Arriving in Alaska

I arrived in Skagway, AK from Juneau on a very small plane:

Here is Skagway from the plane window! On the right you can see a cruise ship in the port and it's so windy the water is rippling.

 This is the view from my bedroom window:

Splitboarding

Splitboard: A Splitboard is a Snowboard split down the middle to form two halves. The two halves are stably connected by a simple, but durable interface to form one piece. The halves can be unassembled and function as skis with skins attached for climbing snow up to 40 degrees. A great piece of equiptment for backcountry powder adventures with proper safety equiptment and avalanche training awareness.1

The beginning of any trek starts with the board assembled like skis with a pair of skins on the bottom. Skins are like a piece of carpet that only lets the skis go one direction and have a sticky substance on the underside and clips on the tail and nose to keep it on the ski.

This mornings trek to Francie's cabin was exciting. It snowed a few inches the night before and snowed the entire way up.

We are making fresh tracks. The only ones up the trail so far. 

At the top with Skylar. 

I haven't done anything to difficult. We've stayed on well maintained trails. However, the ride down is incredible. There is nothing like like. Making fresh turns in untouched powder and no is around. It's calm and surreal and peaceful. 

1) http://www.pranaproducts.com/snowboarding.html

The Cave

I have become a fan of geocaching. It's basically a scavenger hunt for grown ups.
On the south end of Breckenridge there is a trail that follows Highway 9 out of town. It starts just next to the ice rink.
This cache is a multi stage, so you have to find the first cache to get the coordinates for the second.
The cache is called Frewey's Cave. On the trail you find the first cache within 1/8th of a mile and the second cache is about 1/2 mile more. It takes you off the trail just a little, but brings you to this.

You can't tell at first, but that rock pile is a cave. It goes back a ways and if you are willing to crawl you can get several yards back into it. 

On the hike out there are fantastic views of Breckenridge Ski Resort. 

Geocaching takes me on amazing adventures!

Lily Pads in the Winter

Winter hiking can be exciting! If you pick a well tracked path you don't even need snowshoes. The hike to Lily Pad Pond is one of my favorites in the summer, so I thought I would see what it is like in the winter. From Frisco you take the Meadow Creek trail head and stay right at the fork about 1/2 miles in.
There are beautiful pictures of lake Dillon along the way.

 This picture is looking back at Frisco. Mt. Royal is the small peak in front and Peak One looms behind it. 

My hiking companions! and Buffalo Mountain in the back ground.

Sledding

We have had a lack of snow this winter in Summit County. The resorts are not fully open and the roads are clear of snow. Despite that we managed to find a stash large enough to sled on!
It even had a jump!
Thank you Hoosier Pass for providing an afternoon of fun.

Monarch Mishap

One of my favorite websites for finding discounted lift tickets is liftopia.com. They give you some of the best deals for buying last minute cheap tickets. The other day I saw tickets for Monarch Ski Area for $25, so Aaron and I decided to go and get a few runs in one afternoon. 

When we arrived the parking lot was very empty and we noticed that not a single chairlift was running. As we got closer we realized that there was no snow on the mountain. 

Monarch is one of the few places that does not make snow. Thats why it is such great skiing! However, with the lack of natural snow this season they were not open. 

I better do a little better planning next time. 

This run is named Gun Barrel. When I think back on this run it was much longer and steeper and always the biggest challenge on the mountain. It seems smaller than I remember.  

My earliest childhood memories are of Monarch and we continually went there through my senior year of high school. However, I never remember going to Monarch Pass. At the age of 24 I made!

This is Old Monarch Pass. A little dirt road that follows Monarch Ski Area boundary and then drops down the back side of the mountain.

Where is the snow

It is now Dec and we haven't seen snow since October. The resorts are open, but with limited runs. So I decided to take a hike. Just off of the Peaks Trail and Peak 7 the Nordic Center has several trails running up and down the mountain.

There are two huts along the path, both accessible year round. Hallelujah Hut  

Kathy's Cabin 

A little further up the trail from Kathy's cabin the path opens up and you get spectacular views of Baldy mountain. 

 This is looking back at Peak 8, to the left and Peak 7, to the right.