Keith’s Hut – You Don’t Know if You Don’t Go
“Look at the butt on that!” “Yeah, he must work out”
Just before Scott followed me across this slope, we heard the incredibly erie sound of wolves howling back and forth in the valley below us. If the long drive, empty hut, and raging storm hadn’t made us feel like we were living a Jack London novel, the wolves sure did.
As we neared the top, the clouds began to lift and we got a chance to survey what we’d been skiing all day.
Scott dropping in on the deepest run of his life, just before my camera battery succumb to the cold.
We skied down to the valley floor and switched over to skins to climb back to the hut and reclaim our overnight gear. In the valley we (thankfully) found the skin track of another group and followed it back to a warm hut. Where we packed at a sprint pace and headed out the door. We had several miles and ~1500 feet between us and the car and only an hour and a half before darkness fell. The wolf howls were on our minds as we skated down the skin track, as were the wolf tracks we found in the skin track. Thanks to Katharine and Scott digging deep for every sherd of energy, we made it to the road just as darkness fell.
Even in the valley, it had snowed quite a bit. Despite the plows best efforts, the snow bank behind my car proved no match for Subaru and we were soon on our way home.
Here’s a bonus random photo I took the next day up at Mt. Baker.
Remember: You might ski in the rain if you head up to the mountains, but you won’t ski at all if you stay home.
Read about the author: Sam
3 Comments
Porter Haney
wrote on March 12th, 2012 at 12:04 pmFantastic post, and good story!
ml242
wrote on March 18th, 2012 at 12:47 pmSam, nice to see you out of retirement.
Is that a cousin to Spanish Moss in the first image? Very cool stuff in there, it looks like a great trip. That dude in the last image is sending it!
powhounddd
wrote on March 19th, 2012 at 11:31 pmAwesome TR. The Coast is calling me…