This past weekend, I had a chance to go for a little “hike ‘n’ tour” up to St. Mary’s snowfield(?) (Not a glacier, I guess) for my first turns of the 09/10 ski season with my roommate Anna. They were vaguely similar to my first turns last year, seeing how the October snow quality was equal to that of skiing Styrofoam and/or pure ice, but we were without a T-Bar and I wasn’t hitchhiking across Norway.
St. Mary’s glacier (?) is pretty cool, there is about 400 yards of skiable terrain this time of year, with the bottom half consisting of what appeared to be a frozen river (sun-cupped ice) and the top half being stiff, windblown Styrofoam. It would be really fun in June and July, however, seeing how it would be a sunny slush-bucket and prominent swimming opportunities just below the snow.
We took a few laps on the upper section, and then held on for dear life on the chattery ice of the second section. There was a metal bench and a booter I hit a couple of times on the lower section, however, and even hip-checked my first 360 of the season. My camera is falling into more and more pieces every day though, so I was only able to get a few shots of Anna, but, as this picture shows, she (and I) were pretty darn stoked to get the ski season started!
(St. Mary’s was super fun, but judging from this footage, I think I’m going up to Jones Pass pretty soon).
