Spring Skiing - Bald Mountain 4/24/08

Paul with the signature fts lil' debbie summit tribute.

The picture does it no justice, but the cornice is as big as a freight train. We had lunch on top to the high point in this pic.

Leo in our wind block/lunch snow pit with Vail in the background.

So far the corniest photo of the spring. Hah! Corny!

What a spring it has been. This was a really good day to get up Bald Mountain. The now weekly spring dump was coming in that afternoon, but we enjoyed sunny spring conditions with just a little wind up above treeline. Neither Paul nor myself had ever skied Bald from the top before. Geno Leslie, an official hanger of the posse, and TGSC mainstay tried to take me up there back in spring 96ish, but I was not up for the summit back then. Geno was very patient that day.

We started our hike at about 7:30 am from the main Vail exit parking lot. Bald mountain is a long walk. The first 1/2 hour was across a frost covered hillside until we got up to the snow line. We stopped there to change into our ski boots and shed some layers. By the time we reached the snow, the sun was shining on us, as well as the snow we would be skiing later in the day. Short sleeves were enough until we got up to the summit ridge, which was windy, above treeline, and near 12,000 feet in elevation. That ridge required the winter coat. We hit the summit in just under 4 hours. Pretty good time considering I could climb no higher 3/4 of the way up at 4 and a half hours back in 96ish. Our old friend Lyndon Ellefson ran up there in under 2 hours. Unreal!

Although we had to keep our winter jackets on, the weather up top was great. We took in the sights for a while. There is a lot of snow up in the Gore. A lot of snow. We had a great view of the Y from up there. We also had a great view of that north facing, powder filled chute we were looking down above the Y. We were pretty far away, but there looked to be a very big rock section near the bottom of that chute. Not sure if it's skiable. We will need a closer look. We dug a quick wind shelter and had a well deserved rest up top. By the time we were ready to ski, we had probably been up top just over an hour. Like I said, the weather was great.

After calling the guys working on the Eagle Bahn, we traversed west off the summit, backtracking past the gimongo cornice. Unfortunately, the glare off the mountain was too bright for them to see us skiing. The first couple turns were smooth, but firm. Quickly the snow turned to a perfect spring corn consistency. Once we were off the top, we were skiing this enormous, rolling, corn filled meadow. Similar to Nebraska, only downhill. The run lasted close to a half hour. Well worth the hike. Unfortunately we ran out of snow before getting back to the parking lot. We ended up side hilling in our ski boots, with our skis over our shoulders, into the gated Spraddle Creek neighborhood. By the time we hit pavement, I had had enough walking. We changed back into our sneakers, strapped our skiis to our packs, and began our trek back Paul's truck. I felt like Clark Grisswald walking though the desert. Flurries were in the air by the time we made it to the truck.

What a day. What a spring. What a season!

Stay tuned for the details of Riva on May 2nd. Close to 2 feet!