109 | St. Mary's Glacier . James Peak

This past Saturday, I returned to James Peak along with JJ with hopes of scoring some soft snow which would be a tough task considering that barely a foot of new snow has fallen this month. To show how bad it has become, the snowpack at Berthoud Pass gained 9" in depth during the month of February, but has lost more than 6" in just the first eighteen days of March. Also in February, almost 2.5" of snow water content fell in the Loveland Pass area while only 0.8" has fallen this month so far. Being that Adam and I got skunked last week because of strong winds, we were hopeful in our quest.

But alas, we were way off.

Weather was absolutely perfect so you won't hear us complain about that: no wind, no clouds, and just warm enough. Wile at the summit, JJ looked towards the southeast and spotted a sweet-looking line to ski that offered some photo slutting potential with great lighting and a beautiful backdrop. Sure enough, it was quite arduous in locating the line without the help of radios (which were immediately purchased after the day's trip) and his project went for naught as the sun quickly shifted.

We ultimately found and skied the line in question, but the snow was absolutely awful and about the worst I've experienced all year. You would think that the quality on a north-facing chute that was mildly protected would be decent, but it was anything but that. The snow was super wind-affected and crunchy with a rather promising day turned huge disappointment.

Didn't get to ski Sunday since I was brutally attacked by the Jameson leprechaun and his buddies Guinness and Bailey. Here's to hoping things approve over the next several days.

In the famous words of Mahatma Gandhi,
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."