12.31.06: glades below Jim Hill Mtn.
12/15/06
2748
3
i procrastinate. but it's done:
my flight lands at 1:30am Sunday morning because of a delay. i orginially planned to drive 5-6 hours to Winthrop to join Cass for a tour on Sunday morning. but for some reason the thought of whiteknuckle-driving over the pass and potentially snow-covered roads early in the morning seemed like a bad idea. instead, i reconfigured my plans then arrived at Kelvin's house at 5:50am to find him warming up his garage with a propane heater and powering up the wet belt sander. in ten minutes we cleaned up two pairs of skis i brought -- one pair i made last week,
my flight lands at 1:30am Sunday morning because of a delay. i orginially planned to drive 5-6 hours to Winthrop to join Cass for a tour on Sunday morning. but for some reason the thought of whiteknuckle-driving over the pass and potentially snow-covered roads early in the morning seemed like a bad idea. instead, i reconfigured my plans then arrived at Kelvin's house at 5:50am to find him warming up his garage with a propane heater and powering up the wet belt sander. in ten minutes we cleaned up two pairs of skis i brought -- one pair i made last week,
. i was excited to test them.<br /><br />we decided on Jim Hill Mtn after Kelvin pointed out the temperature was colder around the passes. we ascended via a snow-covered access road with a nice uptrack (Kenji and Monika? thanks.). but it didn't last long after i decided to travel up my "favorite" route: the kind of route that you use to sneak up on a mountain. the snow felt nice and consolidated, about 6-12 inches above a firm base. we took turns breaking trail through the woods and navigating. i thought it was a great route and have traveled to Jim this way about five times. besides, i needed the (schwacking) exercise. anway, we slowly made our way up the woods, chit-chatting like a couple school kids. the conversation was mostly about making skis and the meaning of life. around 1:30pm we decided to ski down. the snow in the woods was nice, and light in some places. as for my new skis, i enjoyed the turning radius, width, and length. but i think i need to shave about 1-2mm from the core thickness to give them a "softer" flex for my weight. some photos:<br /><br /><img src=){kind=link}
Four of us put in the uptrack (M (I'm not Monika), D, J, and J) to just shy of the false summit on Friday. Very faint signs of down tracks in the low, old timber (below 4,000 feet) of others having been in the area earlier in the week. No signs of human activity in the upper bowl. We skinned to just short (less than 100 ft.) of the ridge top and farmed our lines from the middle of the bowl (below the false summit). Snow was stable. No signs of debris. We did four long powder runs from there to near the lowest breakover, and skied out just before dark. Coverage is excellent for this early in the year.
Kam- Bummer you couldn't make the drive out to the Methow Valley, but looks like you made the best of the day with Wu Dawg. (btw- the roads were in good shape in the Methow this weekend, though the drive home today was slowed substantially by sluggish traffic / freezing rain from about Cle Elum to Snoq. Pass). Way to wait until the last day of the month to keep your ski streak alive! :)
M, D, J^2: thanks for the nice track. we should have followed it further. at some point i'll learn....
Cass: glad to hear you enjoyed the Methow Valley.
Cass: glad to hear you enjoyed the Methow Valley.
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