjoyable as the first. Can we just talk about the Insane - Switchback combo? It is sooooo sweet! Because of the agreeable conditions, we all came to the conclusion that it would be worth another lap. At the point where we took our skins off we were met by two men out for a morning tour. We began chatting and they happened to mention my sweet ski and binding setup. I told them I work at Voile and we figured out that we had been in contact for the past two weeks via email. They are the local distributors of Clif Bar, Gu Energy Gel, and several other similar products. The final turns were nice and we all headed down to the car. It was an enjoyable morning and was well capped off with the sounds of Sufjan Stevens - Illinois. Goodbye for now, but not for long.