A Winter Snowbird

With a week off I wanted to leave town for a few days and it has been months since I have been up to the Snowbird hut. GeorgeAnne had the time free and her s/o Andrew did too, and Ry also has an abundance of time these days so we decided to spend a couple nights up there mid week.

It was a bit of a slog down the road and we had just passed the angry resident moose and pulled off to take a break at the Reed Lakes trailhead when my good friend Rapheal pulled up on his snowmachine. We got a little help to the bottom of the first big hill.

All of us plus Rapheal

The conditions touring up to the hut were pretty ideal...but it still is a bit of a journey and we didn't end up pulling into the hut until after dark...having a GPS with maps on it is pretty amazing in the dark. It also helped that the hut was illuminated by its occupants Leo and Kevin.

Skinning up to the first big hill...

When we got up the next morning it took a couple cups of coffee to get going... George Anne and Andrew both had gotten some nasty looking blisters and weren't really feeling it...Kevin was also moving slow. So Leo, Ryan and I headed out the door into the milk together.
Ryan at the top...

For a short, old guy, Leo kicked our asses...he broke trail through the 4-6 inches faster than I could follow without being out of breath. It was pretty awesome really.

It was overcast and the light was by no means great but the views were still pretty and the run had some variable snow in the middle but the last stretch was butter cream powder.

The snow was definitely worthy to have another go on the other obvious couloir full of pretty snow..

Ryan Skiing the second line..

A look up at our lines with amazing visibility at sunrise ... We skied the obvious far left and far right line...

Hut camping is the way to go. The snowbird hut is amazing, I could easily kill a day doing nothing but looking out the windows.

We woke up to a beautiful blue bird day, it was so unexpected and lovely. We packed up and headed back up and over the pass toward town.

Ry heading up the Snowbird glacier....

The Pass

The sun and snow on the other side was dreamy. It truly could not have been any better. I've hiked down this trail many times, but skiing is the best way to go.

Heading down...

Sun, Snow, Friends....

A great trip, one I look forward to doing again...its amazing what looks skiable when all the boulder fields are filled in with snow...Hatcher pass has more snow this winter than its had in years...