Southern Wind River Winter Adventures: February 2010

Cony Mountain Tour

Cony Mountain
Popo Agie Wilderness Area, Shoshone NF
February 21st, 2010

A splits view of Silas Canyon as I make my way towards Cony Mountain.

Silas Canyon

Flying solo today- staying away from the big stuff.

C0ny Mountain

Near the top a run on a peak opposite Cony Mountain.

Been a couple of years since I last visited this area. I was hoping with the new snow and bigger snow pack this year that it would be a little more filled in. It was still pretty bony on Cony. What made it even trickier was the fact that many of the bones (rocks) were covered with two feet of fresh pow. Lines that looked good contained buried treasures galore. On top of this- the snow was too deep for the angles. I could get some mo and a turn or two in up top where it was over 30 degrees- but right around 25 degrees and all you could do was straight line. Needed some more steep... but chances were good with 2 feet or more of fresh, that the steep was still dangerous. Oh well.

One of my lines... pretty much straight.

Too deep for turns.

With conditions not great for riding, I did some touring... this was the view from a pass near Cony Mt. Sure did look like more interesting terrain- some probably steep enough for turns too.

Zooming in on an area that caught my eye. Definitely probably not a slope to tackle solo with 2 feet or more of fresh pow. Perhaps I'll get reinforcements and try it another day.

After another run up high I determined the bones were too much. Set my sights for some tasty looking tree shots a little lower. Angles again were only 25 to 30 degrees.

Nice deep pow.

Too deep. Was all I could do just to stay afloat straight lining it. Bummer!

Split and skinning, heading back to the machine. When it's too deep to ski, only one thing left to do...

Nothing's too deep for the skidoo.

I had great fun riding and playing in the pow on my sled- conditions were great for that!

Exercised my shovel a bit too- no craters though!

The day before I played around a bit on the switchbacks. The two feet of new snow enough to ski on with rock skis- really not much base at all though. I was hoping for better.

There were some good shots here and there though. Can't complain too much when it's in your back yard.

Valentine's Day in the Winds

Lovin' it up... Southern Wind Style
Christina Lake Area
February 14th, 2010

"Happy Valentine's Day!"

Shad...

Chuck...

Mandy...

Karla...

The End!

A Weekend in the Winds

More Southern Wind River Magic!

February 6th and 7th, 2010

The peaks above Christina Lake, shrouded in clouds.

The Shad Show

The Mandy Show

The Chuck and Karla Show

The destination, or objective... we call it "Go-Lite Mountain"

Suiting up (poppin' off the bobble heads, putting on the ski boots and slappin' on the skins) at the base of Go-Lite.

Mandy skinning up the trail (I was breaking).

Near the top, in the clouds now.

Looking out across the ridge that we just skinned across (I missed the mark a little). Ended up on the wrong peak. Oh well- saw some more country that way. Paid off the next day.

My view on the slopes of Go-Lite.

A classic line on Go-Lite; notice the small cornice huck at the top.

Mandy shreds it up!

Mandy tracks.

Ski the Winds!

Whoooshh!

Flashin' the devil horns as Mandy jumps a roller!

The grin!

Good stuff!

Day Two (Sunday, February 7th):

The next day I went into the same area with Chuck and Karla. We decided to use my trail from the previous day, but explore some different runs. The weather was a little different too. One or two inches of fresh fluff, a little windy with alternating spurts of blizzard and blue sky.