Powder so deep...

Just sitting here enjoying a nice hot cup of tea after braving the cold and the wind today to get my fix of freshies. Actually had to traverse down the checklist to option D today. This was because of several factor, the first being avoid I-70 at all costs on a weekend. Sitting in traffic sucks; sitting in traffic by yourself sucks more; and sitting in traffic by yourself and having to go to the bathroom is sweat-inducing, kidney stone-developing agony.

Another factor was, well, I'll let the table tell the story.



That's cold folks; that's nose hair-freezing, eyelash-riming, why was I ever born cold people.

So I bumped around a few hours this morning until it hit 18 degrees, got my things together and hit a spot lower in elevation, tree-covered - to avoid the nasty wind slabs that are developing above treeline currently - and usually holds some deep pockets of powder. I got my powder alright, a little too much.

Somebody had already set up a skin track, and I followed it up, appreciating the ease of not having to break trail. The track came to an end but there was still more hill, so swooshing through the powder I went up and up and more up - um, maybe I shouldn't have gone so much up.

You can watch the video of my highpoint, or the point where my sanity began kicking in here.

I hit rocky terrain and no real open slope; going down was going to require some tight navigation.



Did better than I thought on my first run down. Did scrape a couple of boulders and once again found a buried boulder that I hucked without my consent.



The second run I didn't go nearly as high up, stopping a couple hundred feet lower and found some nice slopes and linked some fun turns. The key was keeping spongy knees and keeping a downhill line. The third run was even better as my quads seemed to be awaking from their week-long slumber.




Voy a ir a Cerro Chirripo

Last night I bought my ticket to Costa Rica. Very excited about this 8-day trip. Need to brush up on the Spanish again and start figuring out an itinerary. I know the one spot I will hit is the tallest point in Costa Rica, Cerro Chirripo.



I foresee my climbing shoes and chalkbag being packed.



The cool thing is there is a hostel about 16 kilometers up you can stay in, hit the summit the next morning and explore the trail system. Now I just need to get my second Hep B shot and update a couple of other boosters as well.

ARTIST OF POST - Radiohead. Was grooving to this song on the drive up to the backcountry stash.