Today started off in a rather interesting way. Keep in mind that I was sleeping on a bench, so there was no real way to get particularly comfortable. Still, David did not force us to drag ourselves out of bed until 9:30 AM. We all got ready for the day and enjoyed a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, avocado, bacon and melon. We cruised out of the cabin at cool 11 AM and headed out for the day’s expedition. The mission for the day was to hike and ski the Anthracite Mountain’s First Bowl. The trailhead was about a 10 minute snowmobile tow away from the cabin. This time, however, I was not so lucky with the towing system. On the way over to the trailhead, I managed to wipe out twice. Both times, it was due to one ski being in the track and the other outside the track, in powder and getting caught. Fortunately, both times when I fell over, I landed in nice, soft, cushy powder.
Once I finally reached the trailhead (narrowly avoiding a third fall), I strapped my skins on as I waited for David and Dan to go back to the cabin to fetch the second bunch of people (keep in mind that we can only tow 3). Once we were all at the trailhead, we got geared up, made some final adjustments, and headed out. We left Dan with the snowmobiles (he didn’t want to ski today). The hike started with us heading into the trees. Before long, the slope got steeper and we really started heading up. Believe me—the hike was not easy. This time around, however, I wore fewer layers, so I was not nearly as hot as I was on Monday. Still, the hike took us about an hour and a half. By the end, I was pretty tired. David told us that we had hiked nearly 1500 vertical feet—roughly the distance that a standard chairlift will take you in 6 minutes. It was really hard work! We stopped briefly at the top to admire the view and take our skins off. Then, it was time for some serious powder skiing.
One by one, we launched ourselves off, skiing initially through the trees before emerging into a beautiful, massive field of powder. At the beginning, I wasn’t enjoying myself due to my fatigue from the hike and my poor technique. Before long however, I had leaned back, pulled my tips up, and really started cruising! We skied down the run in what seemed like no time at all! It wasn’t bad at all though, because it was pure fun. Once we reached the bottom, we were about 100 yards from the snowmobile. A brief hike got us there in no time. When David offered to take us up again for another lap, I declined. One run up had exhausted me enough—there was no need for yet another run up! Dan towed Jakob and I back on the snowmobile. Apart from one brief mishap where I got my ski tangled in the tow rope, I avoided any mishaps on the journey back. Once we were back at the cabin, Jakob and I set about getting the fire restarted, our stuff cleaned up and dried, and changed into more comfortable clothes. A pleasant evening of discussion and good food (pasta!) rounded off what was a very nice day!
No comments:
Post a Comment