Skiing

Well, I finally got to go try out my new backcountry skills on the mountain that is directly across the valley from our house. It was a little cold at first but a great day to be outside, with amazing views. In the picture where I am not facing the camera if you look to my left you can see Mt Foraker and Mt McKinley (Denali) in the distance. Unfortunately they didn't show up too well on the pic, but in person the view was great. In the same picture if you could see just a little further to my right you would see our house in the valley about 3 miles away. The snow wasn't great, but it was a lot of fun and a great training run as we are still getting used to hiking up hill in the winter. Its really hard to know how many clothes to wear so that you don't overheat, but don't freeze either. For instance in these photos I am only wearing 2 thin layers on top, but as soon as we stop moving you better throw on the jacket quick because you cool off really fast. The outside temps were about 0 to 5F, and we were in the sun which made it a lot nicer. Usually climbing in the sun is way too hot, but not today! We just did a quick day and hiked up about 2000 vertical feet and then skied one run back to the car. Now if it would just snow some more for some good powder skiing!! The last picture is of my buddy Phil skiing down behind me, not real steep but good for our second day