more to most difficult

Due to our Internet being down for nearly a week, our blogs are a little out of date. About a week a go we got about 15" of snow over two days. The trails and the roads (you could see pavement in some places) were getting more than a little dicey so the snow was a godsend to skier and snow coach riders/drivers alike.

We decided to join a couple of mates and take advantage of the white windfall and do the Spring Creek/Lone Star/Howard Eaton trails. The Howard Eaton is a steep route and is rated "more to most difficult" so we kept our fingers crossed that the new snow would make it more manageable for newbies like us.

Being the slowest members of our party, we fell to the back of the pack as we headed up the Divide trail to the Spring Creek trail head. As the others broke trail we were provided with a beautiful path in the fresh powder


Going down the first hills on Spring Creek we experienced immediate benefits from the foot of new snow. Where, in the past, we were falling because we picked up too much speed down the hill we were now gliding from turn to turn as we descended into the canyon and along the creek


Even Turtle Rock, the sight of our two-pronged crash the last time we did Spring Creek, proved doable in the day's optimal conditions.

As we connected with Lone Star we were rewarded with a groomed and tracked trail until we decided to take a "short cut" to the Howard Eaton. With the new snow fall this makeshift trail was in desperate need of breaking

and having played the caboose for the 4+ miles of Spring Creek, I jumped to the front to break trail. It was slow going as the snow was up to my knees in some places but we slogged through to the Howard Eaton, which rewarded us with a series of quick uphill climbs.

But the good thing is that uphills lead to great views


and downhills

Despite the trail's challenging rating, we flew down the first two set of downhills like pros. Each run flattened out to give us a great view of the Lodge, which, along with lunch, kept getting closer

and closer

Finally, we hit the last downhill that included a sharp turn with a reputation that had proceeded itself. Right after our friend pointed out the spot where he took a big digger his last time down, Wendie took a header in the same spot. Buoyed by having not fallen all day, I went headlong into the same turn only to perform a face-first landing for which I was rewarded a Santa Claus beard and a 9.8 from the Russian judge

Still, despite the fall, the new batch of powder has given our skiing new life, and, because of the fall, has given me decidedly more fashionable facial hair.