January 22. Oh No! I'm 26 years old and unemployed. Good thing Cole still has a flexible work schedule. This blog post has a story to go with it..... that starts like this:
2 years ago on May 7, 2012 Cole and I started skinning up White Pine Canyon, which is 1 canyon down canyon from the Gad Valley at Snowbird Resort. We had been skinning for about 1.5 hours when we were overtaken by an elderly man (70s) on ski equipment from the 1960s. He asked us where we were headed, and we replied, "we're just seeing what happens". We then parted ways, the elderly man continued straight and we took a right to climb a short but steep roller. The roller proved difficult travel and when we reached the top, we saw the elderly man taking off his skis to boot up the last 700' to the top of Red Baldy peak? Who does that anyway, at 70+? Being young and resilient we again chose not to follow him, and instead continued further into White Pine, until booting a short stretch to the saddle dividing Red Baldy and White Baldy peaks. At the saddle, we were cliffed out, with no ski options but to return down the short and unaesthetic line we had just climbed, and we watched, as the elderly man proceeded to ski 2000' vertical feet of fall line goodness on perfect corn snow down into American Fork Canyon.
Cole, shortly after the old guy stole the show:
But now we are 2 years older and wiser, and its June in January so the spring skiing is on! We are going back to Red Baldy for redemption.
Cole saying, "You look good Lake Chute, but not today, we're going further"
High on the Red Baldy shoulder looking west towards the Pfeifferhorn and beyond. *Note the high cloud bank in the distance* The snow on the NW facing Baldy shoulder was varying degrees of crusted. We dug a quick pit and determined that the pack was poor, but the slab was non-existent. By the time we hit the S facing shots of Baldy the sun would move around and soften the W crust.... things were looking as good as it gets for a birthday during a very low snowpack year.
Futher..... who cares what the snow is like, as long as you're not down there in the yuck. Yes that grey cloud over the city is smog.
And what better day than your birthday to debut your new split!
Doesn't it look so good!
But Psych! Its still crusty. Oh well. Cole is willing to boot it back up from his drop spot. We can try again after a few more minutes of sun to soften the slope.
What a trooper.
But the high cloud bank moved in and ruined the day by blocking out the sun, and ending our hope for some solar heating. Back down Baldy shoulder through the crust we go to the car, but outside, among friends, exploring new places.
Moral of the story: We are now 2 years wiser, but you can never count on the weather, so always bring a puffy.
