Well, it’s 2018 and there’s finally some snow on the ground!
Yesterday Ondine and I got out to ski Elephant’s Back from Red Lake near Caron Pass. We got started at the crack of 11:00 and skinned up looking at the thin snow cover wondering how the ride down would be.
We spent about 2 hours climbing the peak and decided to stop at the shoulder a few hundred feet below the true summit since it was mostly devoid of snow due to the constant winds seen at 9000 ft elevation.
It was windy and chilly at the “top” so we wasted no time taking off our skins and starting the descent. With the thin snow cover we did quite a bit of walking/traversing after the initial steep descent down the main face up high.
After quite a bit of navigating downed trees and hidden rocks we eventually popped out right above the Red Lake parking area, good aim Ondine!
While the snow could have been (much) better this was still a fun trip and hopefully the first of many more to come this season!