my oh my

So last week was absent of writing because, to put it briefly, I have been battling some sort of head cold from hell. In addition to making me feel terrible, I didn't do anything fun in hopes of warding off said cold. This weekend, however, I was sick of being couped up, and ready for some outside.
On Saturday, brae mike and i rode up, oldstage, jamestown, peak to peak, ward, and back over lee hill almost all on pavement, ah well too snowy for trails right now. oy vey, even my pansy geared green machine could not stop the hills. and the descents were frickin cold.


Sunday was the real adventure though. A little bit of a slow start, but turned into an awesome ski. Dad and I dove up to east portal and landed right in the thick of spring time conditions. Before I continue, it is important to say that, for better or worse, when I go bc skiing with my dad, it usually involves more than a leisurely tour. For those of you who read this site a lot, you may remember last year's adventure .

(here's a shot of todays accomplishment)
Skinned up, boycotting last weekend's route in favor of the forest lakes route. detoured again in the direction of Arapaho lakes. After a steep windy climb through the pines, we popped out above tree line and continued west. We started climbing up to the divide, up, up, up. I thought it was a bit hairy but, since I was following Mr. Avalanche himself, i figured it was all right.
Photo Courtesy of Dale Atkins
got right up to about 30 feet below the ridge before it was too steep to ski, so pulled the skis off and kicked steps up to the top. It never got much steeper than 45 or so degrees, but it felt really vertical. After a rest on top of some little bump on the ridge, we collected our rewards. The snow was interesting, crunchy grabby sun crust, but the turns look alright :)
The whole descent, what took us some four hours to climb, passed in under 45 minutes, and, while an icy luge run at times was had some stashes to enjoy.