May 29, 2006, Lake Josephine Area

Prevailing weather kept us away from our planned repeat of last year's Memorial Day weekend at Summerland and after two days of wrestling deck beams in the rain we had to get out.

There's still snow all the way to the base at Steven's and Debbie, Brett, & I made short work of the groomers to the top of Tye Mill.  A 1-2 inch layer of presumably last week's fresh at the higher elevations made for a buttery frosting over a well packed base and easy skinning.  I've been seeing just how far I can push the $30 kicker skins I picked up clearance at REI the other  month.  Plenty far.  On snow like this, there's more than enough traction and I really like the weight savings when wet.

Roughly following the PCT, we had a great time traversing until the frosting got steeper over Lake Susan Jane.  Both Debbie & Brett had issues with slide outs and with skin edges rolling up and letting the frosting pack underneath.  Brett got a good lesson in keeping the skins dry.  We ended up booting the last few hundred yards to the saddle opening up on the bowl W-SW of Josephine Lake.  The slopes around the bowl were superb - some of the better spring snow I've been on in a while.  After a quick lunch, we headed up to Pk 5578 to begin our frosting harvest.  Apparently, we inadvertently sacrificed one of Brett's glove shells to the gods atop Pk 5578, not discovering the loss until we were home.  I guess the gods were appeased as the weather sure got nice today.  Get out there and enjoy it.

The bowl's north exit chute made for a fast and fun return to the traverse back towards Steven's.  A nice day, with lots of pocket change found on the slopes as well as a monster pair of channel locks - and good snow.

-Dave R