March 22, 2009

Stuckagain Skiing

After a marvelous run of sunny days with cold nights and great snow, we awoke to 6" fresh at Stuckagain! While a couple of feet has fallen in small amounts, this is the largest snowfall since our big meltdown in January. This called for Front Range foray.




Backdoor Trail












Breaking trail became a chore above timberline on Wolverine with the trail sinking knee deep. Perhaps it was 5 straight days of touring on the rugged touring set up, which compared to downhill or AT, demands a little more from those little muscles in the feet and a lot more from the big core muscles. In any case, I feel it, and it hurts so good.


Wolverine Trail












Had to return to the line I tried a couple of days ago. I found the descent this time. It's not so much the line, but the snow quality on the line; I found the good snow. But, I struggled to find the gap in the alders to cross the ravine and reach the north ridge of Wolverine. After a little searching I found it - it's easy to see from a distance as shown below.













After catching the Alyeska and Arctic Valley snow reports, I wondered if hanging around Stuckagain was the best place to be. And it turned out that the snow quality here is very, very good - no face shots, but worthy of the effort and time.

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