Sioux Pass Powder

Sioux Pass Powder
Southern Wind River Range
April 25th, 2009

Mandy skins above Sioux Pass.

Mandy and Shad Powder Flick

Mandy leaves the sled in search of pow pow.

The latest storm cycles seem to be working our pretty well for skiing the Winds above Lander. Though temps in Lander for most of the week were in the 70s. Friday it started snowing again. It's getting trickier to get the sleds up high to the good powder- all the trails down low are melting out. It can be done still though. We did it. Dunno how many more times we'll have the chance. Judging by the weather today, as I write, it's looks like maybe I guy might get away with a run in May next weekend. Again though- it was a lot of work getting the machine in there and out. Great day though- I'll take it!

Perched on top of a good looking run.

Time to ride!

First turns initiated an interesting little new snow slough slide.

Enjoying the view as I transition for another run.

"Look out! They're everywhere! They're everywhere!"
Little green Mandys kept gobbling up the pow. I couldn't keep up!

Looking back on Mandy's first run.

I do a quick boot pack up to the top of a good looking little shot.

A look back at a couple of runs.

Mandy tears it up!

Skiing off into the trees near the bottom of the run.

Mandy enjoys the tree skiing back to the sled.

Back at the sled, packing up for the ride out.

My thoughts on the day...
before I tipped the Polaris over and got it stuck three or four times on the way back.

Tried to dig out a trail for the Polaris on a side hill. It didn't work. I cussed alot.

Turned out that getting back to the truck was much harder than I had anticipate. We were only about 10 or 15 miles away, but the snow had warmed, and I was punching through it whenever I got off the main trail. There hadn't been any traffic on it either- probably for at least most of the week. The side hill above gave me lots fits too. I didn't have to deal with it on the way in- I was able to go straight over the hill. The way over the hill on the way out is much steeper, and the Polaris with all of our crap on it couldn't do it. I had to try the road instead. I ended up getting suck down off the road in the bottom, where the snow was soft. We pretty much had to dig pack and build a road for the polaris out of the bottom and back onto the main road. Only took about an hour or so. Long story short- it took just under an hour to get to where we skied. It took us over 3 hours to get out. My arms are rocked from lifting that heavy machine and shoveling my brains out. It was fun though! Glad we got out. We were late picking up the kids- but not as late as I thought maybe we would have been at one point. Several times I figured we'd be waiting till dark for the snow to firm up as the temperate dropped, before we'd be able to get out. Glad we didn't have to do that. Mandy was thrilled too. Always and adventure!