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

Central Pow Session

The day started with lots of new snow, but no base, so Ed and I started apprehensively.  Then Heather got out of school early due to all the snow at low elevations.  We three scooted over to central for some laps with hopes.  As the day went on it snowed, and snowed, and snowed.  How the rest of the day went is pretty self explanatory.

 Heather enters the white room

 Heather

Tele-Ed

 Heather in her fox hole

 Brandon (watch and learn teleguys)

Ed

Going Back to Cali...No, I Don't Think So.

We enjoyed a visit with brother Shawn and sister-in-law Lori in Port Hueneme, California. It was good to see them and their home & life of the past few years...and now they are off to Florida.

Tara, Josh, and 4-year old Pekay were there too. So, of course, we went to Disneyland! It was a first time for Brandon, Josh, and Pekay so it was a ton of fun.

 This little trooper made a full day at Disneyland...she looks a little tired here.

I wish I had the pic of us on Space Mountain...we're all screaming except for Pekay, who appears to be gazing at the stars in calm wonder. When we left that ride, she commented, "I didn't know I could fly!"

We also had to visit Venice Beach to see the interesting people. After walking down the boardwalk, Brandon & I were both grateful that we live where we do...no crowds, no thugs, no need for security to deal with regular fights, etc. Instead, we have isolation, snow, and ski bums...just our style.

 A 9-year old who won a world breakdancing comp the day before

Street entertainers (see dude flipping over the line of bent-over people)