August 28, 2016, Heliotrope Ridge

With a busy month of moving, new jobs, and a new pair of boots needing a test run,  Emma and I once again found ourselves heading to ole' reliable for some summer turns. That's the only trail I know of that seems to get longer the more you hike it. The USFS trail crew out of Glacier has been doing some nice work up there.

The lower glacier seems even more broken up than August last year, although climbers have yet to redirect the boot pack farther down the ridge (it's only a matter of time). With slim pickings for continuous turns with low pucker factor we settled on a short snow patch that would allow us to do some laps by just running up the rocks. Snow was sun cupped but not too hard. Fun, chattery, late summer turns were had. Once again this trip reenforced that

1. Sliding down hill with boards strapped to your feet is just fun. Period.
2. A good attitude and low expectations are the keys to happiness.

I skied from the summit a week before this trip too. The Roman wall skied really well but the rest of the mountain was very discontinuous. The ice fall off of Colfax peak is very active and has produced a larger and less easily skied debris field than in Augusts past. If you're planning to take skis to the top, I salute you, you will have fun, but be careful.