Monday, February 15, 2010

V-Day Celebration

Instead of gifts, flowers or chocolate, we decided to find a sitter for the kids and spend the morning together in the mountains. I consider myself very lucky to have a wife who can hang in the backcountry.

Conditions were perfect. Light snow falling with about 6-8" of new snow. Things were mostly stable so we decided on a north facing shot- Scotties up Little Cottonwood. I expected to see a bunch of people and a semi-tracked out mountain but despite several cars in the parking lot, we didn't see a single person the entire day. We cut a fresh skin track straight up the gut. It's a more direct and interesting route up. Rachelle didn't seem to mind the steep and technical lower sections. At least I didn't hear any complaints. As painful as breaking trail can be, there is something about cutting a new skin track that is very satisfying.

(Rachelle - just below the upper Scotties bowl)

Once we got to the upper bowl, we stayed left (towards No-Name) and climbed up to the ridge between N0-Name and the Scotties summit. Climbing got tricky as the pitch got really steep and the snow got deeper and deeper. I couldn't keep the smile off my face. I knew this was going to be one of the best days of the year. Still not a single person in sight. Unreal.

Rachelle managing the new snow sluff like a pro



Rachelle showing off the powder high


Rachelle and me after skiing first tracks top to bottom.
After the skiing, we hit one of our favorite places for lunch -the Porcupine Pub & Grill at the base of BCC.
The best V-day ever.

6 comments:

KanyonKris said...

Rock on Sunderlages!

Nate Dawg said...

Looks sweet! Nice day

Jaynann said...

Such a cool day! I can't believe you had the mountain to yourself. You got some fantastic shots of Shelle!

Jonnie J said...

Power couple!

tibiker said...

I gotta get some gear (and some for Whit). You've convinced me, along with your posse of back country skiers, that this backcountry thing is a good thing. Looks amazing, and probably a great workout.

Rick Sunderlage said...

Jamie- Do it. You'll love it. It's the closest thing to MTBing. Great cross training. Just ask the local fast guys Bart, Alex and Jared.

Jay- Hard to NOT get a great pic of Shelle. She looks amazing in ski stuff.