This has been a strange year, but it hasn’t been all bad. There’s still time and space to get outside and share great experiences with amazing people… even if they do yammer on about conspiracy theories and politics for most of the car ride to the trailhead.

Today’s mission was “simple”… we’d climb the Y Couloir from the Herman Gulch trailhead, and make an assessment at the top on whether we’d ski back the way we came or drop in to Watrous Gulch. Ultimately, we opted for the more northerly aspects of Watrous Gulch.

Nothing to see here, just a few fellas walking up a snow-covered hill during a global pandemic.

When you have to go, you have to go. Bryan finding a bit of relief from the uphill slog.

The Mayor and I leading the “charge” up the Y Couloir.

About 2/3 of the way to our eventual drop-in point, the terrain steepened up a bit. We threw the skis on the packs and proceeded to hoof it over dry land.

I don’t know that these images do this part justice. Though it may not look that steep, the weight of the packs and the altitude all played a part in tiring us out.

Arriving at the spot we’d eventually drop into Watrous Gulch from.

The Mayor and I making slow work of our transition. With beautiful skies and no one around us, there wasn’t too much of a need to hurry. The snow wasn’t going anywhere, and we were high enough and it was cold enough that we’d have great conditions.

Bryan never misses an opportunity to get weird.

This dude, in his element.

We cut in a little traverse line, peeking over the edge as we went to find an unskied line. I must have seen something I liked, because I am grinning like a cheshire cat.

The Mayor, slarving up a bit of hot pow for lunch. It might have been a little boney, but at least it was wind scoured. We did find some silky smooth turns on the lee aspects.

The Boss with the Sauce from Tejas, owning the libs and triggering snowflakes for dang near five decades.

And finally the cameraman gets some of that sweet silky late-March pow…

I don’t recall now if we climbed back up for another lap, but if memory serves and we stayed true to our nature, we likely did. But the camera phone wasn’t out for that if we did… so the parting shot is of Bryan and The Mayor doing their best social distancing act.