Tuesday 4/14- It was the day before my birthday so of course I was planning on skiing the next day. I decided it would be okay to miss my classes on Wednesday, but I did have to be back in Boulder in time to get to work at 3pm. I called Marc, he was down. Our plan was Mt. Bancroft, just to the south of James Peak. We’ve been up James several times so we wanted to try something new. After doing a little research, I had the logistics in my head and was ready to go for the following day. But this day wasn’t over. It was Tuesday, which is ladies night at The Goose (now Owsley’s Golden Road?). And because of the person I am, I went out, and dealt with the consequences later.
Wednesday 4/15- A year older but not feeling much wiser. Because I had work that afternoon, we were on the road by 6am. I had Marc drive so that I could get a few extra z’s. After a nauseating drive into the mountains, we were at the Stewart Road parking lot in Alice. We geared up and I snapped out of it, and we were ready to go. The gates for vehicle access on Stewart Road were still closed, so we had to hike on dirt for a little ways before we could start skinning.
After a pretty mellow approach and some bad weather coming in, we found a chute that we thought would be fun. Wasn’t too long but definitely had some spice.
The climb was somewhat brutal. For whatever reason, the only wind we experienced all day was while on this slope. It was blowing snow straight into our faces and we had to stop several times because we were blind. But we made it to the top, and it was time to ski a short, tight, steep chute.
We skied down to the lakes below, and made our way back to the car. It was a short but exciting birthday shred.
