Tales from the Hinterland: 2014/2015 edition

The 2nd pic is pretty nice.. Sometimes I'm too busy skiing to notice my surroundings.. Thanks for hanging back and taking the time SBR...

Day 4 of Snovember:
Our mailbox is peaking... Something's gotta' give...

Skied a favorite stash today, about 3 weeks earlier than I've ever skied it.. Crazy.
The R word is scheduled for the w-end. Figures...

Skin track up the 2nd time...

Admiring my tracks.  I recall an article in Backcountry Mag by Biff America - he stated that his wife told him only guys do it, just like checking out a good dump..

The trailhead parking at our favorite yoyo spot is getting crowded.. Jeff LeChef and the Pielstickah showed up this AM to earn some last minute before the rain comes turns.  The conditions deteriorated rapidly, but knowing that this was still November made it sweet nonetheless.

Randy and Jeff... What comes down must go up.. To come down again.  Like I said, YoYos!

Randy is the only AT skier in our group of locals... Here he's channeling his inner "Le Mono".
It appears to work well for him in the not quite mashed potato conditions.

What a difference a few days makes. Here is the Snow-depth-o-meter on 11/20/14:



And again this morning (note height of driftwood on picnic table and compare to photo above):



If last week was Snovember, this week is the Snovemberary Thaw. Time to load Winter V2.01 and reboot the system.

While you lucky folks to the south are getting hammered (by snow, I mean), the Hinterlands is creeping back incrementally:



Conditions today were ideal for crust skiing through the forest on the old Trak Couloirs (AKA Karhu Catamount). The dog was in his element, zipping along on top of the snow. Though sniffing these big paws gave him pause (for reference, the skis are 70 mm at the waist):



We headed south to to the Split Rock, looped back by the Three Stones, then over to Secret Hill. No wolves here:



There was more than one water crossing, which made things feel kind of spring-like:



The top of Secret Hill is a bit scoured. Hard to believe to we were skiing this glade knee-deep on fat skis last week:



Hey, it is still November. Be patient.

Good that you got some while there still was some...
Looks like we'll be starting from scratch after Sunday..

Talk about having to quit cold turkey...

A welcome forecast... Stay tuned.

^ Hey, that's my neighbour's house!

Pretty close, actually, if you substitute cars and other random mechanical junk for the bikes. Nice guy, though. The hillbilly atmosphere keeps out the riff-raff.

I could use some of those bikes, hmmm.

I love the setup!

Pool ladder to trampoline...trampoline to pool...(and with that plush lawn I'm sure the pool water stays nice and clean)

Sure seems to be a lot of bikes leaning on things...

Oh, and to get back on track, SBR & myself are going for a schwack tomorrow .. Pretty thin cover up here in the hinterlands, must be penance for our "Snovember" blessing.  

Went for a woods ski this Aft with SBR.   Still really minimal snow pack, but a least it was pretty solid (mostly).   Best part of it was finding a recent wolf kill, the stashed remnants of a deer..
Here's SBR getting up close and personal with it.  Nothing like getting a pic of someone else's dinner so you can post it on the interweb.  

Question on the wolves.... You approach their stash, ever worry about them being in that area and unhappy you're by their food ? Do you carry guns ? If not, and you had to flee an angry wolf pack, which of you two is faster and thus more likely to survive and be able to post up the TR complete w/pics ? I mean, isn't fleeing a wolf pack just like skiing on a powder day,,,,, there are no friends when fleeing a wolf pack ? Or is it simply a matter of the older, decripit individuals get culled out first ?

Snowballs wrote

Or is it simply a matter of the older, decripit individuals get culled out first ?

^^^This...you only have to be faster than your skiing partners!