Dec 18 -- Lodge Lake Loop

Nancy and I delayed our flights back east a couple days to take advantage of the great snow. It was so much nicer to be skiing today instead of recovering from a red-eye. 

After securing her pass at Summit West, we hopped on Central Express for a little lift accessed tour I've been eying for awhile now.  First, we discreetly ducked into the touring network, then worked our way past Divide Lake to the top of the wide slopes you can see above and south of  Lodge Lake. The skiing on these was pretty fun. Two big clearings connected by a little cliff band. Snow was powder on a skiable crust, and just powder in a few places where the wind had been nice to us. Hopefully we will be able to admire our tracks from Alpental tomorrow. From there we skinned north, and eventually made it to the top of the "Wild Side" at Summit West after veering too far west out toward the backside of the ski area. Looked short on the map, but it probably would have been faster to skin back up toward Ski Acres. Lodge Lake was pretty though, it felt lonely for being so close to civilization.