Today Maestra and I headed up Ferry Peak for the second time this season.  After my last trip report about Ferry Peak I caught some flak from people who didn’t want me sharing info about “their” mountain.  These people need to realize that telling me not to do something just makes me want to do it more. 🙂

These people also need to realize that Ferry Peak is not crowded.  At all.  I went back up Ferry again today and saw no evidence that anyone had been skiing up there in the eight days since I last gave it a try.  Granted it’s early season, but Ferry looks to me to be the sort of mountain that can handle a crowd.  Personally, I like seeing other tracks while skiing because it gives me a better idea of what’s skiing well and safely.

I was hoping to find an existing skin track but had to set my own again.  I’d rather find existing skin tracks than keep setting my own after every storm cycle so hopefully more people territorial about Ferry Peak start skiing Ferry Peak.  The coverage is there down low.  The snow is great up high.

There is about a foot of well consolidated base from the highway up.  Snow was wet but supporting down low on WNW aspects, crusty and breakable at mid elevations  on WNW aspects, creamy pow up high on WNW aspects.  The turns up high made it worth lapping the upper pitches.  The skiing down low was survival skiing at best.

The coverage was good enough to get up and down safely, and I only hit a few things on the lower mountain.  When we get some new snow it should be really good from a coverage perspective.

Winds out of the South had stripped W facing ridges down to an icy crust in spots, but the new snow seemed to be bonding well as it had come in wet and warm.

At the summit there were bazillions of little birds hanging out in the trees.  That was pretty cool.

Maestra wanted to hang out on the cornices overhanging the ESE faces of Ferry and I had to keep calling her back from super sketchy spots.  I need to train her to stay by my side around cornices.  Right now she understands staying close to me when we’re walking roads, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get her tuned up.

During our descent we crossed the carnage of a large slide that appeared to have taken place last year or the year before: many of the trees leveled by it still had green needles.  It was a humbling reminder of the awesome power of avalanches.

Since the snow was so good up high and so shitty down low I think I’ll head up Teton Pass tomorrow unless friends who skied GTNP today give me a glowing report of the conditions they encountered.  Be safe out there, have fun, and don’t assume something that belongs to everyone is yours.