Lazy Bums

Okay, so we've been really lazy all Christmas break, way lazier than normal for us. Today, we were supposed to get up early to go ski touring. 'Early' pretty much passed us by at 7am, 8am, 9am...seriously, we slept until 9:30. So after eating breakfast, getting dressed & ready, and packing a lunch, it was nearly lunchtime.

But it was a gorgeous day so we weren't going to not ski. We headed out to Chair Peak and were surprised that the lower bowl was completely tracked out.

We kept on going and then ripped our skins for a short wind-swept downhill slope to Snow Lake. Ate a quick lunch on frozen Snow Lake and admired some tracks on Roosevelt, our original goal.

Alas, we didn't have enough daylight to trek all the way out there, so we settled for a not-so-big slope above us. We didn't even have enough time to get to the top of this particular peak, but there wasn't much skiing above us anyway (mostly rocks and tight trees).

It was a great day outside in the blue sky mountains with my dear husband and we got a little exercise, so it was a success in those ways. Not a lot of skiing though. I think we need to get up just a tad earlier.

 At the top of lower Chair Peak bowl, heading back.

New Years Eve Eve

With conditions in the backcountry unknown and Hyak right outside the door with not much traffic on it still, the easy option was slack country laps at Hyak.

Melissa and Jeremy joined us

Ed

Nice evening reflection off Gold Creek Valley

Hyak Powder (sort of)

With an empty house post-holidays, Heather and I tried to make the most of the 12" of new snow we got over the past couple of days.  Unfortunately, a couple days before we got a foot or so with a freezing rain incident which created a nice breakable crust under the 12" of very dry new snow, so skiing was a little tricky especially for Heather without mega wide skis.

Heather avoiding the crust

Heather

One Great Day

Brandon, Ed, & I headed out to Kendall Peak for a tour on Monday. While hiking in, we saw a mink in a tree...

this is not our shot...stole it from http://bigoldbear.ezabu.com/ (thanks!)

Our camera was dead that day so, sadly no pics of our fun.

After making the hump in, we dug a pit and decided the avalanche conditions were too risky. A hard call to make as the upper bowl was completely fresh powder with no tracks....but probably the right one as we later saw reports of triggered slides on similar slopes.

So, we headed back into the trees and lapped the tree slopes a few times. Back out to meet up with Ed's wife Julie and another friend, Tiffany, for some lift skiing. We skied fresh stuff all evening until about 9:30pm when the freezing rain began to pelt us and turned our fluffy snow into frosting.

Ended the evening with a hottie tottie -coffee & Kahlua. A fantastic day, in my opinion.

Red Mtn

Adam and I headed up Red Mtn for a quick morning ski, Heather chose to sleep in.  We haven't had any new snow in a week, and the wind has been blowing a lot, so we didn't have high hopes.  Found variable conditions from powder, packed powder, wind affected, wind scoured, refrozen debris and breakable crust.  Good to get out on my first real tour of the season.

Tracks from yesterday on the upper face 

 Adam on the summit

First turns, careful

Better snow at base