Another weekend, another tour

Ahhh...leave it to Josh to help make crappy snow conditions enjoyable. The conditions are still looking extremely depressing in the backcountry, but still he perseveres with another great plan. We met up with James and Jamie early Saturday morning to attempt the "Tri-Canyon tour" starting at Our Lady of Snows and finishing off in Alexander Basin. Lofty goal, but I felt like I was up for it. The morning started out good enough - blue skies, lots of sun, and an eerily empty Pole-Line Pass skin. Didn't see a soul from Cardiff to Flagstaff. I never slipped off the Cardiff skin track (although Jamie ate some shit), so maybe my skinning technique IS improving. After much bullshitting and the best banana bread oatmeal snack cake ever (Quaker, baby) we made our way over towards Cardiac ridge. My first glimpse of Cardiac was breathtaking!

The skin up Cardiac bowl was long and very warm, and Mineral Fork was gorgeous as well. I was rockin' out on my Shuffle, so the suffering was relatively enjoyable. Alas, the clouds raced in as we caught our breath on the ridge and we busted down into BCC after a sketchy downclimb in sugar snow and much girly-whimpering on a tiny little traverse. Thanks for hitchin, Jamie. Lots of driving, but still a fun day.


Sunday was a groomer day at Deer Valley with Ma and Pa. Holy crap, I need to ski at the resort more often. I busted out the Kneissls and I thought I was going to kill myself on the first run. I forgot that skis have edges! The first hour consisted of me trying not to fall over backwards every time I held an edge and accelerated out of a turn. By the end of the day, I think I was getting the hang of it again. Josh dragged me up to Daly chutes after lunch and I managed to hack my way down the main chute. Lots of side-slipping, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

Ribs, beer, and a Patriots game at Jamie and Kate's and the day was complete. I'm gonna miss those guys a lot when they leave us in the fall. We've been lucky to have such great bike/ski/party partners since we met them.

An a side note, I've submitted my graduate application to the U and I'm preparing to apply to the MBA program. Better start calling me Master Tracie.

Workout today: 30 min of spinning intervals (2:00 90% max HR, 1:00 rest)