10-21-2008, Heliotrope Ridge

Three of us headed up Heliotrope Ridge on Tuesday 10-21 to catch the fresh snow that had fallen overnight and a few days before.  I had no idea this would be a true dry powder session!!  In many places on the trail the snow was deep enough to skin, but there were significant patches where it was not.  The snow on the trail was so light and fluffy, I could not wait to get up high.  Once on the ridge we kept booting since one in our team only had a snowboard.  Soon, Guynoir and I had enough and we started skinning.  The snow quality remained excellent up high, but there just was not quite enough of it.  The depth was fine for uphill travel, but the thin layer of ice below made many areas hard to turn without catching an edge below the powder.  Regardless I had a great time and it was a beautiful day out until the last part of our trip some clouds rolled in.  In the end we made one long run instead of laps, because of a late start.  I really wish we would have started earlier, but I had no idea the snow quality was going to be so good.  Thanks for the great memories!!

More photos from the trip:
http://www.the808.net/gallery/heliotrope-october-2008



Pano