Untouched

For a change, finally got onto some snow conditions that were near perfect and didn’t involve any rocks. A few tight turns through narrow spots amongst trees perhaps – and quite a few GS style turns through only slightly more widely spaced trees – but nothing too ski damaging.

A slice of scenery.

That, combined with the untouched nature of the snow, made for a magnificent day of hunting powder laps. As the day’s partner Jason Borro noted, it wasn’t two feet of blower. But it was consolidated, supportable, super soft finery beneath our ski boots. Naturally, because I’d made some recent changes to my boots, my feet turned to hamburger during the pow hunting process. But that’s one of those things a skier only really pays attention to once stepping into the shower – stinging spicy! – if at all.

J-BO heads to the goods.

Did I say hunting? Wrong term. The low angle, untracked pow was in such abundance, it was as if we were shooting fish in a barrel. Low hanging fruit, indeed. A scan of the horizons from our repeatedly visited high points revealed distant ski tracks. But where we chanced to visit, signs of past travelers were scarce. This was the sort of ski day that reminds me that there’s coverage out there in the wilds, if one manages to find low angle slopes upon which to enjoy the conditions without incident.

Maybe 'without incident' was the wrong term, too. J-Bo all smiles on the fresh.

And we did. While the six mile approach to the base of our various descent routes made us feel as if we’d earned our turns, there are shorter routes to the same goods. Methinks there will be some revisiting happening, soon. The pictures might explain why.

A OK taking the untouched snow in stride. Pic by Jason Borro.

J-Bo rides the pow, heading right out of the picture.

J-Bo heads up for lap number .. I forget.

Monkey business, this. A OK swinging through the skier's version of trees. Shot by Jason Borro.

Not quite clear blue skies, but pretty nonetheless. J-Bo carves some safe pow.

Part of why skiing is so fun is that there are many dimensions to the sport. Here, Jason rips the 'gates' slalom style. Good place for a helmet.

Ah, buddy. With a largely unstable snowpack out there, this might be as good as it gets in the Wasatch this year. Hopefully not, but... A OK working with what's out there. Photo by Jason Borro.

"What just happened to me?" J-Bo takes a time-out on the slopes.

Jumping the stream seemed like the easiest way across. It was. J-Bo demonstrates. No skiers were dunked in the making of this picture, or the crossing of this stream.

Who knew low-angle fluff could be fun too, on occasion? Looks like this guy is figuring it out.

The day's art shot.