4.19.14: Table Mountain: I’ve wanted to tour out to Table for years but really don’t like skinning flats or resorting to using a snowmobile.  The classic route to Table involves four miles of flat travel to and from the peak.  Eight miles of flats doesn’t do it for me, but I’ve wanted to see this view for a long time:

Nightmere and I got a little creative and were able to put together an awesome ~9,000′ day with zero flat travel by starting and finishing at the Grand Targhee Resort parking lot.  We skinned up inbounds and dropped into fun terrain which put us right at the base of Table.  For our return to Targhee we spotted a mellower ridge that brought us up to Mary’s Nipple and a fun early evening descent with Targhee all to ourselves.

Conditions were pretty ideal, although the snowpack was pretty shallow down low on South aspects.  A few inches of fresh had blown in the day before, making for fun, creamy turns up high and corny goodness down low.

Today was my first day on Dynafit Race skis (161cm and only 65mm underfoot).  This is a drastic departure from my 196cm skis with 115mm underfoot.  The little skis handled surprisingly well and were actually a lot of fun.  I wouldn’t want to ski them in deep pow though.  Getting on a small, thin ski with normal camber reminded me that I actually do know how to ski.  My technique was a little rusty, so hopefully I can get the little sticks wired in time for attempting lighter, faster descents of the high peaks soon.