After three big, sunny days in the Kachina wilderness, my lips are still sun burnt and chapped. Weekend totals were around 15 miles and 15,000 feet of ski/splitboard touring. That would be about 1000 feet of elevation for every mile - an approximately 20% grade. From a mountain biking perspective, fifteen miles seems less than epic. The space/time of snow-sports is so different than dirt-sports.
Day One
JE, JY, Sazi dog and I went up into the Alpine of the IB. This was JYs first trip to the IB. JE cranked up the hill, laying a good skin-track. Can ya tell that it has snowed most days out of the last ten?
There was plenty of fresh snow and I was surprised at the lack of tracks in the cirque. JE and Sazi drop in and get the adrenaline party started.
By early afternoon, four groups had dropped into the cirque. We agreed that our tracks were the sexiest!
For run number two, I was a little nervous about the safety of the snowpack in the couloir we were eyeing… So I played trip leader, poked around, and guided us through as safely as possible…
JE at the end of our last powder run.
Day Two and Three
Camping with the Kachina’s… To Be Extended…
Last week was the third snowiest week in Flagstaff history.
First… a full day (or two) of snow shoveling…
…then McKenna and I built a snow fort…
… then the USFS closed the Kachina Peaks Wilderness due to avalanche danger. So we went looking for avalanche danger on some low elevation hills. Fortunately we found safe slopes and lots of powder.
Mr. HandlebarSandwich
2x National MTB champion playing in the snow
JY’s first day ever on a split-board. He built the board himself!
Rumor is that there are four splitboarders in Flagstaff, AZ. About two weeks ago, three of ‘em went on a tour on the Kachina Peaks.
I’ve done the classic Inner Basin traverse a few times, and on this day I got to lead JE and Rico on their first IB Traverse. Of course I insisted on taking the hard way up from the base of AZ Snowbowl. Not that I wanted to make it harder, but so far this season I had not yet been in the areas of Dutchman, Alison Clay and Temptations and wanted to see what they were looking like…
As is usually the case, conditions became firm and icy on the ridge between Temptations and A.C.
Eventually we made it to the top of Humphrey’s Cirque and each of us dropped our own line.
JE at the top of his line.
Rico near the middle of his line.
Me near the bottom of my line.
For round two we headed up core ridge. I dropped a glove, which slid for several 100 feet… so I ended up taking this line to retrive the glove.
Dropping a glove in the backcountry can be BAD news… but this day it all worked out fine.
The line JE and Rico chose for round 2.
Happy to get my glove and rejoin the gang.
From there it was fun low angle tree skiing out to Lockett Meadow.
Here’s a low fidelity video of Humphreys Cirque and the low-angle trees to Lockett Meadow.
During summer time, I day dream of snow on the order of once per day. Through fall, my white dreams increase… and often penetrate my night… one night I became stranded in Williams, AZ as avalanches crashed down Bill Williams Mountain! This morning I was climbing a ridge that separated two illuminated snow highways… before Dara said “you are going to be late for work”…
Sometimes my dreams become reality, and my reality becomes a dream… and after working only 2 days out of the last 11, I am feeling dreamy… My vacation started with a Christmas ski to a cabin. Blair hosted the cabin shinding, but first we had to get some food there before the Christmas party.
Here is Blair breaking trail while carrying a duck and potatoes.
Views near the cabin.
Here’s Nahno on Christmas morning, getting stoked for the cabin trip.
Eight of us skied the 1.5 miles to the cabin. I carried the Marks-Marino gear, while Dara carried Nahno. We all settled into the cabin, cranked the wood stove, and fired up the oven for a Christmas duck.
Then everyone went skiing! McKenna was getting tired so I loaded her up in the baby-carry backpack and we started splitboard-skinning up the hill behind the cabin. She fell asleep pretty quick and even slept through her first powder turns (outside the womb).
Yep, I took McKenna on a splitboard run down this beautiful little bristlecone meadow. Those are our tracks on picture left.
The rest of the day we soaked in the views and prepared dinner.
We had a wonderful team effort of cooking, serving, and cleaning. The next morning I got in a quick run with Sazi dog.
…and my New Years Dream… to be a phat and happy skier!
A half-dozen friends seemed stoked for a long tour into the Inner Basin (IB) of the Kachina Peaks. By 6am Sunday morning, the group had shrunk to JMoney, BDog and I. We ate at Mike and Rhonda’s where breakfast also gets you lunch if you wrap up the leftovers in a tortilla! I thought that much of the snow below 8000 had melted or turned to ice, but my 4wd with chains got shutdown in about 200 yards of forest track… it was going to be another big skin (up hill ski) in…
Close to Lockett meadow at 8000 feet.
By the time we made it to the IB, I was feeling very slow. Fortunately J had no problem doing ALL the trail breaking.
The big avalanche path on the North side of Fremont Peak has been high on J’s tick list and when he saw it filled with early season snow, he just had to get a closer look. His stoke and some lunch kept me moving. We discussed the snowpack and route selection and off we went towards the high-angled alpine… Sometimes I would catch up to J, about the time he finished digging to the ground.
With this pit that J dug, we could analyze the snowpack. When traveling into the biggest avalanche path of the IB, it is a good idea to check the stability of the snowpack. Remember - geologic time includes right now!
Is it luck that on this day there was soft settled powder and a very stable snowpack? Whatever it is, finding safe powder on steep open slopes in the Kachina Peaks is rare.
The skin track of nervous euphoria.
Continued analysis revealed a stable snowpack and we advanced up.
J and BDog near the top of fun - 500 vertical feet of 35 degree powder!
Five hundred feet of steep stable powder in Arizona? It must be luck! Of course I had to push my luck by doing a slightly exposed traverse to the top of a steeper and narrower side chute.
I assembled my splitboard into snowboard mode while my mind bathed in the silent and focused wave of pre-adrenaline. I dropped in… about 200 feet and six turns later, I exited the side chute onto the main face. There I maxed my turn radius and in about 10 seconds arrived to our predetermined safe-zone where I waved “all clear” to J.
Unless we have an a-typical winter, this line and many others will become unstable and avalanche prone until spring… Finding yourself here and asking “why are there no limbs on the tree’s uphill side?”, is asking for “bad luck”.
J feeling lucky to get a 13 mile tour full of soft carvable snow one day before the winter solstice.
