PM - Ski tour w/ Andrea: Grizzly Gulch x 2 laps [2500']. Conditions were somewhat abysmal but we still wanted to get up in mountains this afternoon and poke around a little bit. Looking back down LCC from the top is always worth it.
The weather didn't cooperate for skiing today, so we finished some other projects and kept our fingers crossed that we could sneak out for a few hours on Monday.
PM - Ski tour w/ Andrea: Grizzly Gulch - 3 x Patsy Marley's north face / trees [3400']. It FINALLY snowed! Man, that was a long drought... I was back to running 90 mile weeks without even realizing it. Anyways - it was great to see a fresh white blanket over the Wasatch and make some soft turns for the first time in what felt like eternity. Powder is the best.
I love his attitude and feel very fortunate that I can echo these same sentiments about both skiing and running. Andrea's response to watching this segment was simply "he sounds like you" which I took as a very high compliment.
PM - 5 miles w/ Andrea & Jason - Saucony group run from RunGr8 in Riverton.
There is another run at Wasatch Running Center in Sandy on Thursday at 7pm. Jason (Saucony rep) has demos of some of the Everun models (Kinvara 7, Triumph ISO).
AM/PM - Ski tour w/ Andrea: Pink Pine x 3 laps [3800']. Went searching for dry snow and found it on the wind-sheltered portions of the ridge. Skied cream cheese back to the trailhead and scoped some potentiallines for tomorrow. Classic LCC spring day.
PM - 10 miles (4 w/ Andrea). She wanted to do a couple half-mile efforts so I paced her through them, but that guilted me into doing my own faster mile on the tempo loop (4:56) after she stopped. It felt about as you might expect for my first non-easy paced running of any duration since Thanksgiving.
AM - Climbed and skied Little Pine Chute w/ Andrea [3300']. One of the signature LCC avalanche paths that we have been admiring from across the canyon ever since we moved to Utah. The conditions were challenging at times and our turns certainly didn't earn us any style points... but we racked up plenty of adventure points and definitely felt like we accomplished something cool as we lounged in our camp chairs in the spring sunshine back at the trailhead. Living the dream!
PM - Ski Tour w/ Andrea: Short Swing x 2 laps [3350']. Another midweek powder day! Decided to stick with mid-elevation mellow terrain since today's avalanche forecast succinctly stated: "Back the F off, yo." Or something like that. The snow was really good and zipping in and out of the aspens was fun, as always.
Lower elevation trailheads are starting to present some challenges.
Lift skiing at Jackson Hole. A nicely timed storm made the drive up yesterday challenging at times, but the reward was soft pow turns off the tram in the morning. We skied hard all day and our legs were toast by 4pm.
Ski Tour w/ Andrea in Grand Teton National Park!!! We started at the Taggart trailhead and skied 2 laps off Peak 9975 aka "25 Short" [4900']. Everything was perfect - unreal alpine views, hero snow conditions (creamy powder), sunshine, and we even nailed the route-finding (which is not always how it goes when you ski in a new area for the first time). Top shelf day!
Lift skiing day at Jackson Hole. We spent the morning chasing Rachel and Greg, who are both fast downhill skiers. The mountain was empty all day... had the place to ourselves. Really fun spring groomer conditions.
Taking 3 days off from running, getting 10 hours of sleep every night, and skiing nonstop for a long weekend was exactly what the Easter bunny intended.
Didn't take any pictures because nothing compared to the day before in GTNP. Here's some more photos from the park.
PM - Ski Tour w/ Andrea: Short Swing x 2 laps [3400']. Another midweek powder day! Pretty nice layer of new snow (although a bit damp towards the bottom). In hindsight the conditions would have been even better at higher elevation but we wanted to play it safe: Live. Ski. Repeat. Plus, there is always Thursday...
PM - Ski Tour w/ Andrea: Grizzly / Patsy / Twin Lakes x 3 laps [3200']. Whoa baby... straight up mid-winter conditions - cold smoke! Really, really fun powder skiing... light and deep. What a way to finish off March!
