Dawn(ish) Patrol - 2/12/09

We've gotten a few small storms recently and since I had the morning free, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to do a "Dawn Patrol". I met Hans, Eric, Dick and Jeff at the Galena Starbucks at 6:00 and after dropping Eric's car at Galena Cr Park we met at the north end of the Mt Rose parking lot. From there we crossed the road and dropped down to Galena Cr in about 5" of pretty nice powder on a soft base.

From Feb09

Eric took us up a nice route to the main face of the Glades and was we climbed higher we eventually joined another group's tracks.

From Feb09

From Feb09

We reached the top of the ridge, where we found Tim Farrar and his friend Rob who were heading up to the summit. It was glorious, but windy, so we didn't linger up there too long.

From Feb09

The skiing was about as good as it gets. Eight to twelve inches of really light powder on a soft base. It was the first time this season that I felt I could just let my skis fly. And I did! (gotta love those Insanes). I was in a bit of a hurry because I had to be back at work for an 11:00 meeting, so I dropped the 2,000 feet more quickly than usual in the backcountry and then quickly turned around and climbed up about 1500 feet for a second run. It as a tad challenging finding a good route down to the creek (we boot packed part of the way up), but I made it down there by ~9:50 and was back at the car, heading out by 10:15. I walked in to the office with a couple of minutes to spare!

(9:15pm) I just got this update from Dick:
"Eric made 5 runs today for over 10,000' getting out to his car about dark. The run down to Galena Creek was actually pretty good too." 10,000 feet in a day - a new goal!