2/23 SkyLine Saturday

[mike rossberg]

What a beautiful day. I was invite my the local scout troop to take them winter camping. Skyline was the best place I could think of to dig snow caves. We arrived Friday night to the main parking lot at mile 14. The snow is over 8 feet deep at the west end of the parking lot near the beckon test area. We dug 2 connecting snow caves aka, the Skyline Hilton. Probably my warmest night in a snowcave. We awoke to about 6 inches of snow and a light breeze from the west. By 9:30 the snow was tapering off and there was enough wind for my 16m. The snow was perfect, 6-10 inches of medium dense powder made for soft and fast riding. Bosco was awesome!! The wind stayed solid until around 1:00 when it dropped down a notch. We even had one of the 14 year old boys kiting after hour of practice.

[bigwavedave]

Funny you mention snow cave camping up there. When my wife and I were up there last week kiting we explored a little bit (very little) but discovered that if you turn off on your right as you're headed back down the canyon just across the street from where the snow-boarding shuttle drop off spot is, where the locals all seem to conglomorate, Thre is a snowplow shed and behind it there are about 8 or 9 rows of plowed out snowbanks that have a ton of snowcaves already dug into them. Some collapsed but many still intact. It looked as though it was an offical large-scale scout snow-cave camping spot that may be used for scouting groups in the area. it was pretty interesting and got me thinking about camping in a snow-cave (haven't done it for years). That might be a fun weekend getaway as an alternate the the 5 star hotels offered in Fairview!!