Spring

What do you do with the tons of snow that are left over from a winter of snow plowing? Make a 30 foot jump downtown. Colorado Freeskier revived Big Air On Elk this year. It works like this: dump a bunch of snow onto the main street in town, push it into a pile, and tow in skiers and riders at a bizillion miles per hour with snowmobiles. It's like watching airplanes take off and land on an air craft carrier. The riders went huge. These aren't the best pics, but they show the scale. It seems like the whole town turned out and it was shoulder to shoulder on both sides of the street for two blocks. Every shop and restaurant was full and it was a brilliant way to kick off spring.





Earlier in the day I took a tour up Slate River Road and the Oh Be Joyful trail. It was overcast but really warm. So warm, in fact, that I punched through knee deep into slush a couple of times. It made the creek crossings interesting, not knowing if the snow-bridges would hold or not. I ran into a couple of groups coming down from the north side of Mt. Emmons, training for The Grand Traverse (Crested Butte to Aspen backcountry race). My trip was much less ambitious. I wanted to see if the snow is setting up, what different aspects are skiing like, and how prevalent the suncrust is. It's still going to be another week or two before things set up and we have corn. Spring is in the air.