A+ Day Today

Today was excellent. The LR's decided that it was the perfect day to stay home and deal with Santa's surprises. That meant time for me to head to my favorite hill and play as well.

The first stop was the Last Run to change shoes. As I was booting up I visited with Dick, a patrol bud who was wrapping up the lunch hour. We were set to load up on the Griz chair when he was abruptly pulled away on the radio for an accident. Prior to loading up, I asked if the Beacon site was set up and turned on. He said he though it was ready to go.

I spent quite a bit of time there getting to know Pieps. I located four beacons which were placed in the practice area graciously set up by MslaAvalanche. It was an interesting lesson which I was glad I took the time to walk myself through. Quite a few skiers came by and thought to themselves he must be taking a wee or something... This little Beacon Training Park is just below the Point Six access road, just off of Lavelle Lift north of White Bark in the saddle. After this session, I decided to skin up the road to Point 6. However, after seeing the level of wind blown-in snow on the road route [below], I said nope and decided to turn around and to take it straight up the ridge. Not sure why, but the west face made me nervous given the level snow above and along the road. It's a cliff [below to the left (west) of the below photo] pretty much. I love mtb riding up this road and as regular readers know, I spend a significant level of time up here doing intervals and finding myself during the spring and summer days. It is most peaceful during the weekday nights during the summer in Missoula - ie., no man's land. Today it was me and the ravens for part of the jaunt. During the winter, it's a bit busier.

After turning around, I quickly skinned up the face of Point Six just west of the tree line along the ridge. There was a man and his son who decided to boot it up and I passed them with the skis on. I quickly closed in on another fellow who had his snow board on his back and was wearing snow shoes. I backed off and left him alone, following him at the end to the peak.

That turned out to be the polite move as he visited with me on top below the antennas and took my photo [below]. After visiting, he decided to go off above the little lake. I felt it was too early season to go b/c in this area with little coverage and other issues.

The below photo is looking east from Point Six - towards Stuart. The above is looking north into the Flathead and Murphy with the west smog/cloud covered. Missoula was totally socked in but as usual the bowl was beautiful - a perfectly sunny day.

It's nice to get out of the city and experience the mountains away from the smog. I decided to take a few photos and as today was a gear check day, I sent a Spot OK signal to Molly from Point Six. It actually worked fine. It gave me time to pull the skins off and take a few shots of the hills while it was getting its signal. Perhaps I've been too critical of this device as it actually does work if one is patient enough to allow it to get a signal in an open area. It takes time.

The highlight of the day was catching the last chair, or close to it at four, going up the Griz to take one more. I put a significant amount of pressure on the a/t setup today. The Mt. Bakers can hold an edge pretty well. Also today, the adjustment from free heel to downhill was quicker as I banged the snow out of them this time. That can be a pain in the tail, taking off the skis and then making the change. However, the Dukes seem to be pretty strong. I spent the day in the Typhoons and the feet are still in one piece with some circulation. Actually, compared to my Lange's, they are feeling pretty good.

I spent part of the late afternoon catching up briefly with friends in the Last Run who I have not seen since the spring of '09. The mountain has new signs coming up and down the road. I took a photo on the way out! See you tomorrow.