Sharatin 2021

 

Yesterday Nora and I with the other members of the ski club did a little exploring on Sharatin Mountain.  We found that the snow was surprisingly deep in the trees. It's already almost as deep as it ever got last year. It looks like 2021 will be a good snow year on Sharatin (fingers crossed).  

Up on top above the trees the snow was pretty wind-effected, but we found a deep and long ravine that has some pretty good powder in it.  Whooooo hoooo.  The bottom of the ravine is actually where Nora first put on her skis on her first Sharatin ski way back in June of 2018 (click here for post).

Then on the way home we got to ski the trees back down towards the car.  It was super deep and almost not steep enough.  There were also still some open creeks and deep holes in the snow.  I wiped out in one of the creek holes and it took a tremendous effort just to get back up on my skis.

The only downside to the trip was that at the bottom where we took off our skis I decided to try a 'shortcut' to the trail to the car.  The shortcut would avoid a stream crossing, and I thought 'why go sideways to the trail when it is far shorter to go straight ahead'.  And I found out why!  There was a dense alder thicket on a steep slope that fell directly into the stream canyon.  We wasted 1/2 hour busting through the deep snow and alder to go 100 yards.  But hey, that's exploring.  Next time on Sharatin I will know exactly where to go!

Patrick