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| Yes, this happened |
I realize folks in CO are already skiing on groomed trails, Bendites have been kicking around on NW mashed potatoes, even Vermonters beat us to the first day on skis. And of course, Alaskans have been skiing on perfect tracks since I don't know when but they don't count my mini early snow poll. Anyhow, the past few days have given us a whopping 1 1/2 inches of dry Utah fluff here in town so finally we've been able to get out and scratch around on rock skis.
I did a recon run in the morning and deemed the snow ski-worthy at the mid mountain level. By that, I mean ankle deep over Wasatch boulders. Morgan and I threw our rockiest rock skis in the car, parked at THE Montage, globbed on some layers of Toko blue and up we went. My initial thought was to make our way over to some dirt service roads that would have been mellow and stridable. But somehow we talked ourselves into thinking skiing straight up some mtb trails to the top of the pass was a good idea...we weren't thinking about the route down yet.
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| This shot isn't staged... |
Some of the switchbacks were a little rough in the xc gear, and hopping downed trees was less than pretty but we made it to the top of Guardsman. Skiing back down the narrow trail seemed like a poor choice, as did picking a line down Daly Chutes. Spying a dirt road that skirted down the other side of the bowl, we decided to pick our way over there.
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| Somewhere above the rim of McConkey's. glorious |
After a windy, windblown, ridgeline traverse, we did some of the ugliest skiing I'v ever seen off the ridge. Occasional 'powder stashes' gave us enough false confidence to build up speed and eat it when we'd hit the thin sections. Morgan did an excellent snowplow into lawn dart imitation and I had my fair share of awkward faceplants as well. Anyhow, we made it back to the car with no broken equipment or bones and more laughs than I've had in a workout in a long time. And yes, we skied in our puffies the whole time. It was cold.
