The Southwest Adventure Guides ski posse had a great time exploring the skiing conditions in the alpine. This was organized as an intentional opportunity to share tricks of the trade while getting out and enjoying the skiing of the San Juans.
We all met in Silverton for our guides meeting over coffee, and then carpooled to our starting point. We decided on skiing near the Battleship slide path as it would offer some great aspects for skiing and provide opportunities to extend our tour up the ridge toward South Lookout Peak. As predicted, the winds were ripping over the ridges from the west and loading the lee aspects toward Hwy 550. After ascending the north ridge of the Battleship, we reconvened to discuss our options. We decided to strip our skins at which point, Mark’s binding broke and his ski went careening down the south facing slope. Obviously this left us with some difficult decisions about our next move. We decided that the route down toward the unknown resting place of Mark’s ski was safe enough to venture into and ended with the luck of finding it resting in a rock garden well down the slope.
After climbing back up the slope and fixing Mark’s ski with straps (see the attached photo – it was a great fix), we decided to ski back down northerly facing slopes toward Hwy 550, one of the options we discussed that morning in the guides meeting. Mark’s ski rocked it and we easily made our way back to the cars.
With a little adventure to keep us on our toes, we had an excellent day out that resulted in great turns, sound decisions, and great laughs among us all.
Aaron
