“Thanksgiv’r: the universally acknowledged holiday celebrating an individual’s first day of skiing each year. The date obviously varies for person to person, but ideally will fall somewhere between Canadian and American Thanksgivings. The exact date depends on many factors: local climatic conditions, level of (un)employment, and general stoke. While Thanksgiv’r is inclusive and open to all, a competitive element does exist: earlier dates are, of course, superior and thus holier. The holiday is non-denominational, but does play a particularly strong role in the Church of Telemark, more specifically in the Cult of the Gnar.” Melissa Hogg
Jay, Laura, Sarah, Scott, Bob and I went down to ski the deep at Mount Baker today. These were the first turns of the season for me, with an unbelievable amount of snow at Mount Baker. 24 inches fell in the last 24 hours. We skied the short treed east facing slopes south of Austin Pass, and finished off with a horrific mashed potato run on a north facing slope down to Bagley Lakes. HS near Austin Pass, 180cm. HS on the north facing windloaded slope, 300cm!
We skinned right from the parking lot, pretty cool for November. Jay looking psyched.
Sarah even more excited to be skiing in November.
The snow was difficult to ski. Coastal concrete.
Sarah with her new Dynafit bindings and fancy rock skis, which were the fattest skis in our group today.
Laura de-skinning for another epic run
Still psyched. Jay at the top of one of five short runs that we did in the trees down Austin Pass.
The Gnar
Scott deep in the snow. The moment you stopped moving, you would sink quite deep. At least three of us were up to armpit height in snow, with skis on. I didn’t even bother turning here, knowing that if I tried, I would just lose all momentum and flop over.
Figure 11. Just point your skis straight and go.
Lost in Powder
Shortly after this photo was taken, we hit a patch of denser small trees, and Scott managed to find himself armpit deep in snow, completely stuck.
We ended up waiting here while Jay extracted Laura from the snow higher up. Definitely have to work on keeping the group together and having buddies in the tree on days like this.
After doing five short runs here, we decided to go back to the car. It was only 2pm or something like that. As we crested Austin Pass, we saw lots of ski tracks on the NE aspects down to Bagley Lake. So we went off an skied one last run. It turned out to be a pretty horrid run. Steep, whiteout, and mashed potatoes don’t really mix. Scott commented that he’s never seen a slope look so good, and ski so bad.
It was nice to get some exercise and get back into ski shape.