After several months of busier-than-expected work and family life, complete with a month of weekends worked and an unexpected trip out of town - I decided that my ski season needed a rebirth. So, unable to drag partners away from holiday obligations, I headed up for a solo adventure.
Saturday's rain had fallen as snow on some of MTW, and an old, crusty surface was covered in many places by 2-3 inches of heavy, wet snow. This snow meant that normally-unattainable skinning angles could be, well, attained, and the west-side approach flew by as I mostly avoided bootpacking. The cloud ceiling rose and fell all day; for much of the day it obscured the starting zones of my objective. I picked what I thought was the start of the gully I wanted, dropped into the mist, and was pleased to find perfectly edgeable corn that gave me the confidence to play on the fun cornices.
Because of the mist, for most of the day, I would boot up a gully from below to make sure I was in the right spot. As a result, I skied a number of lines that I have been looking at for years - fun, moderately steep, moderately narrow gullies full of perfect Easter corn. 3 laps later, I was feeling as good as I have on any day in the mountains - skiing confidently, enjoying every turn, wearing a huge grin.
A quick afternoon jaunt around the corner led to a line I had skied previously, but was still two barrels of fun.
I also got this view of the earlier corn I had consumed, as the weather had cleared an hour or so earlier.
From there, it was back to the car, down a long, beautiful line that is surprisingly intact - I skied all the way to the car! (The rain in forecast, though, may end that soon enough.)
Proof that skis were worn all the way to the vehicle...