Still making turns in late May, Jughandle has great snow (and views).
- May 18, 2008
- Team: Art
- 10 miles round trip, 3200' total gain, 6:30 hours car-to-car
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
Art invited me up to McCall to ski Jughandle. So of course, I had to go. I drove up to McCall early Sunday on an almost empty highway, stereo turned way up and coffee mug full. I got to Art's house at about 7, and we were on our feet at about 8:30. Temp was an astoundingly warm 50°. Even so, we were able to walk for about an hour before we put on the skis. |
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| When we finally got above the trees, the day was warming fast. I was already skinned up, so got a little ahead of Art while he put his on over his kick wax. Instead of taking the best line to the summit, I chose to take the best line to the slight breeze on the ridge. That's the Wallowas in the background. |  |
We hit the false summit and decided it was necessary to go to the true summit in the distance. |
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The traverse and slight additional climb didn't take too long and soon we were on top, a place Art found suitable for showing off his wood skis. |
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The ladybugs were having an orgy. |
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| The McCall backcountry has lots of snow. That's Boulder in the foreground. We spent about 1/2 hour naming peaks. But the snow was getting softer... |  |
We skied off the west face making fun turns in the slightly slushy snow. For some reason, Samson growled at us when we made turns.... not sure if he objected to our technique. |
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I was on full tele gear, with plastic boots, cable bindings, etc. However, Art is sort of a luddite and insists on using his wood skis, even on this fairly steep face. Here he makes a point of showing me that his skis did not have metal edges. He actually made pretty good progress down the mountain in this position. |
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