Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, but with a light North wind. The hike up was warm enough, but at Hojos and above the wind was gusting 20 MPH+. Up in the Bowl, and on the higher elevation turns of the Sherburne Trail, the temps never rose enough to soften up the snow. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1578.jpg" ALT="Sri at Hojos"> <BR> <BR>Tried a warm-up run in the Right Gully first, but the wind had scoured out any new snow, leaving a hard frozen granular surface that was barely edgeable. Hiked halfway up about 10:30AM, and stopped when it became apparent that nothing was softening up. Hiking was tough, and snow was sometimes hard to kick a toe-hold in. It appeared that there was still snow all the way to the top of Right Gully, though it was a narrow line. With warmer temps, it would have been a good run down, as well as a good route to the Summit and East Snowfields. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1579.jpg" ALT="Pat in Right Gully"> <BR> <BR>An inch or so of new snow had accumulated as wind-packed powder of varying hardness and depth on top of the FGR old snow from the Left Gully side, in the Chute, and across the Center and Lip of the Headwall. Temps were low enough that this stayed dry, even in the sun. Above the Headwall, the wind had stripped any new snow off the old FGR surface. We watched as the first of three skiers down the Center Wall set off a small slide of dry snow, and then made some nice turns in the remaining powder. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1580.jpg" ALT="Sri and Center wall"> <BR> <BR>A second run under the Chute yielded some good turns, if you happened to pick a line where the wind-packed powder was softer. Hiking up was easier under the Chute, due to the 4"-6" of new hard powder on top of the old FGR base. This led one of us to try ascending the Chute; but he ran out of new snow halfway up, and backed down when he was unable to either kick into the old snow or kick out a platform to put his skis on. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1581.jpg" ALT="The Chute"> <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1582.jpg" ALT="Pat climbing The Chute"> <BR> <BR>For the third run, we joined the other lemmings ascending directly up the right side of the Headwall. From the left side, we had watched the traffic jam on that route up, and wondered why everyone was stopping before they got to the top. Once we joined the parade, we waited impatiently below eight others for 5-10 minutes. A snowboarder, too nervous to make his way across an existing platform below the Lip, kicked out a new platform right in the middle of the ascent route. All the snow he kicked out rained down on us. At this point, below the lip, it was deep, relatively soft powder, and easy to gain a foothold except for the steepness. Once he got on his board and cleared the way, the line started moving again, though only a little way, as a few more ahead of us decided to bail out below the Lip. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1583.jpg" ALT="The Headwall"> <BR> <BR>At that time, impatience got the best of us, and I started to kick out a new route around the clot. One other aggressive climber was matching my progress on his own route, and I eventually got behind him the rest of the way up the next pitch. As we reached the Lip, another knot of skiers and boarders were clustered below another platform, waiting their turn to step into skis or boards. This appeared to be the point where everyone was stopping, and I couldn't figure out why no one was going all the way up over the Lip. Confidence bolstered by crampons on my ski boots, I kicked another route around this queue. Though steep, the snow still offered good footing - but not for long. Ten or twenty feet above this last-chance to bail out, the new snow thinned out, leaving nothing but old frozen granular. I kicked repeatedly at each step, to leave a better toehold for those following me up. This worked great for another twenty or thirty feet, until it got so hard that I was hardly making a dent, and my legs began to tire. I yelled down to my buddy below that he'd be better off bailing out at the platform he had almost reached. Then I gave up trying to leave anyone else a foothold, and concentrated on getting myself up what was turning into an ice climb. As I reached the top of the Lip, I found a few branches of krumholtz that were holding a little new snow, with slightly softer old snow beneath. Footing was slightly better from there, and at the top of the krumholtz patch was a spot offering the best chance to put skis on. After a few precarious moves, I had the crampons off and both skis on. I looked over my shoulder to see about ten people, including my buddy, had decided to follow me up the rest of the way. I "skied" out of the way, to make room for another to get skis on, clattering down across the icy surface to where some wind-packed powder slab finally took hold above the Lip. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1584.jpg" ALT="Above The lip"> <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1585.jpg" ALT="The Lip"> <BR> <BR>There was enough of this wind slab above to make a few turns and get a rhythm before going over the Lip. By this time, the Headwall was all chopped up. It was 12"+ of dry wind-packed powder, carved up into chaotic steps. A pole plant went in 1'-2', and every turn knocked loose a cascade of loose snow that obscured where your next turn would be. But it was surprisingly forgiving, as long as you weighted your jump turns correctly, and well worth the nerve-wracking ascent. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1586.jpg" ALT="Pat skis the Headwall"> <BR> <BR>As shadows fell, we left the Ravine and threaded our way down through thin cover to the Connection Cache, and the Little Headwall. Still great snow on the Little Headwall. There was decent cover on the Sherburne Trail, only a few icy spots. There were a few bare spots the last couple hundred feet above the parking lot. It should last another week if we don't get any heavy rains or warm spells.
