I took advantage of the blizzard today to work the rust of of my BC gear and skills. I picked Mount Cardigan, as I've been there before and its not too far from home.
After a late start, I got to the AMC lodge around noon. To my surprise, there weren't many people there. There was a track packed up the Holt trail, but nothing on Duke's. The view in front of me, around 2/3 the way up (all photos from my cell phone, so please excuse the poor quality):
and from behind, same spot:
Here's were I stopped, short of the Firescrew summit. Plenty of snow, but enough wind and exposed rock that I didn't feel like continuing.
The ride back down was sweet! I've never skied in fresh snow this deep (extended sections of 16+ in) before. My skinny skis had trouble floating on the lower angle parts which make up quite a bit of Duke's:
The last bit into the Duke's Pasture at the bottom was definitely the highlight.
I still had some energy left, so after a quick snack I headed up Holt again to Grand Junction and the Alexandria trail. There were tracks from 1 snowboarder and 1 skier, looks like they were together but I never saw them.
I figured I'd climb until 3:30 PM, to give me a bit of margin on getting out. I made it to the rescue cache around 3:35 PM and called it good.
The trail was steeper, but the snow wasn't as deep (it appeared to be getting blown around more). Still plenty of fun, but I found a few rocks here and there. Made it back to the lodge a little after 4 PM. Here are some shots from the Alexandria:
Cardi
Carvé Diem! 
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