Who Is Still Skiing and Where? - Page 6

Opportunity for more lift served skiing: 

Wish Schweitzer would do the same with all the snow they still have off the triple chair.

I am still skiing.

So far in June I have skied the following:

Hiram Peak on June 3rd:

The Nipple on June 10th:

Hawkins Peak on June 12th:

"The Center Patch" on June 14th:

Saddlebag Lake, Upper Greenstone, on June 18th:

Saddlebag Lake, Greg and Paul's Chute, on June 21st:

Sonora Pass on June 23rd:

Sisters Chutes (Above Roundtop Lake) on June 24th:

Saddlebag Lake, Lower Greenstone, on June 25th:

I hope to get in at least one more June ski day before the July ski season starts.

Nice one Stev.  Have you hooked up with 4Ster this summer?  He's been doing a lot of mt biking. 

Thanks.

Not yet. I've only done a little mt. biking.

I'm still skiing, too!  

I skied Beartooth Pass yesterday and it felt really good to get back on skis after an eight-week hiatus.  I posted this on Trip Reports, so this is just cut-and-pasted from there...

For those of you who don't know, I have a couple of things that intersected today.  The first thing is that eight weeks ago, I had foot surgery to repair the big and second toes of my left foot.  That went fine and you can read about it in this thread.  When I had surgery though, the doctor told me that I wouldn't be able to do anything aggressive on that foot for 12 weeks because the plate and screws he put in the big toe to fuse the joint needed time to heal.  

The second thing going on is my consecutive-month ski streak.  Since I skied at A-Basin on May 1 (the day before my surgery), I was hoping to get the okay from the doc to ski again at the end of June.  6 weeks ago, the doc wavered on the 12-weeks deadline because my bones looked like they were healing well.  Then ten days ago, I saw him one more time and he said the x-rays looked good enough that if I went somewhere lift-served and skied very daintily for a short time, I should be okay.

That leads us to today and Beartooth Pass.  They're still running the two lifts (and will through Sunday), so I got up really early this morning and drove to Beartooth.  It was a very cool day because my route takes me through Yellowstone National Park, out through Cooke City, Montana, and on up Beartooth Pass.  While driving through Yellowstone, I saw not one but three different mama bears with cubs (all black bears, no grizzlies), elk, bison, and deer.  Best of all, though, was a wolf that walked right out of the woods about 15 feet from my car as I was driving fairly slowly a little south of Canyon Village.  It was a big, white wolf and it walked right by my car and back into the woods.  My camera and big lens were sitting right on the seat beside me, but I didn't have any time to get a photo before the wolf was gone.

So, I arrived at Beartooth around 9:30am, just as the sun was starting to soften the snow.  A couple of the liftie/ski patrollers (thank you, Jasper and Ron) were nice enough to take photos of me.  The conditions were flat-out excellent, as you'll see from the photos.

Me at the top before starting out:

Big crowd on the hill.  I was the only one there until some youngsters in a moguls camp showed up a little before I left.  That's me down below:

Skiing daintily:

Gorgeous conditions and gorgeous scenery:

Great fun:

How cool is this???

Just to the right of this photo, there was a herd of mountain goats grazing on the hillside.  

After I finished skiing, I walked over and took some photos:

And just on the other side of the pass was this massive former glacier that I've skied in the past.  Plenty of snow for my August or September turns (or both):

And then, just to make the day perfect, I ran into a blanket hatch of giant stoneflies and caddis flies along the Yellowstone River as I was driving back through the park.  These hatches are legendary but I've never actually seen one in full bloom.  I've never seen so many big bugs:

One on my thumb:

Covering the trees:

Filling the sky.  This isn't snow, it's all bugs:

My foot feels really good, I managed to ski month number 177, and I got to see all kinds of cool wildlife.

What a great day!

Crystal Mountain announced today that this weekend (June 30/July1) will be their last weekend of operating for the year. Didn't quite make it to the 4th of July this year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkiingCoug 

Crystal Mountain announced today that this weekend (June 30/July1) will be their last weekend of operating for the year. Didn't quite make it to the 4th of July this year.

That's just un-patriotic!

JF

Skiing below Roundtop on June 30, 2012:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stev 

Skiing below Roundtop on June 30, 2012:

Very nice.  That looks beautiful.

4th of July up on Palmer @ Mt Hood
 

I just skied on July 1 on Cody Peak at Jackson Hole.

I had so much fun being back on skis at Beartooth Pass on June 28, that on Sunday we decided to go up the JH tram and do a little hike over to the Powder 8 face of Cody Bowl.  It was a bee-yoo-tee-full day:

The girls skiing with Central Couloir off Cody Peak in the background:

Being close to the snow felt good.  We're having the same heat wave that everybody else is having.  It was 89 degrees here yesterday, which is really hot for Jackson Hole.

