I grew up snowboarding in NW Washington and had never skied. However, lots of my trailrunning friends have been posting pictures of backcountry ski-touring. I couldn’t let them have all the fun so I hunted on the used classifieds and put together a pretty good set-up. Some Surface Sherpa skis with dynafit speed turn tech bindings, some La Sportiva sparkle tech boots, and some G3 skins. So, before I knew it, I was skinning up Sq Peak road and…
Trying to put in some easy miles, keep fit, but not aggravate my sore injured hip and foot/ankle. Varied success. A couple of these felt great, a couple hurt. The last, the full Grove-Battle Creeks loop was magnificent and actually felt pretty good during and after. Thankfully, I haven’t turned my ankle any more. Hopefully things are on the mend.
I thought I’d take a chance on FS 27, Sq*** Peak Road in the snow. Mostly firm, but enough soft spots to cause a few tumbles on the way back down from the overlook. I thought I’d leave a little blood for the mountain lions to taste.
I have done a number of runs in the Orem/Lindon foothills on the side of the mouth of Provo Canyon, but not much on the south side of the canyon mouth. I remedied that this last week with 2 runs. Starting at the Indian Hills trailhead I headed up the first mile climb and then another couple miles along the BST that travers up-canyon. The was ice in a few spots, but not bad. It felt great to be out….