It does exist, for a limited time only

view of W. side of SFER with a front range peaks backdrop

     So I have always wanted to do a New Year's Eve ski but have always been working/had plans/etc.  Not planning it, I realized I had accomplished this goal upon returning to the car today.  The plan was to ski from the South Fork Eagle River Valley, either head up Hunter pass and shoot some ptarmigan or get some good vertical on the east side. 
     We got an earlier start as weather called for clear skies in the AM though they quickly turned cloudy with flat lighting.  Neither of us had skied any of the bowls other than off Harp, and some of them looked like they still had snow.  I believe the area is called 3 bowls.  Access was questionable: we utilized the pull-off on the left just before the turn to cross the river heading down to the South Fork Trailhead.  My maps show an access point here but there was a no trespassing sign on the north end of the lot. 
     We followed the wind-blown remnants of another skin track to the saddle below the summit and skied fair to decent wind-affected snow: soft but a little variable, shallow in some spots but with tundra underneath we were able to conserve our p-tex.  We stopped at the convergence of the bowls and returned up the left-middle ridge.  This gave us a great view of the incoming weather front, winter sun-soaked Denali poking out above the dark blue clouds, the barren front-range slopes and an up-close examination of the snow crystals pelting our eyeballs(15-20mph winds).  There is also an eerily similar "east" north bowl on this side of the valley. 
     This was a surprisingly good run.  The gully we skied was mostly sheltered, the cow's parsnip flowers gave us refuge from the flat light and we skied a run with more vertical than the legs could endure.  Snow was soft and consistent.  I am still pleasantly surprised at the pleasant conditions we found.  I didn't think they existed in the local mountains at this point. 
     Though the days are short they still have the amazing views and sky unique to this place.  One of my favorite is the sunrise/set on the arm during winter as seen on The Uptrack blog.

The snow made skinning slippery.  Mr. 3puffies made it look easy.

this was the front moving our way



manitoba summit

A wifey has managed to venture into the backcountry on skis....I'll keep you posted



summit lake view from manitoba