It’s great that one can do all three of these in the winter. Ski in Flagstaff; run and mountain bike in the deserts. We have done all three this winter with the emphasis on running. Here are a collection of photos from this winter.
Bonus photo from last year’s epic winter. Yeah, untracked powder!
We have had snow–lots of snow–this month. After one of these events we headed for the San Francisco Peaks and some backcountry skiing. Fortunately for us, there were skiers ahead of us and the track up the trail was already well established. Thanks!
We arrived at the bottom of “Flying Dutchman” to ski the powder–but clearly we were not the first as there were many tracks already carved into the area. Years ago we were often the only skiers here and put down first tracks. Those idyllic days of the past are long gone.
The rime-ice and snow-covered trees were really amazing and the deep powder skiing was great fun. Blue skies. Light winds. What’s not to like?
In late January we had many days of snow with over 40″ falling in about 11 days. What a great chance to ski down Skunk Canyon. I’ve been here many times walking, running, and mountain biking—but never skiing.
In the morning, it was quite cold—the overnight low temperature was +9°F—and the snow was very dry; Swix Blue Extra Wax was perfect for getting a bit of grip and a good glide. There was a broken trail part of the way into the canyon but mostly we had untracked snow and broke our own trail.
At the point where Skunk Canyon briefly gets very narrow everyone but me turned around. I had never been to Fisher Point in the snow and I was probably not going to get another chance for a while so I continued. There were some old, snow-covered ski and snowshoe tracks here and folks had probably come in via Walnut Canyon and the Arizona Trail. But no one else was there while I visited.
I turned around to retrace my steps and within a few minutes was having issues with the rapidly warming snow sticking to my skis. I was no longer able to glide and several inches of heavy snow were clumping to the bottom of the skis. Wow! This was going to be a long slog back to the car. I was pretty tired when I finished and the deep powder was already a distant memory.
And that’s what skiing in Flagstaff is like. Once the storm ends and the sun comes out there is only a very brief window of a few hours. Get it while you can.
The last major snow event around here was a multi-day storm from January 19–25 that put down about 36″ of snow in town. The Kachina Peaks received anywhere from 5 to 7 FEET of snow. Since then, the weather has been pretty quiet with no storms. The snow in town had melted away and the snowpack in the mountains had melted/sublimated substantially.
Finally, however, another snow storm moved across the area earlier this week bringing about 16″ in two days to Flagstaff and about 18–24″ across the peaks. Time to hit the slopes.
Our original destination was the area known as Allison Clay but that idea was abandoned because of the amount of trail breaking required to get there. Instead, we went for the nearer destination known as Flying Dutchman. A few skiers had already broken a trail to the top of the area so we had an easy climb. Thanks, guys!
Here are a few images from the downhill runs.
Will this be the last chance for good skiing? Or will we see another big event in March?
After a fairly unusual late Fall and early Winter—in which we were far more likely to have rain than snow—“Real Winter” showed up and made a powerful statement. The six-day storm total for snow in Flagstaff was 36+ inches which allowed this event to slip into the Top 10 multi-day snow events.
The downside to such an event, of course, is dealing with snow removal. No sooner would we clear the driveway and sidewalks than a snow plow would throw a 3 to 4 foot berm of hard snow on the driveway. Sigh. Does this qualify as a “Sisyphean Task?”
Enough work. Time for play. And so we headed for the San Francisco Peaks and the Kachina Wilderness for some backcountry skiing. The peaks received in the neighborhood of 7–8 feet of new snow. Dreams of deep powder motivated us!
We arrived at the Arizona Snowbowl ski area lower parking lot and headed towards the Humphreys Peak Trail. We broke trail through the deep snow—and only veered off the trail once—for about a mile before picking up an established ski track from downhill skiers. This provided a much easier route. We broke off from the trail and followed a set of ski tracks up to the area known as Flying Dutchman.
This area had already seen a fair bit of ski activity and the snow cover was carved up. We wanted fresh powder so we continued up through the trees—once again breaking trail through deep snow. The trees vary here from tightly packed to open glades and skiing down requires navigating from open glade to open glade and minimizing the trees. Easy to say—harder to do.
We continued up to the B-24 bomber crash site where we decided to stop. Above this point the trees thin out quickly and the threat of skier-triggered avalanches was present. We had lunch, peeled climbing skins off our skis and headed down. We had gained almost 2100 vertical feet since leaving the car and it was time to convert all that potential energy into kinetic energy.
At this elevation (~11,400 feet) there had been significant riming on the trees. So much rime had accumulated on the branches and needles that the trees looked like large heads of cauliflower. Rime had also accumulated on the upside-down landing gear of the B-24. This is the only piece of wreckage that is visible in the winter. Everything else is buried.
There are not many pictures of the downhill descent. Too much fun to stop and take photos!