Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Conquering Marx


A goal of this year's Big Sky trip was to ski the runs Marx or Lenin. They are only accessible from the 11,166ft peak, which requires a Tram ride up the opposite face of the mountain.

Jordan and I have both skied the more easily accessible Liberty Bowl several times, and even that has a fall line that intimidates the crap out of me. To top it off, conditions at the peak today were near white out.

In the blinding conditions, Treb convinced me and Jordan to take the Yeti traverse above the rock field to access Marx. I froze up a bit at the top, but once I dropped in, and took a couple jump turns, I was fine. Good snow too.

After that, I felt much more confident, and even followed Treb into my first double black diamond Big Rock Tongue.

Later in the day, Waataja and Jordan had split from Treb and I to go back to the chalet. The route was via a very steep run from the top of the Challenger lift. Half way down, Mike saw a guy above them fall and lose his ski. The run was too steep for the ski to self-arrest, and it came flying down, within a few feet of them. Too close for comfort.

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