That’s More Like It! Part 1: High Elevation

By:  Greg
February 28, 2011 1:51 pm | Category: Quick Update, Skiing

For one and a half months, skiing on the east coast has felt–well–not a whole lot like skiing on the east coast. Every day was low hanging fruit as winter weather went uninterrupted for over 45 days. Objectives we’ve had our eye on for a while finally were ready. Storied ski descents we’ve pined for finally got hit. That’s over now. Now we’re back to the usual. Now we’re back to east coast skiing. As I posted about last week, we had a vicious crust, and a little dust. This past weekend we still had a vicious crust (in places at least), but A LOT more dust. East-Coast skiers that some of us are, we went out to see what we could find. We figured we might as well go get that dust right when the sun comes up! Why not?
Sunrise at Dawn

Once we got to the summit, yours truly headed out to find a perch to get some photos from.
heading out to find a perch

I enjoyed watching my friends make some turns down the untracked dust collector! As Bill demonstrates, the dust was very deep this weekend! Go Bill! Too bad both my fingers (I’ve only got two) and my battery froze after this shot!
deep dust

After blowing on batteries and fingers for a few seconds I got the camera back to life. I can’t say the same for my fingers. I shouted up to friend of FIS, Pete Wadsworth, to descend. Pete enjoyed a few turns, and simultaneously broke a long running tradition of painful days in the backcountry the two of us have going, and we finally enjoyed some type-1 fun. At least I think we did. I had fun! He did mention something about frostbite… ;)
Pete Wadsworth skis

If he didn’t have any fun in the previous picture, I’m pretty sure he was enjoying himself here:
Pete enjoys some type one fun on skis

Careful out there though folks… a weather warm-up followed by a freeze followed by a heavy falling of snow spells: avalanche. Well it doesn’t actually spell it. Duh. You know what I mean though.
avalanche in Vermont

Check back later for Part 2: Low Elevation. Thanks for reading FIS! Pick up some avalanche supplies to be ready for spring shred!

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5 Comments

  1. David Howland
    wrote on February 28th, 2011 at 2:12 pm  
    1

    Great stuff! Looks nice and slabby too.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on February 28th, 2011 at 2:15 pm  
      2

      as usual in the mountains it depended on the aspect. certain aspects were downright scary… others were nice and uncoslidated… slabs were also extremely elevation dependant.

      looking back on it, lower elevations were the ticket this weekend… high elevations were fun and exciting, but the best snow was low! more on that later.

  2. meskivt
    wrote on February 28th, 2011 at 3:47 pm  
    3

    Yep the instability was drastic. By mid day on Saturday the new snow had consolidated into dense slabs. It was sad to see the base slide away beneath your feet and know that the line was done until… well hopefully soon. Still skiing significant sluff in the trees was a rare treat. I felt that friday evening was magic time. And thanks for the weather coverage during this past storm. It was quickly updated, accurate, and the maps were well illustrated. Keep it up.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  3. Harvey44
    wrote on February 28th, 2011 at 10:08 pm  
    4

    The high elevation women leave me breathless.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  4. powhounddd
    wrote on March 1st, 2011 at 8:25 pm  
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