December 5, 2009

No Bridge to Somewhere & Cornbiscuit

The Winner Creek cat trail and dead-ended at the Winner Creek no bridge to somewhere, Kodi the uberdog, J-rock and I learned. The bridge footings and supports are in place on each side, but the main span is gone. Someone had propped a 3x8 timber across the creek, about 3 feet above the torrent and 8 feet across the water. Three inches of ice crowned the timber. We weren't confident we could safely cross without crampons.

We shifted our objective to Cornbiscuit, skied back to the car, and drove to the pass. Had time for a single lap. Snow was worked by the wind on the more southerly facing slopes, but really sweet on the west side and lower on the mountain.

I probably should be fired from this blog for my incompetent photography. I thought I took a lot of great shots today. But, now I find no images on my camera card. %^&^$%#!

The cat was on the trail, grading it for the season. Maybe the Powder Guides will rebuild the bridge soon.

2 comments:

Dongshow said...

We had the same problem last week. But no one had spanned the bridge yet. We went down the trail towards the hand tram, crossed the first bridge and then cut a trail through the brush back to the cat road. Is the bridge always out this time of year?

Alaska Jack said...

Bridge has been washed out once that I know of. Haven't talked to CPG, but the cat was building the trail as we skied by (in both directions).