Castle Peak 1/8/06
This is to be my first 'real' ski tour of the year! I'd already been up to Tahoe at xmas with John and Skye, but this trip we would actually summit something!
Liz, myself, GianLuca and Martina all met at a Starbucks in Sacramento at 8am. Normally we meet in Vacaville, but since Liz was staying in Sac overnight, we thought we'd meet there. After buying the obligatory cup of coffee and scone, we are soon on the road. Liz and I drive together in my new Honda Element and Marina and GL drive in their truck.
A few hours later we are at the (very busy) trailhead and off we go.
It is extremely busy, but it is still nice to be out there and we don't see too many people until we hit the ridge. We make a few detours into the trees and the beauty of it all reminds us of Narnia!! After a few hours or so, we summit! We are the last people up there and we have the summit to ourselves. I had forgotten how beautiful it is out there and how invigorating the climb can be! I am amazingly quite fit and manage to keep pace with the others.
We aren't sure how the ski down will be and are amazed when we find mostly powder all the way down to the bowl! It's absolutely fantastic!
Here's a photo of me skiing down...
At he bottom of the far too short run, GL asks me if I have a headlamp in my pack. I look at the time and notice it's 3:30pm! Oops - we'd better hurry or it'll be dark before we get back to the cars! We skin across the meadow towards the Sierra club hut and then start heading out of the valley. This part of the trip is much longer than I remember and it seems to take forever.
Liz climbing out of the bowl.
Almost there!
Soon we are back on the ridge! We take our skins off and put them away and ski back down the path to the trailhead taking in the beautiful sunset and the changing of the snow from white to an amazing shade of pink. We arrive back at 5.10pm! What a fantastic day! Let's hope we have many more of these days together this season!
Liz, myself, GianLuca and Martina all met at a Starbucks in Sacramento at 8am. Normally we meet in Vacaville, but since Liz was staying in Sac overnight, we thought we'd meet there. After buying the obligatory cup of coffee and scone, we are soon on the road. Liz and I drive together in my new Honda Element and Marina and GL drive in their truck.
A few hours later we are at the (very busy) trailhead and off we go.
It is extremely busy, but it is still nice to be out there and we don't see too many people until we hit the ridge. We make a few detours into the trees and the beauty of it all reminds us of Narnia!! After a few hours or so, we summit! We are the last people up there and we have the summit to ourselves. I had forgotten how beautiful it is out there and how invigorating the climb can be! I am amazingly quite fit and manage to keep pace with the others.
We aren't sure how the ski down will be and are amazed when we find mostly powder all the way down to the bowl! It's absolutely fantastic!
Here's a photo of me skiing down...
At he bottom of the far too short run, GL asks me if I have a headlamp in my pack. I look at the time and notice it's 3:30pm! Oops - we'd better hurry or it'll be dark before we get back to the cars! We skin across the meadow towards the Sierra club hut and then start heading out of the valley. This part of the trip is much longer than I remember and it seems to take forever.
Liz climbing out of the bowl.
Almost there!
Soon we are back on the ridge! We take our skins off and put them away and ski back down the path to the trailhead taking in the beautiful sunset and the changing of the snow from white to an amazing shade of pink. We arrive back at 5.10pm! What a fantastic day! Let's hope we have many more of these days together this season!
posted by AlisonM @ 2:58 PM
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