I was back East for a few days, and decided the trip wouldn’t be complete without some skiing.  Though NE had been without new snow for over a week, we thought we’d have a go at Lincoln’s Throat, even though we couldn’t find much beta as to its current condition.

Shane, Sweeney, Kelly and I rode up for a mid-morning start.  We found clearing skies, and as we ascended, the snow-pack was softening up, but there was an evil looking rain crust with unconsolidated snow beneath all along the trail.  Sweeney had lent me a heavy set-up, which I was excited to ski, and thankful I had something to tour with.  Sadly, as we skinned up the drainage, temperatures cooled off, and our hopes of soft snow disappeared as winds picked up.

Playing with the snow.

Into the drainage. Things were briefly looking up.

As we reached a fork, instead of a prime slope, we found an ice bulge, and there we decided to pick a location for a pit stop and consider our options.  As we ate some snacks, two climbers post-holed down the slope towards us, revealing hollow snow in spots undermined by melt-out and held together by the rain crust.

Ice bulge of nope.

Remnants of a post-hole. Time to turn around.

The climbers revealed it was ‘terrible’ up top, and given our displeasure at even the current conditions, we opted to transition and ‘ski’ down, then immediately head to the nearest bar.  As we descended, the mountain got socked in above us, and Kelly had a boot malfunction.

Never a sight you want to see on a ski tour.

No toe-block screws? No problem.

Spirits were high here.

Kelly getting some turns.

Time to hike again.

Skiing the hiking trail was more a matter of speed than fun. Zero style points were had.

My trip back wouldn’t have been complete without this ‘classic’ NE tour.  Luckily Sweeney is flying out this week to visit, so we can do some real skiing.