July 13, 2012, Colchuck

Squeezed in a quick ski on Colchuck, the weather forecast was not so good, but it turned out slightly better than forecast, and we had a nice, altho hot day of skiing.  There was a ton of people at the lake, and  and the skeets were a little to friendly to stand around and visit.  We were not able to ski from the end of the lake as I had done last month, but had to scratch our way up through the scree and boulders before we were able to start skinning. We were able to skin all the way to the pass. It was a reflector oven on the snowfield, but a nice up slope breeze saved the day. We made good time and were at the col by noon.  There was the regular cast of characters on the col, we had a quick bite, salted the goat, and headed down. We were able to ski almost to the lake with a few short rock hopping patches on skiers left, but it is going fast. There was constant rock fall off Dragon Tail and we stayed well clear.  The march out was a hot slog, with a little thunder and rain in for good measure.  We bumped into friends along the way and that added time to our escape, but we made it out without a compleat soaking.  Probably won't need to ski that again this summer, the snow was quite sun cupped, but since it was so warm the skiing was worth the trip.