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A week ago I traversed
a section of the little cottonwood/American fork ridge. From
the top of American Fork Twin Peaks, I saw a posse of skiers
taking one narrow line down Old Reliable in Little Cloud bowl.
Since everyone was skiing the same line, the snow actually appeared fresh, white,
and mostly free of debris. It looked way more inviting than the
manky, brown, rock strewn snow that lightly covered other portions
of the wasatch.
That's when it hit me. We could easily hike up
to the snow patch, ski till our hearts content, and then bust a
free ride down on the tram, easily saving up 2,500 feet of downhill
ski carrying.
Today we tried out the cheap and easy plan,
and it worked great.
It was too hot to sit in a car, so foothill
took the pedal powered air conditioned mobile to the meeting place.
With the skies loaded, the bike didn't turn very well, but it went
straight
just fine.
On our way up people, out of disbelief,
kept asking us where we were going to go skiing. So it was a bit
of
a relief when we finally saw snow in the distance.
We all had our own, personal burden to carry...
On the ascent, one of the summit team members
bonked hard and required an extra long re-fueling session, not
to mention a diaper change..
When traveling to life's snow patches,
be sure to stop and smell the lupine.
No toddlers were harmed in
the taking of this photo...
PowderPrincess brutalizes her floppy girl
skis on the pimply snow face.
While skiing the first run, its possible
that non-pure thoughts might have slipped into my mind. These
thoughts might have sounded like this, "This snow sucks. This isn't
worth it. I could be cleaning my room. I think I'm getting sun
burnt. it's too bumpy. This snow sucks. Etc. Etc.." But
my second and third runs were mostly comprised of that nirvanic
state
that makes skiing the best sport in the world, even in august.
Speaking of snow acne, this line had
it all: black heads, white heads, pink heads, freckles, scabs,
and even a few skier swallowing craters. Being the excellent snow-dermatologist
that I am, I highly recommend a completely fresh, 4 foot dump,
and call me in the morning (around 6am).
The short traverse to the tram.
WonderWassa and T-rex on our way down the
bird. It was T-rex's first ride on the tram. As a
friend on board pointed out, her next time will be riding up!
The trip was a success. We firmly decided that
a 2,500 vertical foot, dry-land approach isn't bad at all when
you don't have to carry your skies back down. Additionally, exposing
T-rex to August skiing
at such a young age is critical to her future as a foothill
freaklet.
Maybe, when she grows up, she'll see even more year round potential
in skiing than we ever dreamed of...
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© 2012 foothillfreak : : Go with da fro : :