Spring in the Winds
Southern Wind River Range
April 19th, 2009Matt skis the Southern Winds
On top of The Notch Left Lander early thinking maybe conditions would be similar to the conditions I had on Big Mountain a week earlier, especially since it snow another foot or so the day before. It was a little different this time. Eventually the weather cleared and we got some classic warm pow spring snow. When we first got up there though, it was snowing and winds were strong and out of the North. Which took me a while to figure out. After a long tour and traverse, some of our first runs were on south facing slopes protected and loaded from the wind. It was good. Eventually the weather cleared though and things warmed up, the southern slopes got too warm, but other aspects turned from the wind crust into great soft spring snow. Before it was over we racked up nearly 6000 vertical feet of skiing in around eight hours. Great day!
Matt traverses his way across the Winds above Christina Lake
Climbing up The Notch.
Looking up the Range towards Big Mountain and Atlantic Peak.
A profile of our first lines, Christina Lake in the background.
Looking down on Matt's line through the bottom.
Carvin' it up!
Matt cruises in for a break after good run down the peak in the background.
A better look at some of our lines (click to enlarge).
Going up for more.
Matt prepares to drop The Notch.
One of my favorite shots yet, in the Winds this year.
Matt series in The Notch.
Weeehoo!
Pausing for a quick look back.
The last few turns of a 1000 ft run.
Not done yet!
Matt poses on another little peak.
Matt shows off his custom Tele/ AT bindings in Tele mode.
Looking a back on some of our earlier lines, later in the day (click to enlarge).
Looking back on the last hill of the day.
A look back into the canyon/ drainage we were skiing.
A look back at The Notch Mountain as the sun begins to set.
Another view of The Notch from across the lake.Shad Teaser
A final look back on much of the range and terrain around Christina Lake- red arrows indicate places we skied from.(click to enlarge and read labels)
posted by Shad Hamilton at 6:38 PM
2 Comments:
I saw your blog on temple pass. Would like to try this summer with my kids. Would like some advice. Kids are 8 and 13.
Do you mean Temple Peak and that area? If so it's a great area. Took me one day with super heavy pack (had ski gear) to hike into. With kids it might be a long day all the way in. It's beautiful up there- lots of options depending your time. Definitely push past Big Sandy Lake if you go in from that direction. If you can afford LLamas- check out Lander Llama Co (link is on my blog) and their lease program. That's a really a cool way to go with kids! A three day trip with Llamas up in that direction would be great!
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