March 12, 2005, Paradise

The wind was a welcome coolant until just north of Alta Vista, where it began altering balance and driving ice particles at me. Skinned up the usual route to Pan Point, then booted up the winter route. Lack of cover is remarkable. The Pan winter route is already divided in two by rocks and is barely skiable from the top (not that anyone would want to). The snow in this area, as well as everywhere else I went, was refrozen, chattery corn, punctuated by uneven surfaces from boot packs, wind and sun. Even east and south facing stuff was, at best, chattery.
The wind only intensified as I got to the flat spot above the winter route. After an exciting de-skinning operation and struggling to click in, I chattered my way down the east facing slope and into Edith Creek, where the past week's warm weather appears to have done the most damage. A week ago, this area had the best skiing of the day, now there are large bare spots. Still skiable, though.
Certainly less wind in there, but the snow was still struggling to soften, so I abandoned thoughts of laps and zipped out via the summer trail. Good views, bad snow.