May 11, 2012, Silver Fir -- Summit Central

Zap and I got a nice mid-morning start at Summit Central€™s Silver Fir run.  We climbed skier€™s left so that we could take advantage of the shade and the nice breeze as we worked our way up Outback.  The snow had started to soften after freezing overnight, so it made for good climbing.  When we got to the steep section of upper Outback, we put on our ski crampons as an extra precaution for Zap as his right leg is still a bit weak.  By gradually zigzagging our way up, we made it to the top by the lift station in 2 hours for a total of 1134 VF.  This was Zap€™s goal before heading off to MN for his procedure. 

What a gorgeous day €“ great views from the top.  We stopped and had a nice rest break, met a young split-boarder with a 12 month old Brittany Spaniel, and enjoyed our accomplishment -- felt very satisfied with ourselves.  This was quite a stretch given that we€™d only climbed 722 VF when we were here Tuesday.  When we finally pulled our skins and headed down, we had wonderful spring corn conditions all the way down.

Zap still has one more trip that he wants to do before getting on the surgery table.  He wants to take advantage of the spring tickets that we have for Crystal.  The runs off Rex are still a bit too much, but the runs off Forest Queen should be just right €“ as long as we can ski down from there.

We know that this seems kind of crazy given everything that€™s going on, but it€™s what Zap wants/needs to do to keep from feeling overwhelmed by it all€¦