The Skier Martin Special- West Elk to East Elk

Trip date: Friday Mar 17, 2023

Submitted by SteveR

Particpants:

Just me.

Discussion:

A great day to do this very scenic circuit on light touring gear (68-55-62 skis, NNN-BC boots). Big thanks to MaSid for re-establishing the route, which I did opposite to his Thursday trip to avoid having to descend the cutblock in questionable conditions for lighter gear. West Elk to the powerline was easy and fast thanks to more traffic, including two that had skied it earlier in the day and apparently continued on down to Elk Lakes. Full length 50mm skins were slapped on (and needed!) to ascend the cutblock on the east side of the powerline, where the snowpack was MOSTLY supportive enough, but also mined with tree parts here and there, which made me glad that I had chosen the CCW direction. Travel along the ridge between the passes was good, with skins kept on until completing the short ascent beyond the first meadow, after lunch at the south viewpoint. The low angle cutline descent to East Elk was easy enough, with the occasional wallow when stepping out of MaSid's uptrack. After a second lunch at the East Elk snowfa, travel out to Tyrwhitt was quick thanks to trailbreaking by you-know-who, where I was the only one who had taken advantage today. I finished my off-the-groomed travels by taking to the Patterson Meadows, and then enjoyed a quick return to the trailhead on grooming in good condition-with a few tree bombs in the tracks to step around, and fast turns down the big hill on Elk Pass trail. Snow temps stayed fairly cool, aided by a breeze, with only small areas of melting- Swix VP 45 worked fine in the grip wax department all afternoon.