Hit? or Miss?

 

When I drive to the pass to ski I never know exactly what I'll find.  Sometimes it is raining in town but I find it is snowing by the time I get to the Golf course and the road is good (top photo).  Sometimes I get to the golf course and the road is a sheet of ice with water on top (immediately below).  I actually carry 3 different types of skis in the car - classic and skate cross country and downhill.  Sometimes if the road is too icy I cross country ski at the golf course - and classic if the snow is deep or the crust soft.  If there is a good crust and I'll skate ski on top.

On Friday it poured, and I knew the road was bad (below is from Friday).  So come Saturday I was thinking I'd cross country ski at the golf.  But it was raining and I really was not happy about it.  Then a friend offered to drive me up to the pass in a truck with chains on it.  I jumped at the opportunity.  Nora came along too.  We did not think it was going to be good skiing though.

So I picked up Nora and we drove to the golf course to meet our ride up to the pass.  And when we got to the golf course we found that the ice had been 'scarified' - scraped by the grader.  It was easy to just drive up to the pass - no chains required.  And once at the pass the clouds cleared off and it stopped raining.  We climbed up the mountain and found spring corn skiing conditions.  It was excellent skiing.  And the sunset was beautiful.

I'll admit it goes the other way too - I drive to the pass expecting powder and find breakable crust or a sheet of ice.  On Kodiak you never really know what you find - so you just got to go! 

Patrick