Plan B

[SCOTT DIAMOND]

I think I should be in sales. Not sure how I did it but somehow a dozen skiers signed up for my Bennett – Bonney butte ski today.

It was an interesting day.  Half winter and half summer.  Sadly we didn’t get to 2-3 inches of fresh snow that was forecast for yesterday (at best 1/2 inch) but it was warm so the snow wasn’t icy. I thought the Terrible Traverse  would be a cakewalk this late in the season but it was more intimidating than I expected with zero sign of a road underneath all that snow. But the snow was soft, avalanche danger was low, and once out on the traverse it was fine. I kicked steps across . Half our crew followed my tracks and half skied across

From there the route heads up to Bonney butte. This section was not nice.  Awkward side slope, not much snow, a few downed trees and icy. It was OK going up but it was clear that we’d have to walk this section on our way back.  We got to the “Fat Lady” turnoff and Ken Wenzel pointed out how nice the snow was on the other side of the ridge. That was all it took. We changed our tour, descending to Pocket creek. Snow was soft and quite reasonable in pocket creek. I let Ken break trail for all of us (why we invite him) and we zipped along Pocket creek road. We ended the tour by heading into Teacup. I didn’t ski this section as I had to retrieve one of the cars but  I was informed that there were some exciting deep wells as the snow is melting.

Overall an adventurous day. I don’t think our ski season is over. Some fresh snow would be great but short of that, if it warms up and softens a bit it is quite skiable. Hope you can get out in the next few weeks.

One final plug for leading tours. There was real joy in sharing this adventure with 11 other skiers. Don’t let me hog all the fun. There is still time to lead a tour (weekend leads are especially  desired).

P.S. A few pics posted to the ONC Group F.B. page.

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