Good snowstorms have been in short supply this winter with long gaps between events. So when there is fresh powder on the mountain there is no time to waste. In addition, at this time of year the sun quickly turns light powder into something far heavier.

So we set out one morning recently to see what the  Kachina Peaks had to offer. After skiing up the summer hiking trail and then off trail through the trees we came to our first option. But there were still many rocks poking through the snow (see the comment above about “short supply”). So we moved on to our second choice. Much better. Rocks were nicely covered, the snow was in good shape, and no skiers had hit this slope yet.

So up we climbed through the lower and middle sections of the slope until the pitch quickly steepened. And down we went. The conditions were good and we had a blast carving turns on the slope in our skinny skis and leather, 3-pin boots. Old-school technology!

So we did it again. Fastened the climbing skins on and back up one more time. But the sun was already making a difference and on the second run the light powder was turning heavy and the downhill run wasn’t as fast as the first one. Good enough and we called it a day.