night ski!

     So it was (and still is) a goal to ski at night, ideally unaided by my headlamp and under the full moon.  This year I have had to completely redo almost all my ski goals due to the conditions, forcing them rather than letting them happen.  The other night was one example of this because as night-time diminishes so does my opportunity to night-ski and I decided I best do it now and if I can again later, I will.
     I was "on-call" for work during the last "snowstorm" that dropped all of 4-6".  I expected Arctic Valley to deliver the miraculous exception as I watched the cloudiness of snow in the sky hide its peaks all day.  Work didn't need me so I decided to sneak a quick run up to Gordon Lyon to check things out.  I had been at Hatcher almost exclusively and was hoping for this to be the Front Range jump-start.
     There was indeed a fresh dusting, but no dumping.  I skinned up as others were skiing out, with word of decent conditions up-valley.  I skinned by feel in the dark because the moon was hidden by clouds/snow.  Being out there at night is eerie with silence and stillness.  It seemed typically big with the glow of the city and the obscured outline of the snowy mountains, but unusually small with such little light and empty of details.
     I was travelling by memory and made it to the top without issue, ripped skins and turned on my headlamp.  I would advise skiing with a headlamp when it is NOT snowing to avoid the star-dodging effect seen in the video.  The first time I night-skied I remember seeing an individual coming down peak 3 with a huge chest-lamp AND headlamp.  He didn't seem to have any issues with visibility.  Maybe rigging the lamp to my body instead of my head can get rid of the effect.
     I will attempt this again when there is hopefully more light from the moon so I can do it without a lamp but also with more even snow coverage.  Were the snow deeper I might have elected to try without a lamp but we are still rock-dodging at this point in time.