“Oh, the silent majesty of a winter’s morn…the clean, cool chill of the holiday air… and an asshole in his new Dynafits, making turns above a frozen lake using an avy shovel as a ski pole.”
The holidays are here and I must admit it’s been tough to get away from the house to “git sum”, much less sit down to process photos and compliment them with even a few paragraphs of semi-intelligent scribble. Well, this past Sunday I managed to pry myself away for the morning and join the Miller Bros for a few sets of turns that were most decidedly “early-season” in nature, although still a ton of fun.
The guys starting back up our good ol’ fashion family couloir, which provided us with several laps of entertainment.
For several years in a row now Brian and I have lugged our rock skis up to Saint Mary’s Glacier in November/December to poke around a little. More often than not we’ve been pleasantly surprised by what we’ve found in terms of fun terrain and snow quality. The lake normally freezes over by mid-November with the snow following shortly after, filling in the numerous chutes above the lake. Some decent snow early on followed by a few weeks of sun had us confident in our decision to head up there again this year, and we were able to find some fun turns once again. A few ski photos…
We ran into some ice here and there, but a lot of the chute was actually chalky and soft.
A good look down the chute, and the lake below.
The other Miller, Hugh, jumping on down.
“I don’t know if I should go sailin’ down no hill with nothing between the ground and my brains but a piece of government plastic.”
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. And if you happen to be bored and stuck inside on some late-December eve this year, try checking out our favorite Christmas film if you somehow haven’t already at some point since 1989.
“Hey Griswold, where do you think you’re gonna put a tree that big?”
Cheers and stay safe out there everyone!
“Bend over and I’ll show ya”
“You have a lot of nerve talking to me like that, Griswold.”
“I wasn’t talking to you”
Nice turns Ben & Miller bros.
Haha, thanks Brandon. I hope you, Kristine, Sawyer, and the hounds have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Looking forward to another Homestake style day here real soon. Cheers!
Absolutely, Ben. Let’s do a similar trip this January. look forward to seeing you sooner than later.