Long lost ski

 

The winter before last Stuey wiped out skiing and his ski came off and shot off down the north side of the mountain. It was almost dark and we did not find it.  So last year at this time, after the snow had melted out, I was looking for Stuey's lost ski (click here for blog post on Stuey lost ski from last June). I spent quite a few afternoons with the dogs bushwhacking around on the North side of Pyramid looking and looking fruitlessly, and never did find it.

I wondered where it ended up and if I would ever know the answer. Down in the bushes I often contemplated that I might have walked right past it. I thought it would be kind of cool to have the answer of where it actually ended up. How close did I come to finding it? I doubted I'd ever know.

Then a couple of days ago I get an email. My friend Steve found my ski! It was far down in the bushes to the west of the North Bowl, and I had looked in that area. I gather it was under some bushes and that he only saw a flash of white when he found it. I probably did walk pretty close to it!

The good thing is that the ski is in good shape. It did get bit by a bear and the edges were a little rusty. But it cleaned up nice, and a little pytex repair with fix the bear teeth dents in the base.

So now we got a new pair of skis! Thank You Steve!

Patrick

Last ski

 

Yesterday I went for my last ski of the season on Pyramid, and while I was up there it was snowing. I don't think my final ski has ever coincided with snow squalls. In a normal year Pyramid is still skiable until at least the Summer Solstice, but this year, sadly enough, we did not make it even to June. The next few days we are supposed to get inches of rain and then I am off on another survey - so for Pyramid this is it. 

There is still a lot of snow on the higher mountains further from the coast like on Sharatin or Center mountains - so perhaps I might catch another ski or two before the summer heat. But not on Pyramid until next ski season.   The doggies and I will miss our daily ski/walks.

Patrick

Chasing Bode

 

Bode on the go throwing up a rooster tail of corn snow

The skiing on Pyramid is all but done. At this point, I probably would not even bother with the skiing if it did not make the dogs so happy. That said, the skiing is still better than it was back in November when I did climb to ski. Back in the Fall I was just happy to be on snow and did not mind the thin snow conditions. 

These days I am skiing thin tongues of snow with the dogs chasing me. On the flatter sections Bode loves to race ahead. He runs so fast that he throws up a rooster tail of corn snow up behind him. And then there are the short sections of grass to cross. The trick to crossing grass is to go straight and not turn. Also one needs to check the grass crossings on the way up for rocks to avoid on the way down.

Yesterday I noticed that the wildflowers are starting to bloom. I saw some yellow violets and snow bed marigolds blooming. It is wildflower season!

Patrick

North bowl all but done

doggies doing the rolling snow slide

some other skiers

Pack on the prowl

Cold Spring

 

It's been a cold spring. This morning there was a hard frost in my yard, the salmonberries have still not bloomed, and the cottonwoods have not leafed out yet either. They barely have buds. And yet we got so little snow the ski season on Pyramid is still ending a few weeks earlier than usual. 

Out of interest I decided to check out just how the Kodiak temperatures this spring compare to that of past years. And I found the table seen above (weather spark - click here for link). The table confirms what I have observed - it has been a colder spring than usual. We also had a very warm February followed by an extremely cold March. 

But what I find amazing is that it is almost June and the warmest temperature so far this year was recorded in late February. It almost hit 60 back in February and has struggled to top 50 degrees ever since. And looking at the weather forecast it is not supposed to get into the high 50's for the foreseeable future either. I love it!

Patrick

Cool Clouds

 

The last few days the weather has been a bit weird. It's been cool and still dropping below freezing at night  and yet every afternoon it looks like we are going to get a thunderstorm. There are frequent showers and even graupel and snow. Bright sunshine and then all of a sudden it gets dark and rains. In the distance you can often see the rain/snow falling from the clouds. I do not know what it all means but the clouds are certainly dramatic!

Patrick

Snow hanging on

 

These are some photos from dog/ski walks over the past week or so. As I have stated in earlier posts, Kodiak did not get a lot of snow this past winter. So in late April and early May the snow line rapidly receded up the mountain. It looked like the ski season on Pyramid was going to end by mid May.

But the weather has stayed cool and it is a late spring. The salmonberries have not even bloomed yet! And on the mountain the snow line retreated to about 1500 feet and then paused. I've been skiing to the same elevation on the mountain for about 2 weeks now. And it has also been snowing up there. A week ago we got a 1/2 foot of heavy slush and looking back into the mountains in the interior of the island it looks like they got a lot more.

That said the snow has still been slowly disappearing and on my last 2 skis I could no longer make it down to 1500 feet without crossing a couple of short sections of grass.

Patrick

Some new snow on the mountains!

Passing snow squall yesterday on the mountain

Yesterday there was even a dusting of new snow on Sharatin

Go dog Go!

 

This spring the snow line has moved up the mountain quite quickly, and these days you can only ski down to the top of the jibber. But what snow we do have is all corned up and fast. It's actually better skiing than what we've had most of the winter except you have to hike a lot further than you did earlier in the winter.

My dogs love to chase me when I ski down the mountain. Bode is incredibly fast and often passes me when we get to the less steep parts of the run. Red is always the next fastest and Rey takes up the tail end of the pack. Yesterday Red and Rey even rough-housed and rolled down the first steep section.

Patick

some new snow

Blueberry Flowers

 

On Monday I went for a walk with the dogs in Abercrombie and found that the blueberries are finally blooming. This is another of those spring events that I note and it tells me if spring is early or not. Generally the blueberries first blossom in mid to late April, and they have bloomed as early as February and March. So this year they are late. Normally by this time the salmonberries are getting ready to bloom, but yesterday I checked on them too and they are even budding yet. So it is a late spring this year.  That said, it is a weird spring because on high we barely have any snow left. Yesterday when I went for a ski I could only go to the top of the jibber. Normally I am still skiing to almost the road. The first blueberry blossoms usually coincide with the max snow pack on the mountain. But this year the first blossoms are a month later than the Max snowpack on the mountain.

Patrick