powder turns

I think I mentioned my plan to do some hiking today.  Unfortunately my plan was foiled by some areas that are closed for wildlife  management.  Apparently winter is hard enough for the animals without some dudes ripping through their feeding grounds.

so I climbed up to the same ridge as before, this time with a fully loaded daypack and snowboard.  I took a different route that someone had kind of tracked, so it was easier, and it put me on a lower spot.  Once on top of the ridge I noticed a sweet, mellow bowl composed of the ridge, the back of snow king, and the ridge across the valley from me.  The backside of my ridge is a southern aspect, so the northern aspects was directly across from me, and to my right was a mostly southern aspect, shown below.

So I hiked the non-evergreen treed portion in the picture above, which was pretty mellow.  Nice soft snow and not too heavy.  Then I hiked back to the top of my ridge and rode down the backside (into the bowl shown above).  A slightly longer run but heavier snow due to the more southern aspect.  The north aspect across from me looked sick but not something I'd ride by myself.

How could I not take a picture of the tetons.

So then I hiked back up to my ridge and hiked the ridge towards where I crested last week.  I didnt ride the first section because it's so damn steep, treed, and has a tricky cliff/down tree maze at the top.  The picture below is where uphill from where I stopped to strap in.
and the picture below is downhill from where I strapped in.  notice the more mellow slope and less tree density...er....at least the trees are skinnier.
This is a northern aspect, and it made a huge difference.  Still light powder even after more than a week without snow.  And the only tracks were my own from the other day.  This last run was awesome.  Perfect pitch, great snow, and great tree density.

All in all today was 5.7 miles with 3000 feet of climbing.  So I'd say probably 2500 feet of vert on the board.

Got back to the truck to find myself surrounded by tacomas:
cooked some food and split.