One of my favorite types of weekend involves mixing old and new, and this particular trip had an abundance of both. Saturday broke sunny and warm, and we saddled up the trusty snow ponies to shuttle us up into one of my favorite go-to zones in the Coast range for some north-facing powder harvesting. Blue skies and awesome views were the recipe for a great day in the mountains and we even managed to lay some sweet turns down an east-facing chute, before slamming into a wall of trees and having to perform some minor alder-bashing route-finding alterations.

Tandem pony shuttles.

Saaasssstruuuuuugiiiii

Mini-ice cave

Ridgewalkers

Alpine meadows with friends

Mini-peak nubby turns

Wind-affected mini-nub powder harvesting

Finding some fresh wind buff

Another happy day

Peek at distant peaks

Sunshiney days

Steep ridgelines

Setting sun pow slashes

Leaning up, carving down

Get down, get down

Scenic turns across the valley.

Sunday morning broke to clouds, light snow and a plan to get the snow ponies out to explore some new zones in the wild open spaces of the Hurley. After the traditional sacrifice of whatever repair materials we can scrounge, gas was combusted and we quickly escaped the warm temperatures of the valley.

Nothing that a little welding, tape, ratchet straps and epoxy can’t fix.

Meadow breaks

Classic not-falling-in-the-creek stance

Snow pony pow carves

Big, bold and beautiful, with a glacial receding hairline