Many Steps Make Mountains

“A single day is enough to make us a little larger.”

-Paul Klee

Well, this January is shaping up much different than last year’s… (check out January 2017 here!) …but trying to maintain gratitude all the same! We were lucky enough to have another dusting of some cold dry powder last weekend. I got out for a longer tour and we were greeted with some of the coldest early morning temperatures we had felt in quite awhile!The snow was surprisingly fun cold smoke. We were all chomping at the bit after such long periods of no snow and those turns felt so good.Since most backcountry riders on the north shore of Lake Tahoe were all congregating at Mount Rose Pass (one of the only areas with snow nearby), PK and I decided we would just keep going further to try to avoid the weekend crowds of rabid powder seekers. We decided on the fly but thought we would try to ski: Tamarack Peak, Mount Houghton, Relay Peak and then find Lindsay (the wife) who was skiing on Incline Peak and possibly do that one too (why not!).

The snow was great, the sunshine was gorgeous, we toured until we were gassed. Coming down off of Relay Peak we had a bit of a painful delay after I found a barely covered rock that somehow sent me airborne. I landed hard on my chest with my poles underneath, after I got my breath back and did a quick inventory of injuries I was left with a rib fracture and mild shoulder strain. The plans of standing atop Incline Peak gave way to just getting back to the truck and on to dinner. We found Lindsay and our friend Ben coming down the run out of Incline Peak and the four of us made our way back to the vehicles. An amazing day of making the most of what we had on Mount Rose Pass!

stay tuned for more photos…