January 2, 2016. Colchuck Col

Kyle Flick and I took a fun little jaunt today up to Colchuck Col. We started at the car with the temp at 8° F, and it only got colder from there.   I was surprised to follow a snowshoe beaten path, the likes of which I thought were only seen at snoqualmie pass.  They continued all the way up to Colchuck Lake.  It made for quick going for us.  "Quick" being highly relative.

The Lake acts as a huge cold sink.  Skinning across the temps dropped to -3° according to Kyle's Sunto.  We topped out in the sun and icy wind at the Col after 9 miles and 8.5 hours on the go, the temperature a balmy 20°.  Weird sort of inversion thing happening.

Not ones to hang around and chat, we peeled the skins, locked in and proceeded to  lay the most God-awful hero turns ever seen on the glacier. The snow was scoured and card-boardy, and our quads were mush anyways. The ugly ass turns would have looked the same in blower boot top powder on a 25 degree bunny slope.  

At least the ski down from the lake was in soft snow, sparing us the indignity of having to employ the awkward method of down-skinning. 

Tough day out there in the cold!  We were both glad to make it back to the car without any mechanical failures.