The company extended our Christmas break this year and gave everybody the first week of January off. No pay of course, but they said the alternative was layoffs so most of us weren't complaining. I wouldn't complain about an extra week off in the middle of winter anyway, at least if it was a normal year. But this winter hasn't been normal - it seems like every snow storm we've had since November has been immediately followed by freezing rain. This week wasn't much different, maybe even worse than the last storm, so I guess I am complaining just a little bit.
I saw the extra week as lost cause for skiing, but Mr. Obright saw it as a great chance to drag a bunch of our fellow furloughed or otherwise non-occupied friends from work outside and introduce them to the joys of snowshoeing. Since I wasn't going to get much skiing in this week, I elected to tag along on the Yodelin trip.
Yodelin is often a great place to ski, snowboard or snowshoe outside of the commercial ski areas. Even though one of the main reasons it's no longer an active ski area was a devastating avalanche 40 years ago, there are some fairly protected lines up and down the main ridge so it's one the places we visit at least a couple of times every winter. There was no avalanche danger this week though - the entire snowpack was encased in a solid sheet of ice. Snowshoes were the only reasonable way to get around. While we were getting ready in the parking lot though, I saw one couple head out on alpine touring gear.
As we headed up under a bright sun and blue skies, the ice on every twig and branch glistened like cut glass. We went up through the trees, climber's left of the main building at the head of the parking lot. It seems like every year the trees get a little thicker, but it only took a couple of minutes to get on the main road headed up the hill. Even though the trees are filling in in places, there's still plenty of open space once you get up past the bench at about 4200'. Web reports say the ski area closed in 1974, so I actually would have expected more of it to have returned to forest by now. As we hiked up, we were speculating that maybe someone periodically drives the cat tracks and knocks down the new growth, at least on the old road beds. I've never hiked up here in the summer, but after we got back I looked at the satellite photos and it does look like at least some of the cat tracks must be cleared periodically.
In any case, we had a pleasant walk up and down in the sunshine, with our snowshoes crunching through the crust the entire time. We got back to the parking lot at the same time the skiers limped back their car. Turns out the guy had some new skis he just couldn't wait to try out - but all he could today is laugh at how bad the skiing was.
Poor skiing, but the not bad for taking pictures of the snow; here's a handful of snapshots
on this web album.
