Ski 5 - Tuesday Dec 9 - So Begins the Real Ski Season

Where: Patsy Marley Ridge

With Whom: Jer, Dave, Has, and Matt

Time: 5ish and to work by 10

Snow Conditions: A foot of new snow on top of crusts and rocks.  But don't be fooled folks, it was great!

I have been hearing people question the validity of this winter.  C'mon, people!  It is only December 9th.  Winter has not begun.  We cannot begin to write it off just yet.  I feel like this happens every year.  We get one or two early storms and people get all excited (myself included) and then it melts away and nothing happens for a while.  This is the point when people start freaking out and thinking it is not going to be a good winter.  Let me point you to what was probably the best winter of my adult life - last year.  Just look back at what was happening at this same time period in 2007... the same thing!  Don't fret, people.  Just be patient and the snow will come.  Oh yes, the snow will come.  

Lucky for me, the snow came yesterday.  I informed my boss that I was feeling something coming on and was not going to be able to make it to work in the morning.  But instead, I would be in around 10.  He agreed.  I met Jer at the LCC park n ride at 5am.  20 minutes later, Dave, Has, and Matt showed up.  I drove the new Suzuki SX4 for its very first ski day and it did great.  They had not been super on top of things with plowing the road and it was nice to have the AWD.  Upon arriving at the upper parking lot, I got a phone call from Has saying his transmission had blown.  I turned around and picked them up.  Then Dave realized he had forgotten his poles.  Needless to say, we got started a little later than I would have liked.  No problem.  We made good time.  We skinned to the top of Patsy Marley peak and arrived just as light was sufficient for some skiing.  We made some turns.  They were great.  As long as you weren't terribly worried about hitting some rocks with your skis, it was really great.  If you found yourself trying to tiptoe around them, then it was too much hassle.  That is why everyone should have a dedicated rock ski.  Now, if you plan it right, you can get several runs down Grizzly Gulch without having to put your skins back on.  You just ski the top bowl, traverse west, ski the center line, traverse west, and ski the opening bowl.  Jer and I did this while the others went to deal with the car issues.  We had some great turns and decided we had time to skin up for another in the lower bowl.  These last two runs were the best I have had so far this season.  I know this may not be saying much, but they were great runs.  My turns felt really good and things seemed to go quite smoothly.  We drove down the canyon with the soothing sounds of Kanye West and called it a quality ski day.  On Ski.