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| The Buddy Programme lay on an eve of the Buttermilk X games gathering when little buddies can meet some of the stars and watch the practicing close up. Some pretty amazing stuff. Gabby just visible through the layers with half pipe in background. |
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| Dadou returns to Meadow Ranch for 2 weeks. What a guy! And we got another ' private' ! He's now gone back to Taos to help his brother but will return we hope at end Feb. Meanwhile Alex is in our studio flat and joins us occasionally for our regular Monday skin trip up to Gwyns. |
Lee returned from Hawaii for a few days and joined us for breakfast at Gwyns. We skinned ; he took the lift! Sorry Lee - no A/T equipment not an excuse next time!
Chip Foster ( TOSV Transportation supervisor ) gave me the day of the season on Feb 12. Back country skiing off Richmond Ridge. As it turned out , the conditions were about as ideal as they could be. Bitterly cold, but not a cloud in sky all day. Just the two of us, we took the gondola to summit of Aspen Mtn and skinned south along the first section of Richmond Ridge. Then dropped down in to the Little Annie side of the mtn (towards Maroon Creek). Good powder but always the risk of breaking through to a bottomless layer beneath which made it ( for me - not Chip ) tricky.
This at the bottom of the first pitch looking west over to Highlands Bowl
Ditto with the view to the southwest. The Five Fingers clearly visible. The shoulder of Mt Hayden on far left. Chip's skis look more like water skis. Maybe that's why he rode the powder better than I did. Sounds like a good excuse anyway. I'll use it anyway.
We skinned back up to summit of Ridge and skied down the other side ( towards Castle Creek ). This taken near the bottom of that pitch.
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| Another skin back up nearly to the Ridge, had our sandwiches and hot
tea, and skied down one of the Macfarlane bowls. We started our descent
just to the left of where the sun is setting in this pic. No one had been near here since the last snowfall , so fabulous unbroken powder. |
This is an extension of the pitch just referred to . Zoom in and you'll spot Chip and a very pretty set of tracks. From where I took this pic (and it was well after 3.30 by now), we had a long skin out to get back into the Aspen Mtn ski area boundary.
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| Here we are back in relative civilisation at the bottom of Walsh's. Took skins off , skied down under the Gents Ridge lift and down Copper to base of Aspen Mtn. A memorable day. I had been nervous about it . A lot can ' happen ' out there ( we were at over 10,000 feet all day ), so was with huge relief to collapse that evening in the warmth and comfort of Meadow Ranch . Chip is hugely experienced in back country skiing and knows the area like the back of his hand. Thank you Chip for being such a great guide and companion. |
