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.

Powder Baskets

The easter bunny greeted the day with baskets filled with powder, a whippet, and Utica Club.

Not to mention an early morning run to Hatcher Pass before brunch.  B-real and I toured up into the Rae-Wallace bowl, looking left and right, debating on what to ski.  To the right was a nice north-facing chute from atop Fish Peak (or Marmot or the Rae-Wallace Headwall depending on nomenclature).  To the left was my all-time favorite run off the north side of Microdot - Nosebleed.  This is a top contender for always holding good snow.  We decided to ski Nosebleed and were pleasantly rewarded with soft powder in April!

B-real makes his way out of the Rock Garden.  Sorry I don't have any good ski pics - we were doomed by flat light.

 Lobita shakes it off....aint' nuthin' but a thang.

In other news, some folks have been getting after it - skiing Mount Bold.  It seems that this is the time of year when people start slaying big Western Chugach peaks.  I've heard that Mount Rumble and Yukla also got tagged.  Others have slogged it out to ski Bench Peak in the Kenai's....very nice and worth the powder preservation. 

And you can tell its that time of year.  Roman and Timmy J made the first run down Six Mile.  This always happens....the skiing is so good that I dont want to give it up; but boating season is upon us!