Weather January 5 was tough and I took a day off after skiing the past 7. I dropped Liz at Highlands as she needed to make progress with the boots. Little progress was made as the wind chill was -29F at the top of Cloud 9 so Liz took just 2 runs and called for me to pick her up.
Monday we returned to Highlands. It was below zero at dawn but sunny and expected to warm up. The warm up was modest, as temps at the base of Temerity were 8F at 12:15PM and 5F at 3:30. Tseeb and local friends Steve and Larry joined us. Liz had some boot adjustments, while the rest of us headed up. After a few cruisers Tseeb and I skied Kessler's to the Temerity chair, then down to the base for a quick lunch and check on Liz.
Liz skied groomers testing the boots with Steve and Larry, while Tseeb and I were lured to hike Highlands Bowl by the reported 9 inches in the past 2 days up there. We stopped just short of the final pitch.
Tseeb just arriving
I would not have wanted to do that hike without skis on a pack so I could use both poles to hike. Yesterday's wind had polished some of the bootpack steps.
View down the Bowl, Tseeb skiing in the White Kitchen, Be One area.
It looked awesome, but unfortunately yesterday's wind had turned the snow to thick windslab, very similar to Mammoth's more difficult storms. I persisted in the Bowl, while Tseeb traversed the bottom part to the edge of the G8 trees. Snow was somewhat better over there.
In retrospect we probably should have gone over the top and down to the north facing trees I skied in April 2011. We concentrated on our hiking too much when perhaps we could have observed other skiers and figured it out.
At any rate, these days no trip to Aspen is complete without one venture up to Highlands Bowl. Somehow it's one high alpine area in Colorado that really collects the snow well.
Liz' boot saga continued to be difficult. Her toes became cold quickly, and this was a similar situation as when I got new boots 2 seasons ago and needed an instep adjustment so circulation would not be cut off.
Monday we returned to Highlands. It was below zero at dawn but sunny and expected to warm up. The warm up was modest, as temps at the base of Temerity were 8F at 12:15PM and 5F at 3:30. Tseeb and local friends Steve and Larry joined us. Liz had some boot adjustments, while the rest of us headed up. After a few cruisers Tseeb and I skied Kessler's to the Temerity chair, then down to the base for a quick lunch and check on Liz.
Liz skied groomers testing the boots with Steve and Larry, while Tseeb and I were lured to hike Highlands Bowl by the reported 9 inches in the past 2 days up there. We stopped just short of the final pitch.
Tseeb just arriving
I would not have wanted to do that hike without skis on a pack so I could use both poles to hike. Yesterday's wind had polished some of the bootpack steps.
View down the Bowl, Tseeb skiing in the White Kitchen, Be One area.
It looked awesome, but unfortunately yesterday's wind had turned the snow to thick windslab, very similar to Mammoth's more difficult storms. I persisted in the Bowl, while Tseeb traversed the bottom part to the edge of the G8 trees. Snow was somewhat better over there.
In retrospect we probably should have gone over the top and down to the north facing trees I skied in April 2011. We concentrated on our hiking too much when perhaps we could have observed other skiers and figured it out.
At any rate, these days no trip to Aspen is complete without one venture up to Highlands Bowl. Somehow it's one high alpine area in Colorado that really collects the snow well.
Liz' boot saga continued to be difficult. Her toes became cold quickly, and this was a similar situation as when I got new boots 2 seasons ago and needed an instep adjustment so circulation would not be cut off.
