20120209Thursday Feb 9 Ski from Vance cabin back to Tennessee Pass and home to Edwards

20120209Thursday Feb 9 Ski from Vance cabin back to Tennessee Pass and home to Edwards



Morning dawned greeting us with a 5" (12cm) snow fall.  I walked around the Cabin in wonderment at the softness and silence of the scene. The fresh powder snow neatly topping all the surfaces. I dared not to touch them so not to spoil the perfection of the shapes.  The pine trees surrounding the Cabin were filled with snow.

After a quick breakfast we cleared the decking and set off to climb Taylor's Peak ridge to do a second ski down, this time in the fresh powder snow. The Cabin was at 10,980' and the ridge top was 11,725'.

Climbing was not much more difficult that the previous day except that the snow was deeper.  The climbing ski on our skies gripped the fresh snow well and we were at the top in good time. I had been taking a movie of this trip but unfortunately the movie did not record properly and I am still trying to recover it.  Hence the still photos do not tell the whole story..

The ski down was not quiet what Steve and I had hoped for as the power snow was deep amongst the trees and our Australian "sized" ski were not able to float over the fresh powder snow. We sank quickly down into the snow and bogged. In my case this resulted in a number of falls into deep powder snow which proved very difficult to get oneself upright and on the skis again. I could feel the twist in my knee from yesterday and ignored it. I was actually getting a little better skiing the power and felt I was improving over yesterday's skiing.

After ski through the pine we came out on to the clear slopes above the Cabin and this was bliss. We telemarks through deep silky powder to the Cabin. So good was it we climbed back up to the top of the slope and repeated the ski down. This is what we had came for.

Steve and I both resolved to rent wider skis and abandon our "Australian" ski for the remainder of the trip. It was frustrating to watch the others ski through the powder with their wide skis floating on top while we floundered in deep holes.

After lunch in the Cabin we packed our gear and skinned up to the top of the trail. Here we removed our skins from our skis as the way our was mostly downhill.

Ski down on the trail though the pine forests is always magic. The fresh powder snow give us good control as we whizzed along the narrow trail. I passed a large group of school climbing up to the Cabin enthusiastically. Their teacher behind them playing loud music. She assumed me this was to keep them moving along. (I'll have to try this technique with our September group in Oz this year - I'm sure they will be overjoyed).  Negotiating a long powder slope to the Piney Gulch river was a test as our ski buried themselves deep in the powder and I skied forcefully, ie  slowly, down to the river. From here it was a short ski back to the trail head at Cooper's Ski Area at Tennessee Pass.

The drive back to Minturn and on to Edwards was in heavy snow.  Tom's big truck handled the road very well and Tom's competent driving reflected many year of driving in this weather.