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Upward (Sort Of) Through the Storm

Bookmark and Share            By Lou

Crested Butte newspaper is full of flood angst, yesterday we ski slush that never got the nightly firm-up. Then today we head out for Mineral Point and what do we get? Full on blizzard conditions. Abused the Nytro driving on dirt for some distance between snow patches. Snow got continuous around Pittsburg. We wanted to hit Poverty Gulch and Mineral Point, but couldn’t find a way to cross the swollen Slate River, so we continued up the valley on the tracks of a local that had left ahead of us. Heading farther up got us in position for a low angled skiing approach to the “backside” of Purple Mountain. We were thinking we’d get it, then the storm hit. Back at ma’s ski hut now.

Dynafit backcountry skiing.
By now, we’re almost back in Marble. If we’d had our GPS we could have wandered to the summit through the soup, like being guided in Europe for $400/day through a whiteout. No thanks. Just fun to be up there messing around, getting some exercise, figuring out our “adult” sled. One observation: Incredible amount of snow despite a previous few days of warmth.

Posted by Lou on May 22, 2008 | Filed Under Trip Reports 

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Comments

One Response to “Upward (Sort Of) Through the Storm”

  1. Mark Worley May 22nd, 2008 6:25 pm

    May it continue into August!!

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Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information and opinion website. Lou's passion for the past forty years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about backcountry skiing and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the Fourteeners! Books and free back country information here, and tons of Randonnee rando telemark info.

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