it’s a lot of inches

It’s a good thing Ian was mad at me yesterday (Thursday) for not taking him on an epic powder day on Scotties because otherwise (yesterday) might not have happened for me.

I mean, TODAY (yesterday) would have happened, but I might not have gotten two laps of some of the best snow I’ve ever experienced. So thanks Ian.

Ian really wanted to bring a friend, which works well when you’re going to the movies, or to mini-golf, or the skate park. Generally you don’t just bring your 15 year old’s friends when you go dawn patrol backcountry skiing. But I was confident in the route, and Ian was confident in his friend. And his friend’s parents were confident in me.

Well, actually, I’m not sure about that, because they didn’t even ask, they just dropped him off. So I must exude reassurance and competence. It drips off of me. And Spencer is a semi-pro long boarder, so he drips competence too. But this all came together late last night, after I had given up on the idea of skiing today. But worrying about making it work for Spencer kept me from getting other deserving folks out–sometimes you’re the hammer, sometimes you’re the nail.

Luckily, despite some nasty equipment setbacks (gear suited more to sidecountry rather than actual backcountry), we got Spencer to the top of the hill. Twice. I would have carried him up if I had to.

See, it’s like this. Thursday we skied Scotties, because they were bombing the north side of Little Cottonwood Canyon, and Scotties is on the south side. No bombs there.

And then we got another foot on top of the previous foot. So the north side of the canyon today had more like 24 inches. Which is a lot of inches.

We ran into Mark n Mike n Daren up there. And Mike’s friend, whose name I should know but because it was dark and windy, I didn’t write his name in my little black iPhone. Thanks for the freeway skin track guys. I will always love you.

Here are Ian and Spencer on top of Toledo Peak, up Little Cottonwood Canyon:

The sun coming up over Flagstaff:

And, of course, the video, brought to you by me (that’s why I’m not actually IN the video–I’m the camera man. Ian is the star).

Mark, showing the effects of the white room:

Yay.