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2022-01-27 at 17:12 - comment by Tanya K
Wow, there were no tracks to West Elk Pass? 8 of us punched through that horrible crust to make a pretty solid trail to that couch.
Did you visit East Elk Pass too? The snowy trees and big meadow in your photo look like the East Pass off Tyrwhitt. (Though both passes have such a big meadow, I could be wrong.)
2022-01-27 at 16:46 - comment by Bob truman
I enjoyed your descriptive report. You're correct, it looks more like a gorilla. Previous years it has always been a fridge.
Skier Bob Special plus "The Couch"
Report Submitted by Mary
(trip) Date: Thursday Jan 27, 2022
Submitted: Thursday Jan 27, 2022 at 16:18
Participants:
Anne, Keith, Ray and me
Discussion:
It was a chilly, windy -11C when we started at Boulton campground, but we quickly warmed up going up Whiskey Jack. Tracks were good today, but there was a lot of wind-blown debris on lower WJ, and likewise on Fox. Tyrwhitt was a magical dream today. Mother Nature had festooned the hanging old-man's-beard with frost, and every frond glittered with frozen dew-drops. In some areas, the trees were totally white, standing like festive glitterati in all their finery. We live for moments such as this! Once we got to Elk Pass, the new tracks were fabulous and made skiing downhill wonderful. We detoured to the West Elk couch, which took some doing since, as the Elk Ladies mentioned, no one had skied in and the tracks were filled with wind-drift. A couple of people had gone part-way and turned around, but we faced the howling wind and forged our way to the couch. The sun came out and we marveled at the frost-rimed trees and the beauty of the surroundings. The rest of the trip was was a fast descent via Elk Pass trail, Fox and Moraine to our car at Boulton. Tracks on Fox were quite decent and Moraine was OK, but could use more snow (as usual). -7C at the end.
 Tattered rags of lichen turned into garlands of glitter
 Tree-climbing gorilla at Elk Pass
 Returning from the couch at West Elk
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