3/19 West end of Nason above Rainy Pass

Its been awhile since I posted a TR, so I'll come out of lurk-mode to share my experiences of one of the best tree runs I have ever had!

As we left the Smithbrook trailhead we were following a track of two skinny skiers. They had done the hard work of breaking trail through the 8-10 inches of new snow on Smithbrook road. We caught up to the two very nice older gentlemen at the switchbacks. They were obviously dissapointed when we turned uphill at that point and began to break our own trail straight up towards point 5576 on the west end of Nason. We broke trail up until we hit the bench near the top of the ridge at around 5400. Our original plan of dropping the southwest facing lines straight back to highway were immediately ditched when the sun came out in earnest. We instead followed our skin track back down to the switchbacks. It was some of the best tree riding I have ever done. Fluffy deep powder with steep pitches and perfectly spaced trees. I can't believe I have never thought of hitting these trees before. We were able to carry enough speed out on the snowshoe trench down Smithbrook road and were enjoying ice cold PBR in the sun before we knew it. What a great run and its nice to find some new lines that were right under my nose the entire time!