"Backcountry | I'd been staring at Blue Ice for about a week and it was time to give it a try. 5 am wake up. Hiking by 6:42 am. Conditions ReportDr. Joe and I grinding up the trail in the dark, telling stories and catching up. Finally making it into the canyon after 2 hours of trail walking. Things looked good and our timing wasn't bad."
"We switched to our mini-snow shoes and continued up the booter that Juan and I had put in last week. A few people had skied "Diving Board" since we opened it up and their efforts helped hammer in the booter and it was mostly still bomber. The ridge walk from the top of "Diving Board" to the top of "Blue Ice" was smooth and straightforward."
"The guesswork all week had been in whether or not the snow was any good on Blue Ice. I finally decided it was most likely at least OK and now it was time to test it. The standard pattern still held - orange peel snow good, smooth snow bad. I dropped in and chased the orange peel hard. Working through the 3 little cliff bands that guard the line was easy and the snow was OK."
A 5 am wake-up preceded a 6:42 am start and a multi-hour approach with a partner named Dr. Joe. Two hours of trail walking plus an hour of bushwhacking reached the line base. Mini-snowshoes were used to ascend a booter consolidated by previous skiers. A ridge walk led to the Blue Ice summit where snow quality was tested. Orange-peel textured snow skied well while smooth snow did not. The main face produced loud powder and large turns down to the apron despite twenty days without snowfall. A subsequent drop into the Eeny Meeny Miny Moe zone offered fun featured terrain in fairly good snow.
Read at SnowBrains
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