Copper Mountain

John and Dylan invited me for a trip to Copper. Due to the weather prediction, I waffled a bit, then acquiesced. After all, John was driving, door to door. Even an old lazy guy can't turn that down.

As we marched up the never-ending ridge, Dylan proclaimed he saw blue sky. Even sunshine.

Well, it's possible. Or it's youthful enthusiasm. You choose.

We took a brief break at the traditional lunch tree, then headed up. As we did so, we heard voices (and not the usual ones I hear).

The upper reaches of the mountain looked wind-affected, so we stopped at the cluster of trees, high on the left, to take advantage of a little extra wind deposit there. As we ripped skins, the voices caught up to us.

This picture shows our tracks on the left, those tracks left by the voices in the middle.

The snow was actually pretty good skiing. There was a couple inches of blower pow on top of an old, smooth crust. A little strange when (not "if") you caught an edge.

Although John went over to the dark side, Dylan has made a big improvement in his tele since our trip in early January.

Despite the intermittent snow and gusts, it was a really pretty day. Here's Peak 9290.

On the next lap we decided, despite snow conditions, to go to the top.

The recent storms seem to have been blowing the opposite direction from what I'm used to. Note the sharp, uncurled shape to the lip of the cornice. Also note the rime forming on the right (south). Weird.

This is looking back from near the top. John is in orange,Dylan is down the slope a bit (you may need to click for a bigger image).

I was cruising across the top (not really, the sastrugi were huge) when I came across this teachable moment. Look just uphill from John's skis.

Here's a zoom. Note the large crack. This crack ran about 100' along the ridge. Dylan stuck his ski pole all the way down it without reaching any bottom. Note the distance back from the edge of the cornice.

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