The snow in the canyon was set like concrete but as soon as I got to the sun covered face it turned pretty mushy and started sticking to my skins I applied a generous coat of Glop Stopper but you’d have thought I’d greased up with rubber cement, this product has been a lifesaver in the past but for some reason it only compounded the problem here.
I lashed my skis to my pack and started booting. The going was pretty un-fun , with a snowpack consisting of a layer of corn/mush over breakable crust, over about 10 inches of sugar. I lost a bucket of sweat on that face and was sorely tempted to traverse out to the ridge where I knew the snow would be set hard, I didn’t want any surprises when I dropped in to ski however and continued on. The LRR is Highly changeable, Eric and crew climbed the same aspect the day before, 10 miles as the crow flies up range and had pretty nice climbing/skiing.
Minimal bushwhacking and great rock formations make the hike from the gulch all the way to the top immensely interesting. This gate near the top of the line is just more of the same. The upper 200 yards of the line drop at a 40 degree angle and then ease up to about 30 till the apron where it turns to a very mellow 20.
I was tempted to stop short of the summit and just ski the line but it was only a hop away and easy skinning . Big mistake, I hit two base shredders just below the top that will devour a stick of P-tex like a truck driver mows thru a Slim-Jim.
From the summit looking up range, we’ll be skiing a long season!
