3-8-11 Skyline 13m lit deep pow
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:28 amI had a chance to escape for the afternoon session, and headed up after 3pm to find a half dozen kites chasing fresh tracks. The wind was blowing hard, with flumes waving 50 feet out and going up off the cornice lines. The light powder was being pushed everywhere, forming rad hits that were soft as charmin. It was one of the more surreal views I've had while kiting, staring into the wind as it rolled like waves over a freshly formed mogul field... although they were powder mines not moguls, each exploding into a puff of white smoke when you rolled thru them.
It was the single best powder day at Skyline this year, catching it before the wind blew it off, and while it was powered up. I could have taken a 9m, but I saw Noah on a 13 and joined him for a lit session. Our tracks were 2 feet deep. Every turn covered you with pow. The red Dakine flag marking the US Open course was still at the end of the ridge and we raced down low above the aspens along the west ridge in our own race for freedom, slashing pow turns left and right.
By this point it was turning sunset, and Noah and I were the only ones left. Coming back the main ridge and chasing powder the whole way back, put me into a power trance................. It was Fighter Pilot Kiting..... I could here the radios in the back of my head just like in Apocalypse Now.... Red 1 dropping, Green 2 right behind you.... Wing man next to me, we dropped in bombing run after bombing run, straffing the snow with our metal edges.
There's nothing like formation flying when you are lit and have a mountain of untracked powder in front of you. Even if it was only a 2 man wolf pack.
Windzup,
Brian Schenck
It was the single best powder day at Skyline this year, catching it before the wind blew it off, and while it was powered up. I could have taken a 9m, but I saw Noah on a 13 and joined him for a lit session. Our tracks were 2 feet deep. Every turn covered you with pow. The red Dakine flag marking the US Open course was still at the end of the ridge and we raced down low above the aspens along the west ridge in our own race for freedom, slashing pow turns left and right.
By this point it was turning sunset, and Noah and I were the only ones left. Coming back the main ridge and chasing powder the whole way back, put me into a power trance................. It was Fighter Pilot Kiting..... I could here the radios in the back of my head just like in Apocalypse Now.... Red 1 dropping, Green 2 right behind you.... Wing man next to me, we dropped in bombing run after bombing run, straffing the snow with our metal edges.
There's nothing like formation flying when you are lit and have a mountain of untracked powder in front of you. Even if it was only a 2 man wolf pack.
Windzup,
Brian Schenck