Variety.

With snow almost guaranteed for Sunday, the plan for the weekend was to ride Sat, ride some more Sat night, and then backcountry ski on Sunday. In hindsight, I would say it was a perfect plan...I love it when a plan comes together.

The only hiccup with my plan was the route choice for Sat. I called the grooming report Friday and was told that our favorite Horseshoe-to-Packsaddle was groomed midweek. Not. Bastards. We started riding anyway on ridable, but soft, snowmobile trail that turned to unridable fluff and forced us to backtrack earlier than planned.

I was told this trail was groomed! Where is the fresh cord?

Since I had planned on a night ride to make sure the lights are dialed in, I wasn't too bummed about the soft trails and didn't feel compelled to ride the road and pad my ride time.

The early signs of Sunday's storm obscured the full moon

JayP and T-Race had an overnighter planned so I rode to their house and then joined them for the beginning of their adventure. They were fully-loaded AK style.

Bundled up for 14F and a couple of hours of night riding

As usual, the Lupine lights worked great and I will be lit up like 747 coming in for a landing at OP. Riding light during a 24 Hour race is like cash in your wallet...you cannot have enough.

Our buddy Henry the Hawk was surveying his domain this morning as the snow machine ramped up

Waking up to steady snowfall was an omen for a great day of skiing. We met up with Mike & Meagan at the top of Teton Pass for a ski tour and it was one of those days where each run was better than the previous. Skiing with smart people who share a respect for the terrain and the reality of the avalanche danger adds to the enjoyment of the day. We continually talked about our routes, up and down, and I think we made good decisions as a group. Just yesterday a snowmobiler was killed by an avalanche in the Big Holes.

Our crew at the top of Edelweiss

Justin from SLC snapped this pic. Justin was solo in the parking lot so we adopted him into our group and taught him a little about safe backcountry travel practices. We also did our best to wear him out which I think we did.