skiing and melting snow
What I hate the most about April. Fifty degree days in the mountains followed by highs in the twenties and a foot of snow. Huge life decisions like……. Do I go skiing today or do I ride my bike.
Somehow I managed to make a perfect weekend out of these huge life problems. The past two weeks have been pretty painful in the backcountry around Breckenridge. Decent spring storms have been leaving a solid snowfall. Only to be immediately followed by sunny and warm days. Turning the fresh powder into a sticky, grabby mess, that throws you easily over the “handle bars” without reason.
After spending some time trying to figure out what to do Sunday morning, I decided I’d give the backcountry one more try. The snow thankfully wasn’t a sticky mess, instead it was greasy, slushy, and very fast. I reached the summit of one my new favorite places and hung out long enough to take some pictures and realize that I was higher and steeper than I should have been. Oh-well nothing like taking your skis off and walking down the first pitch. Things like that happen.
Later that evening I knew an epic ski day needed to be followed by an epic day on the bike. So me, my road bike, a lot of oil tankers, dirt bag snowboarder kids, and tourists all made our way up LovelandPass Monday morning. A true Summit County Spring classic. It was sunny and in the fifties in Breck, but on the summit it was no more than thirty five with a brutal south west wind. As always I forgot how painful the decent is. What kind of downhill isn’t fun. I mean who would think coming off a 12,000 ft pass in early April would be down right cold, with a brutal headwind, and a body numbing pain that turns into the hippie shakes as I desperately tried to hold on for the eight miles to Keystone.
Well I have to take the rest of the week off, the Imperial Challenge is on Saturday! – Jason K
at the summit
loveland pass is somewhere over there, the view from frisco
the way back down
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