Skins not Snowmobiles

While visiting Ryan, He took Kevin and I for a day of back country snowboarding on Mt. Soppris. The trail to the summit is 8 miles long, so rather than skiing in that entire way Ryan borrowed some snowmobiles from a friend. Initially we were all excited about getting to ride snowmobiles halfway up the trail then skin the rest of the way. By the end of the day all 3 of us had sworn off snowmobiles for ever. Why you ask. They are heavy! You can only control the steering adequately when you are giving it gas! To cover off-camber terrain you must counter weight like mad!  When you get them stuck it takes 3 grown men to get them out! They get stuck quite frequently! Did I mention that they weigh alot! They cost mucho deniro, and they were on loan! I ran mine into tall stands of willows and aspens quite frequently. What should have took us 30 minutes to approach took us several hours. 

Here is a pic of Kevin and Ryan before the learning that snowmobiles suck.

Regardless, we left the snowmobiles at the halfway point and skinned 2/3 the way up the peak. Some of that distance was covered by Kevin and I on foot since the splitboards didn't traverse the hardpack as well as Ryan's skis. Some of that hardpack turned into crust which involved deep postholing. The following is a pic of Kevin up to his ass in snow and sucking wind. For the record there is nothing harder than to make upward progress on a steep slope of soft snow on foot.

Ryan taking everyone to the Colorado Gunshow!

Eventually we were able to enjoy a run of partially refrozen corn with a small face of nice powder before returning to the demon-mobiles. several hours later they snowmobiles were loaded on the trailer and we were able to say good riddance off them. Then of course we went and ate a 12,000 calorie meal at a local establishment.