Jan 14-15, 2010, Sasse Ridge

Jane and I managed to luck out again on the weather; the second trip in a row where the weather report was so iffy that I could not decide to go or not until the afternoon before the trip. We skied in on rain rotten snow, and Jane was nice enough to break trail for a good portion of it. I had accidentally taken one of my meds that my doc was having me skip for my trips because of the huge impact it has on my exercise performance. Was I slow; 20 steps and I had to catch my breath.

The message for us 'senior€™ backcountry skiers is don€™t give up because of the effects of the inevitable meds we end up having to take as we get older. Work with your doc to find a solution. The next day, the one that counts, I was back to normal €“ having remembered to follow orders. :)

I thought it a bit much to hope for a few inches of new snow, but Jane and I were delighted to watch it start snow ing about 4 pm. By 8 pm we had maybe 3 inches of *very* heavy new.  Here€™s a pic (below) of shoveling out the tent. I like to keep my tent platform nicely shoveled out because it makes it much easier to avoid getting snow in the tent as I go in and out, fiddling around the campsite. 

Speaking of fiddling, here€™s a pic (below) of me brushing the snow out of  my TLTs with my little custom snow brush. I think a snow brush is mandatory bit of equipment for winter ski camping. REI used to sell them, but I have not seen them for some time. They are not hard to make however; if there is interest I could post something about it. For those not that familiar with TLTs, if you let that rain soaked snow and slush in the toe piece freeze overnight, the toe piece may not work properly and getting the ice out can be a pain.

Friday morning we started up the hill at 6 am via headlight. See the pic below. I always enjoy this part, skinning up in the dark, watching it slowly get light. When we got to the top of the ridge, and knowing that rain was supposed to be coming, we decided to take what we could get. And we got what we came for; 4 or 5 inches of cascade powder and the skiing was great! We got back to the tents about 9 am, and by 10 it began to rain. So we packed up and  skied out in the rain, but that€™s nothing new.

As we were driving out we saw a bunch of our Forest Service friends driving up valley in the pouring rain, getting ready for a snowmobile €“ law enforcement refresher. We were glad we were going the other way.