I would give almost anything for the Seattle area to participate in this heat wave.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkiingCoug 

I would give almost anything for the Seattle area to participate in this heat wave.
 

Hell no.  I'll take our typical Juneuary in a heartbeat if it means I get to skip out on the 100+ weather that so many other places are having.  Don't worry, summer will be here this week right on schedule, look at the forecast for the end of the week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaobrien6 

 

Hell no.  I'll take our typical Juneuary in a heartbeat if it means I get to skip out on the 100+ weather that so many other places are having.  Don't worry, summer will be here this week right on schedule, look at the forecast for the end of the week.

I realize I am an outlier, but I actually like heat. I loathe Junes with zero mostly sunny days. I also loathe a 2 month long summer.

/whining

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkiingCoug 

I realize I am an outlier, but I actually like heat. I loathe Junes with zero mostly sunny days. I also loathe a 2 month long summer.

 

/whining

Two months is the perfect length for summer. Maybe I should move...

Quote:

Originally Posted by segbrown 

Two months is the perfect length for summer. Maybe I should move...

yep, here comes the PNW summer and, as usual, not a day earlier than 4th of July

Living the dream :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by segbrown 

Two months is the perfect length for summer. Maybe I should move...

Seg, I really don't know if you could adapt to the low elevation. 

Actuallly the biggest adaptation is getting used to grey skies.  Other than those two summer months, and maybe an extended Indian summer, there aren't a lot of days with.......what do you people call that bright phenomena?  oh I remember..... sunshine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DesiredUsername 

 

Seg, I really don't know if you could adapt to the low elevation. 

 

Actuallly the biggest adaptation is getting used to grey skies.  Other than those two summer months, and maybe an extended Indian summer, there aren't a lot of days with.......what do you people call that bright phenomena?  oh I remember..... sunshine.

Yeah, that's a big problem for me. Low altitude makes me sleepy, and I need my crisp cool SUNNY days to stay sane. :-)  I need a plan whereby I leave for South America in mid-July, and return Labor Day. 

Still a good amount of snow on the Kenai Peninsula. 5 minute walk from the car got us to snowline.

^^^^^^^^^ Bob Peters, looking real good.

^ Soulskier, that 5 min. approach looks well worth it.

Here is my latest from near Roundtop, skiing upright right next to the falls:

105 consecutive months.

Soulskier, nice snow!!!  Glad you took advantage of it. 

Stev.........like the energizer bunny!!

I posted this video from Crystal Mt taken on July 1, in another thread, apologize for being redundant....again.

Not still skiing, I have to rest or work sometimes. However I managed to ski a few days lately:

Thursday: Timberline on Mt. Hood.

Friday-Saturday: Bachelor

Sunday: Crystal

Monday: A small tour at Sunrise on Mt. Rainier

Tuesday...didn't ski, it was raining at Tline, Palmer was closed and needed to go to the airport later that afternoon.

Next turns should be in late August somewhere in SA.

Made some turns for 4th of July high above Girdwood.

Best 4th of July ever spent: 7-11am - skiing at T-Line, hiking the Trillium lake for an easy one and then relaxing in the Lodge's pool

With my son on top of Palmer:

Could you still ski down to the mile or was it just Palmer?   How did the slack country skiers right of the lanes look?  Lines?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHREDHEAD 

Could you still ski down to the mile or was it just Palmer?   How did the slack country skiers right of the lanes look?  Lines?

Everything is open from Palmer down to the Lodge. Morning of 4th was really hard on the top - people were saying there is a 3-4 inches of boiler plate layer so everyone was waiting for the goods to soften up a bit. Between 7:20-9:30am everything under Palmer was hard but doable, under Mile it was softer but not a corn yet. Then it became corn with slush almost at the lodge level.

Talked to a T-Line employee on the lift, he says the west side is great once it softens up. Should be good now - temps were on the rise since Wednesday...

I'm coming up to Anchorage late August and wouldn't mind making some turns, is there an easily accessible are that you recommend? Like a pass or something? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by soulskier 

Made some turns for 4th of July high above Girdwood.

 

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdiddy 

I'm coming up to Anchorage late August and wouldn't mind making some turns, is there an easily accessible are that you recommend? Like a pass or something? 

Hit me back up as it gets closer, I'll let you know. 

I was with Patrick on this trip.

Wide open skiing top to bottom, didn't really feel like summer skiing.   Detail TR:

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10254

Green Valley was more limited terrain than Bachelor but still lots of interesting skiing.  Detail TR:

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10255

Easy access for some great views and interesting skiing in the limited time we had before driving to Timberline.   Detail TR:

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10256

Patrick's streak is at 82 months and he's already booked his 5th trip to South America.  Has anyone in the East ever gone this far on a month streak?

My more modest streak has probably concluded at 21 months.  I did ski a personal record 33 different ski areas in 2011-12 though.