On Apr1, I suddently realized that the next day was my last opportunity to XC ski this season. I'd only had one previous outing, and the desire was irresistable. I had told Dave I'd join him on a bike training ride, but realized I could move my long to later in the 3-day weekend. And besides, I could rationalize this as valid leg-specific cross training. Chris Kitting was all-in, and I got up at 5am, ate, and drove off to Hayward to pick him up. We arrived at Badger Pass at 10:45am, a bit later than I'd hoped, and we decided a fast out/back to Glacier Point would be too long to accomplish. Instead, we'd do Dewey Point, taking the black diamond route out, and the easier route back. We stopped in at the XC Weather was predicted to be OK - cloudy, with a 20% chance of snow showers.
April you'd usually expect corn snow, but this El Nino year we'd had a steady influx of storms, and just 2 days prior we'd had a good one out of the north, leaving 6 inches of fresh powder. The temperature hung around freezing, and the snow was perfect! Leaving the Glacier Point road and getting on the fresh new snow off-road was a delight. I hadn't been on off-trail snow for a year (briefly, near Crane Flat in '09), and before that it had been many many years. It brought back fond memories of off-trail winter adventures with Dave Wyman and Dave Finch from my UCLA Sierra Club days. I wore my ancient heavy leather 3-pin back-country XC ski boots and Fischer Touring Crown skis. Chris had lighter more modern gear, but we both kept a decent and similar pace through the woods.
Chris was designated photographer, till I get a pocket camera suitable for bigger outings. I'll add pix soon..