In the last installment of Turns All Year: The Tutu Adventures, I spent November and December skiing almost every weekend in sub-par conditions. January continued the trend, staying dry and keeping us powder hounds seeking new adventures.
To start the year off right, I joined my friend Dave and three of his bros for a weekend “skiing in the enchantments”. What we ended up with…well, was decidedly NOT skiing. I posted a full trip report here, but as an overview we hiked 18 miles wearing crampons and skiboots, carrying big packs, and never even got to ski. The views were pretty though:
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| January 4: The road was closed due to ice. Should have been our obvious sign to abort… |
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| Colchuck Glacier center sloping up right. |
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| January 5: Climbing to the col sans skis. |
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| Rewarded with amazing views. |
While technically the suffer-fest doesn’t count as skiing, I feel it’s enough time with skis on my back to be counted as a fair try. But to assure that my January turns were in the bag, I headed to my favorite tree-ski stash with Imran, to the Tatoosh in search of spring corn (we found breakable crust), and then finished the month off with some evening ski races at Alpental.
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| January 12: That’s one sexy, powdery skin track. |
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| Owly! She looks right in her element. |
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| Anne and I with our hands in the air. That’s how you know we’re having fun! |
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| January 20: Coming down from Unicorn peak. Once again hands in the air for FUN! |
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| Trying to get artsy near the top of Unicorn. |
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| Hands in the air (we’re totally faking fun having – the breakable crust was…not awesome). |
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| January 23: City League race qualifying night. Totally socked in. But if you got above the clouds the view was magical. |
