Today, Cody, Abro and Elyse and I went to look for some snow that would sustain our weight for some turns.- Why is it that we always look like such dorks when we go ski touring? We chose Roundtop Mountain off of Carson Pass.- It is 10,100 feet high, so we figured maybe there would be some snow
there, in a gully or a chute where the wind blew it in…
The first backcountry outing of the year, be it on a snowmobile, skis with skins, snowboard and snow shoes, splitboard, it always is a bit of a trial in just re-figuring out how to travel across snow for a day, efficiently.- With this in mind, it is nice for that day to be a mellow one.- Not one in which you need to race out there to get to the fresh tracks, and not one with any big expectations for film or photos.- By the time those days roll around, you need to be dialed. There is just so much stuff that needs to be part of the routine, and on day 1, there is no routine.- Today, I forgot my goggles and the footbeds for my ski boots.- With no need to get rad, it was all good. Because of some creek crossings, we took a roundabout way to the Roundtop Lake and looked around at slim pickings for turns around Roundtop Mountain. We weren’t surprised and we were in it for the hike, so we kept going and found some snow.- It was wind crusted snow amidst- a minefield of rocks, but it was backcountry skiing.- We’d found what we were looking for, and Abro found that he had forgotten the memory card- for his big heavy professional photographer camera, but at least he had carried it along for the 5 mile round trip. After day one, it is good to make mental note of how the day went, what you ingested, what worked, what didn’t.- Make note of how much hiking you are
capable of doing, and how exhausted you were. Today I carried just a bottle of Gatorade and a sandwich.- No avy beacon or shovel or probe.- I wish there were enough snow for avalanches to be a concern, but there simply isn’t.- I drank about 6 ounces only, it was cold, not much sweating.- I hiked about 1000 vertical feet, and could have done much more.- My Nordica Agressor boots were comfortable right out of the box, and my skins seem to be sticky enough to last another season. One big dump, and it is on! Blaster, JT Holmes
