Just how cold was it this morning?

A couple of days ago, I got the call from Ben Walker. I always like when I see his name on the caller ID. It means he is planning a "Dawn Patrol" in the backcountry. Ben manages the design team at Black Diamond and is an amazing skier, climber and all around nice guy. He is always busting out the prototype gear and keeping us in the loop on what is coming out next season. This morning, he had a pair of "MegaWatt" skis that were as wide as my driveway. Huge!

We decided that Friday would be the best day to get out because of the chance of snow on Thur evening. Sure enough, Thur late afternoon, the snow started falling. The mountains only picked up about 5" but it was the good stuff. Very light and dry.

I met Ben, Dug and about 5 other BD guys at 5:30am at the base of LCC. By 6:00am, we were climbing up Flagstaff. It was cold. So cold, I left my camera in the car. I didn't want to take my gloves off for pics. So cold that I managed to bust the top buckle (the most important buckle) on my boots. I'm pretty sure it was frozen and I tried to ratchet it down and it just broke in half. Not good since those Scarpa boots are too soft anyway and these in particular have been abused for a few seasons. I knew that meant the downhill was going to be sketchy.

The climb was actually a nice pace. I expected blood to come out of my ears since we were with the BD guys. I think all the cycling has really helped me start the winter in good form.

I only had time to drop the South side. Too much going on at work these days to try and get more laps in. I bailed early but the rest of the group did some stuff on the North facing shots.

The snow was actually pretty good on the South facing stuff, especially at the mid elevation protected stuff.

It was nice to get out finally and mix it up. Way better than the spin classes.

Sorry no good pics but like I said. It was too cold for that.