Sno-Stuff and Me: Our first outing together

Today was a mixed bag. Part disaster, part fun, part interesting and part hard. Disaster was me, fun was being out again in the warm sun, interesting was the snow, and hard was the snowmobiling.

 I bought a 1981 Polaris the other day with the express intent of skiing Farmington Canyon again. The canyon is no longer open to vehicular traffic in winter, so the only way to get up there is walk from the bottom (6 miles--I've done it lots of times) or by snowmobile. I bought this old fella for $200 bucks from a country boy in Morgan. It runs and gives a nice good jarring to the whole body while you drive it. I sorta hate it already!

It might sound weird  but the snowmobiling kind of wore me out more than the skiing. The road was total washboard all the way up and down. Sno-Stuff doesn't exactly have great suspension (read: none) and I wore my pack with my skis attached. With the rough road, my back was pretty sore at the end. I learned a thing or two to do differently next time.

Quick note about the snow: There must have been a pretty significant wind event there the last couple of days because the snow was seriously jacked. On each run, supportable, breakable, sastrugi, dense powder, and light powder were found. I brought the wrong skis--I wish I'd have taken my Voiles instead of my Trab race skis. 

Meet Sno Stuff. He's a little long in the tooth,  but hopefully things will
work out between us.

Really a nice day to be out. Sun, snow, and skis. A great combo.

The disaster: It was so warm I was skinning up in short sleeves. I stopped to measure the slope angle, stuffed one glove in my pack and put it on the firm, supportable crust next to my uphill leg. Next thing I know, my backpack made a break for it rolling 100 meters down the hill. My bag was unzipped and lost my Mtn. Dew which was not awesome. So I had to ski down with shortsleeves and one glove. I put the skins half in my pants, half out and started skiing down. Just as I was getting close to my pack, the snow was pretty variable and I crashed spectacularly--snow down the pants, in the ears, mouth and pretty much all over. I lost a ski in the process which continued another 100 meters down slope and (thankfully!) stopped somehow. I wish someone would have been watching--I was giving a pretty good show.

So glad it stopped when it did.

It wasn't all bad.