Home > Trip Reports > January 15, 2006, Threeway Peak Basin

January 15, 2006, Threeway Peak Basin

1/15/06
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Posted by Zap on 1/16/06 12:46am
Kind of a laidback powder day at Threeway.  I led a small group of Mountaineers into Threeway Peak Basin and my "reserved" sign worked again.  The Basin was untracked and we had the area to ourselves all day.

Our car was ahead of the accident backup but another part of our group were delayed until 10. We waited an hour and started up around 10:20.  I signed out at the Patrol office and noticed a couple of groups were heading for Bullion.  We had a pleasant skin up chair 4 then towards Silver Basin which was open. We detoured into Threeway and found it quiet, untracked and full of powder.  A group of young trailbreakers skinned up the Silver Basin cattrack and broke a very nice track to the top of Threeway bowl. The new snow was well bonded to previous layers plus the overnight temperatures in the teens extracted any moisture and created perfect powder conditions. The young trailbreakers proceeded to drop over the ridge towards Placer Lake. We spent the day attemping to ski as many lines as possible in the Basin.  Finally departed at 3:45 pm. It was an epic day with powder grins all around.

Zap
Like two ships passing in the fog....
Zap, In our attempt to ski as many different aspects in one day, we came upon the trail breakers you speak of near the end of our tour... Nice young guys lapping their stash.

We had an elder couple that seemed to always be two uptrails behind us and spooned our turns as to not waste any powder.
I was thinking that they reminded me of senior ladies at a casino waiting for us to get tired of playing the slots, so they could quickly move in cash in on the goodies.
As the day drew near the end of civil daylight we thought we would force them to kick the trail to get out, but no! They would rather have skied out in the dark than bust that trail to the summit and back to Threeway.
We peered down from the top at your tracks and found our sweet line to the bottom of the basin and out.

I think we reaped the benefit that Northback opened and South was a has been from Saturday. Normally these areas see plenty of traffic on a weekend.
Joe

Joe,  I saw the "elders" that followed you in the Patrol room and heard they were heading towards Silver.  I performed an "elder stall" hoping the young trailbreakers would detour into Threeway and smooth the old trail.  Unfortunately, they didn't break our trail.
Zap

Here is a picture from that day. It was awesome.


Eva  ;D

(Edit to fix your link, Eva, hope you don't mind. rj)
How's it look now, Tony.

Sweet! A red "X" inside of a little box. Can you make it a little bigger? ;D

I'm a little old school and have never posted nor planned to post a notice on a computer but Joedabaker's reference to an elder couple caused a mixed reaction of incredulity and hilarious laughter in my wife and I.  I suspect my wife and I are the elder couple referenced.  We could not resist the temptation to defend our youth. We still think of ourselves as 20 something but after a day of skiing we know its not true. If I recall correctly when we were 20 or 30 we also thought a person over 50 was certainly approaching "elderly" if not already there.  Beware Joedabaker the years tick by faster than you think.  And some day when you least expect it someone will refer to you as elderly.  You certainly gave us a laugh, obviously we did not take the comment as a sign of disrespect but merely a misperception of perspective:  50 something is not elderly good man, elderly is someone in their 70s or better.

Regarding kicking the trail out.  We were having so much fun skiing that we wanted to take another run and don't recall the opportunity to break trail.  But then again we are elderly and probably a little befuddled.  By the way, we did make it out by dark.  Good skiing to you.

My appologies for the misunderstanding ejlindahl.
If I remember I used the word elder not elderly.
It was probably the poor- Senior casino analogy that bent the wheel.

My reference of elder was used in the adjective form, defined simply: (of one or more persons) of greater age than the person specified.
There are many forms to define the word and I notice some persons can be particularly sensitve to this word (like my dad who is 81). Therefore, I may refrain from the usage of the word, since it can be misunderstood in the form of personal reference and has potential sociological implications.

Thanks for the reminder that time does pass quickly and I need to appreciate every moment in the present. I think of that every day!

If I make it to be elderly (as defined in your post- 70 or better) it would be a great privilege and I would not care what some younger trail busters even think (of me) as long as they are putting that nice uptrack in for me all day.

;)

Joe

Some long forgotten stand-up comic (at least to me, being elderly and all) cleared up the subject for me;  he said "'older' is someone ten years or more your senior.  'Younger' usually means ten years or more your junior."
It all seems to work ok if you keep in mine the point of reference, eh?  ;)
Joe's not exactly a 20-something himself... but, thankfully, he's a long way yet from 70, and a rather kind and diplomatic 30 or 40-something at that.  
Long live the brotherhood. 8)

Joe's not exactly a 20-something himself... but, thankfully, he's a long way yet from 70...

Half way there...Living on a prayer.
Thanks for the kind words Ron.

I'm never to old to make mistakes and hopefully never to late to learn from them.

Most importantly I do not want to alienate my opportunity to share a wonderful backcountry experience with everyone! ;D

I think I sense some fast backpedaling!
;)

Again no offense taken.  Elder, elderly, eld, it didn't really matter as I wasn't concentrating well due to stunning nature of the revelation....and my laughter.  The primary and lasting response was/is hilarity.  My wife and I now refer to ourselves as elderly and we are thankful to you for the humor this new appellation brings us, (we never have taken ourselves too seriously).  Perhaps we will meet on the slope sometime.  It was a great day of skiing.

E.J., you old scudder, you!

Don't let me catch you out on the slopes without your walker.

Your friend,
Lowell

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2006-01-16 08:46:46