Don't leave your skins in a tree TR - with actual pics of people skiing

[Johnny Law]

Dates: March 29 -31

Location: Daks, Peggy O

Skied: Lower Wolfjaw – Bennies Brooke

Saddleback – New and improved Back in the Saddle

 

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84i7zQ_ACnU

 

General Disclaimer: I am really shitty with a camera, if you want to really appreciate the scale of these places go yourself.

 

Irene dropped about 8” of rain across the high peaks, this was very bad however a silver lining of this event was the creation of new slides and perhaps more impressively the elongation of existing slides. With that in mind we headed out to see what was new in the neighborhood.

 

Alpine Start at about 1am

 

 

Camp, we arrived at 3:45am which isn’t bad for 3.6 miles

 

 

After 4hrs sleep it was off to Bennies, Bennies Brooke slide used to be a real pain in the ass bush wack but we had heard after Irene it runs straight into the south trail.

 

 

Only ski suspension bridge I know of

 

 

John’s Brooke

 

Bottom of Bennies

 

 

We are going to ski that…..

 

 

Bennies is about 2000vert off Lower Wolfjaw, turns out it was quite boney and we had to bail on the top 1/10^th. Skiing was interesting, probably the stiffest crude I’ve ever encountered, about 2” thick with straight glacial ice underneath. Made for cool ice bulges though.

 

 

 

Skiing was poor, a lot of lean back and point them. I do not want to see the video of me skiing this section. LOL

 

 

Day 2 we wanted to check out an old friend, we couldn’t believe all the trees and rocks Irene brought down Bennies and figure Back in the Saddle may now really go almost all the way down Orebed drainage.

 

Half way with the goal in our sights

 

 

Going Up

 

 

The top of Back in the Saddle Slide now merges with two others right about at the col in-between Saddleback and Gothics. We had already been up Gothics two years back when we skied a slide called True North so we decided to head up Saddleback. I really wanted to peep the slides on Basin.

 

North and West face of Gothics

 

 

Big burly slides on Basin, coming back to ski that for sure.

 

 

After some time spent dicking around on Saddleback it was time to shred the gnar. We bushwacked for about 100 yards and found the top.

 

 

Looks tasty, snow was a cream cheesy recycled pow. This slide runs about 1500 vert but you can ski the drainage all the way back to camp.

 

 

 

Catching some BC air

 

 

Beautiful ski out next to the Orebed drainage

 

 

We don’t eat shit, my total pack was 50lbs and my food, including 6 lobster’s was almost 20lbs.

 

 

Ski out was very interesting, huge ice falls and some tricky scrambling in ski boots, was nice to “ski” most of the way though.

 

 

Really excellent trip though my feet are going to be angry at me for some time. I had accidently left my skins at the top of Bennies, which I didn’t realize until Saturday morning, booting 3k vert for 8hrs is not great in alpine boots.

 

 

Next stop Telluride and A$$pen.

[Tyler]

Awesome report, hiked gothics, Armstrong, and the wolf jaws this past summer-was thinking about how cool they would be in the winter.

[moe ghoul]

Great TR, those blisters are reminding me to get new liners for my AT boots. I like the menu options, nothing better than cookin up some good grub when yer in the woods. Why the 1AM start, got up there late and hiked in due to short trip?

[AtomicSkier]

Johnny law...you are crazy. Looks like serious fun.

 

Some snow headed to Aspen tomorrow to freshen things up for you

[Johnny Law]

. Why the 1AM start, got up there late and hiked in due to short trip?

 

Was the earliest we could all get there and figured why sit in the car. Its a pretty easy trip in, one trail, relatively flat.

[Schif]

That's a pretty awesome TR, it really looks like an epic kind of trip. Thanks for posting!

[mbike-ski]

very cool trip and TR, would like to do some of tthat stuff one of these days!

 

anyone doing tuckerman this year?

[RidgeRacer]

Nice JL. Looking forward your CO report.

[sibhusky]

So, did you/will you go back to retrieve the skins? Sounds like a nice find for someone.

[Johnny Law]

So, did you/will you go back to retrieve the skins? Sounds like a nice find for someone.

 

They are a permanent addendum.

 

They were about 10 years old, the clip system was always flying apart, seemingly at the worst time and the glue was a great mix of old glue, pine needles and newish glue on top. It was unfortunately their time, they had a hard life as the EC BC is generally boney on the approach.

 

I'm going new touring setup next year, Plum Guides, Dynafit Stoke with Techinica Pro Lights. The old setup is 10 years+ and is about to blow up, certainly whenever I'm farthest from camp. LOL

[toast21602]

great report, but sorry for your loss. It's always important to remember the good times that we had with those who are close to us and I'm sure you and your skins have some great memories together. Never forget.

 

[Johnny Law]

Is it weird that I got a half Chubb when I saw the picture of your foot???

 

Ummmmm.....I once had a girl tell me I had very nice feet but that was along time ago, I think the hockey skate and skiing boots have really torn them up.

 

Maybe it was just a coincidence, I remember being 15 and I get a boner every time the wind blew. LOL

[moe ghoul]

You might have started one of those trees with bras n panties hanging on it. You'll have to go back next year and report back.