Ski 53 - Monday May 4 - Cross Training

Where: Suicide Chute

With Whom: Jon

Time: 5am and at work by 8

Ski Conditions: We couldn't see it from the car, but Superior has completely slid out.  We ended up walking over a giant wet slide debri pile.  This made skinning a little more technical than normal.  Once inside the chute, the skiing was pretty good - 2" of soft stuff on top of a wet soft base.  We found the same on the sides of the debri in the apron, but traversing over that stuff was interesting.

I have my first triathlon of the year coming up on Saturday.  I really should have been training for this for the last while.  But as it turns out, the skiing has been too good.  I can't train for tris when there is powder to be hounded and chutes to be skied.  Who do you think I am?  So, instead of going for a run or something like that today, I decided to go skiing.  I figure my body can handle the skiing without getting sore.  So I can work on my fitness for this weekend without dealing with soreness.  At this point, if I go running I think I could do it no problem except for the soreness that would follow.  I will just accept the soreness on Saturday.

I figure I have been taking photos of Superior from Grizzly Gulch for a while.  So I decided to switch things up and take some photos of Grizzly Gulch from Superior.  And to spice it up a bit, I put those photos together and created a bit of a sunrise animation (in order to view the animation you have to go here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYVLhZ39XRwlg7gnRgV_I0fDTs53kYnu1SeMOgvoA58u-nuko2Ef__mNVvg14ZQB_H2NhtpytteNb8w2toUW9DPy4bNP9aN8Qe3qrw-Pb_0nUfD3RV-HvYUNMMo6hfKdCAVskILrqOcDaH/)

Subtract one animation and add one splitboarder.

No animation, but I just couldn't stop taking pictures of the dawn.

By the time we skied, it was not quite daylight, but the vivid colors had gone from the sky.

Ski 52 - Wednesday Apr 29 - Just When I Thought I Was Going To Start My Summer Sports

Where: Main Baldy

With Whom: Jon

Time: 5am and at work by 9

Ski Conditions: Spongy and chaulky... perfect chute skiing conditions.  This chute wasn't even on my "to do" list, but it should have been.  It was super fun and the conditions were just right for it... not to mention that the conditions weren't bad for taking photos.

Gunsight at dawn.

Irony.  The sign says, "Do Not Hike Above The Level Of This Sign."  As a snowboarder in Alta hiking above this sign, I think Jon could probably be arrested.

We joined two other dudes at the top of Main Baldy.  Here is one of them dropping into the chute.

They were nice guys.  I asked their names, but I don't remember what they said.

Don't I feel inconsiderate.

On top of his most technical line ever, Jon contemplates whether or not we should still be friends.

Then he made the commitment.

It was at this point that he was pretty happy with the decisions of the morning.  BTW, this is my favorite photo of the day.

Chute skiing is fun.

Jon, as he approaches the Ballroom.

Ski 51 - Monday Apr 27 - Yep, We Are Still Skiing Powder

Where: Patsy Marley Ridgeline

With Whom: Jon and Ryan

Time: 4:45 and at work by 8

Ski Conditions: ~12" of light powder on top of a soft base.  I am not lying.

Another experiment with slow sync.  It's getting better.

Mother Superior and alpenglow.

The Pfieff and alpenglow.

Jon on the second run.

Ryan on his second run.  I think this is the best shot I have got of him yet.

And the final shot of the day.  I was really excited about this idea.  I am relatively happy with the result, but I think I can do better in the future.  I will have to try it again another time.

Ski 50 - Thursday Apr 16 - Another Beautiful Powder Morning

Where: Pink Pine

With Whom: Jason, Jon, and Ryan

Time: 4:45am to 8:45am

Ski Conditions: Another foot or two of the soft stuff.  Still way lighter density than one would expect from this time of year.  And for all you golfers out there... yeah, it is still ski season.

Either I am trying to figure out the slow sync flash settings on my camera or Jason is dead and his ghost decided to come skiing with us.

My favorite of the day.

What, you don't skin in black and white?

Skinning in color is for suckers.

But skiing in color, on the other hand...

Dude, can we just talk about the limiting barriers that have just been destroyed with my new lens?  Yeah, I finally ponied up the dough.

Ski 49 - Thursday Apr 8 - Deja Vu

Where: Scotty's

With Whom: Jason, Jon, Ryan, Mark, and Aaron

Time: 5:30am and at work around 9ish

Ski Conditions: Powder.  Sluffing on the steeps.  Skied better on the more mellow angles.

This all seems so familiar...

I don't remember who was wearing the blue jacket (Jason, maybe?), but here he is.

Mark finds some snow.

Ryan and a tree.

Jon.  Yeah, it did snow last night.

Ski 48 - Saturday Apr 4 - Conference

Where: Broads Fork

With Whom: Jer and Jed (both in from Colorado for the weekend)

Time: 7:30 to 3ish

Ski Conditions: Uh...

I was under the impression that general conference was going to be broadcast throughout the mountaintops.  Imagine my disappointment when we had been breaking trail through at least 2 feet of snow for a couple hours and I can't hear a single word from the brethren.  I expected that when we arrived at the top of Bonkers we would be able to hear the brethren coming from the "tops of the mountains."  We could not hear them.  Instead, we had to simply ski down in blower snow over the head on every turn.  All things considered (deepness, steepness, length, speed, etc.), I believe this to be my best run of the year.  It honestly was one of those runs where I started laughing to myself halfway down because I couldn't believe what I was skiing... and in April!  You had to gasp for air in between turns because the snow just kept engulfing your face.  The visibility was bad.  Which was a bummer.  The photos had the potential to be epic, but instead they are just pretty cool.  I have commited to either read the talks from this morning or listen to them online, so I don't feel too bad about missing it for skiing.  I mean, if I was really supposed to be at home watching it don't you think it would not have been such an amazing ski day?

Jer breaks trail on the approach to Bonkers.

Jer reaps the benefits of having broken trail.

With the flat light, it required some creativity to make the photos look okay.

Jer gasps for air in between turns.  What does his face look like?...

A close up of Jer's face from the last photo.  I am not sure how having his tongue out helps.

Dude, that was a lot of snow.

See?

Jed proves that he can still ski powder even after living in Colorado for so long.

Did I mention how much snow there was?

I took advantage of a cool photo op during the exit.

I actually think these are two of my favorites from the day.

Ski 47 - Thursday Apr 2 - How Many's a Crowd?

Where: Argenta

With Whom: Jason, Mark, Dug, Aaron, etc., etc.

Time: 5:30 and at work by 9:30

Ski Conditions: The snow was good up high in the protected trees, but really wind blown in anything that was more open.  It was still fun to ski - fast - but wasn't your typical deep powder skiing.

Headlamps make for cool photos (that is the snowplow down below on the road).

At the top... just 3,000' down to the car.

We found a sensitive cornice.

We also found some skiing.