Devil's Beard; Revisited

Devil's Beard
Absaroka Mts, Shoshone NF
February 3rd, 2007

Headed back up into some familiar country on Saturday. Has a little more snow now.

Dino starts the day out right- uphill.

After a short grunt up, Dustin and Dino skin across the flats.

Looking down on our skin track at the base of the slope.

Tash examines the snow pits while Dino prepares to shift into down hill mode.

Given recent snow pack on Togwotee and the Abarokas we approached this slope with caution. It's big and exposed. We inched our way up through it safe spotting and watching each other all the way. The snow felt good all the way up. Snow pits revealed a 3 to 5 inch layer of newer snow on top of an ice crust. The ice crust was present only on the steepest aspects though. It was concerning, because it did slide in one test we did. Below the ice crust further tests consistently showed about a meter and a half of pretty consistent solid snow on top of a base layer of depth hoar- maybe 6 to 8 inches deep. It took big hits to bring it out. I felt like it would be strong enough to ski on. To be extra safe though, I put a hard turn in and I ski cut the top, steep section (that had the ice crust) we were on before I went to work with turns. The snow turned out to be even stronger than I thought on top- nothing went.

Ready.

Aim.

Fire!

Ohh yea!!!

Dino's turn.

He likes it.

Turns. I got lots.

If you look closely you'll see mono-ski turns too. Dustin blewied his binding before he could use it. Sucks! Really sucks. We felt for him. He did an impressive job of skiing one legged though. he was half-way down before I realized his other ski was on his back. We sent him back to lodge to suck on beers while we scored another run. Couldn't resist.

Dino scopes out his next line.

Then drops it.

Big turns!

My turn.

Good stuff!

Dino heads out. Hard to leave snow like that behind.

Looking back.

It wasn't over though. We snagged a few more just dropping back down to the machines.

Dino slices in a final turn or two.

Found Dustin and Tash down at the lodge. After a couple of beverages, we loaded up and headed for home, winding up another great day in the backcountry.