May Day!

The first day of May skied surprisingly well.  I thought that the forecast called for mostly cloudy and rain for the next week, but we got a nice sucker hole.  I headed solo up to Hatcher Pass and had my mind set on either a couloir I scoped a couple months back near Gold Cord, or the north facing chutes on the Rae-Wallace Headwall.

LB and I slugged it out and made it as far as I could before I started booting.  I hate boot packing.  It must've been really warm last week, because there were a lot of rollerballs that made the skiing.....um.....interesting.

The pass also got about an inch of snow during that small front that moved through late in the week. The entire chute skied very well, requiring you to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge the occasional "death cookie". Lobita was loving the slope angle, but had it rough post-holing through the isothermal snowpack in the south facing flats.

I'll take it for the first day of May.  I have to work both of the weekends in mid-May, so next weekend I have to get after it.  It may be time to bring it back closer to home.  I've got my eye on Raina's north couloir, and the chutes in Hanging Valley.