Saturday, April 18, 2009

Spring Skiing...

After seeing pictures on idahosummits.com I really wanted to ski 2nd Peak above Soldier Mountain Ski Area.


Chris and I decided to drive up on Thursday and ski Friday.  He has a really nice Airstream and wanted to take it out for a spring shake out.  I wasn't going to argue!  We set up in the parking lot at Soldier Mountain and had dinner.  After dinner we just stared up at the dwindling snow on the ski runs.  We thought that some night skiing would be nice.  We made one run and it was nice.  Unfortunately, the moon is not up early in the evening, so we skied with headlamps on.

We went to bed and in no time, the alarm went off.  We were off at around 8 a.m. and skinned up the cat track that leads to the saddle between the two lifts.  Surprisingly, we had snow all the way up to the top of second chair.  We stopped and the top and ate.  The "backcountry" cat skiing track was set up very nicely and leads all the way to the summit of 2nd Peak.  We only had to cross mud once!  The temps were hot!  T-shirts and glacier hats were the clothing of choice.  Once on top, the temps changed.  



The snow conditions were perfect!  We skied the face down into the large bowl and enjoy a LONG run of great corn snow.





If you are wanting good corn, this is the place to be.  The approach is 4+ miles and gains over 3,000 feet.  I'm not sure how long a person will be able to skin from the parking lot, the snow is melting fast.  There is plenty on the N.E. side of 2nd once you make it there.  It would be nice to camp up there like Splattski and get in lot's of turns!