100 Plus Dayz

It was another beautiful bluebird day at the Highlands. I decided to skin up Thunderbowl. This was my second skin up Thunderbowl. This one was much better than the first because it was a perfect day. The sun was shining and there was zero wind. I snapped a lot of pictures on my iphone that are on the flickr slideshow below. The skin up was pretty mellow except for a few slick areas where I have to switchback up in order not to slip down the slope. From my backdoor to a little past the top of Thunderbowl it took me approximately 50 minutes to skin up with a few photo stops. I listened to the first set from Red Rocks Phish 7/30/09. I was one of the really lucky ones that got tickets to all four nights, and yes I’ll say it, it was EPIC! That is the inspiration for the title of the post. As I was skinning up and heard the “Wedge”, stopped to look around at the gorgeous surrounding mountains, it seemed like an appropriate title. I love ski touring, especially in the backcountry, and as I was listening to these killer tunes, I thought to myself I could ski tour for days with good friends, good tunes, and great snow.

I can’t wait for March. I have the Eisman hut booked for 3 nights the 3rd weekend of March. I have been “Jones’ in” to hit that hut for a few years, but I could never make it work. It’s always booked because the turns are so good right out of the front door. Last year I joined the 10th Mountain Hut Association to give back to the organization that has given me so many memorable hut trips in the last 7 ski seasons and to get into the lottery for huts. I scored the Eisman hut in March which is about as prime as it gets in CO. It’s a little warmer and it’s our snowiest month, I’m praying for great snow, good avy conditions, and warm sunny skies.  Ok, back to my day…

I got up to the Thunderbowl lift and kept skinning another quarter mile or so to the runs just beyond it. I had my choice of two, Shred It or Suzy Q. Of course I chose Shred It. I did the quick gear switch-a-roo and dropped into Shred It. There are little samplings that are kind of like mini-gates on a downhill course, but the snow was good and not tracked. The run sits between two sets of trees; it’s shaded most of the day. The snow wasn’t crusty; it was nice and soft much to my surprise. I don’t know if the gnarly name Shred It scares people off, or the little samplings, but that doesn’t scare this guy off. I’ll do some sampling dodging to hit some fresh snow on a sunny day 2 days after it snowed while gapers are just running the groomers. Shred It was fun and then I came across Whip It, which I had not run yet this year in fear of losing my life in this bone-yard. I ran Lower Stein a few days earlier & that was fine so I took my chances and dropped in. The top was similar to Shred It, decent snow and a sampling obstacle course. I thought to myself all right this isn’t so bad. I got to the second half of Whip It and all hell broke loose. This was a bone-yard STILL! I can’t lie I was hitting MUD, trying to avoid full willow bushes, and it was a bit of survival skiing for a minute because it was fairly steep and there was NO SNOW! Ugh! I got to the bottom which surprisingly had decent snow and looked back up at the run and thought, wow what a sweet run with a bunch of super fun little boulders to launch off when there is this little thing called SNOW! El Nino, I beg you please be good to ALL of CO February, March, & April so I can come back to Whip it & Whip it! Check out this report “CO Down but Not Out” published today by @gratzo. He is meteorologist and powder hound up in Boulder predicting a bountiful spring for CO. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed and hope he is right.

After the total FAIL that was Whip it, I just raged the groomers back to the ranch to get ready for X-Games Day 2. See the next post for my experience at X-Games Day 2 and the flickr album at the bottom of the post for some exciting pics.