Frank and I headed to the Front Range over the weekend for family obligations. While Frank was looking for things to ride, I was looking for mountains that could still be skied. I contacted a few people and options were thrown on the table, but the weather simply didn’t look good. Finally, on Friday afternoon, I happened to be checking Facebook and noticed that Mark had posted about trying to ski Torreys on Saturday, despite the potential weather front moving in. Mark is an old friend of mine, with whom I’ve shared many fantastic backcountry ski days when I lived on the Front Range. Maybe it’s because we’re both teachers, but we’ve always been kindred spirits, and I knew a day out with Mark would be fun no matter what conditions we encountered.
As I drove from Golden through heavy fog on I-70 in the dark morning hours, I was expecting snow up high. Instead, I was amazed as I drove out of the thick fog. As I looked toward the sky, my eyes squinted hard. Were those stars up there? Indeed they were. And the sky was emerging blue as I met up with Mark in Bakerville and we made our way up to the trailhead. We were able to drive all the way to the summer parking where we began our hike.
We hiked with happy faces up the valley- happy to have been blessed with perfect weather, happy to have fresh snow on the ground, and happy to be able to skin up the trail instead of bootpack. Luck was surrounding us!
Gray’s was looking caked, and our friend Andy (as I found out later) was breaking the skin track up the face.
We spent Friday skiing in-bounds at Snowbird. We milked the goods and knew the next day it would be best to head out for a backcountry tour. Our friends Jen and Jonathan put some ideas on the table and together we decided to head out to the “Alta backcountry”- slackcountry often accessed by the Superior lift, but this time of year the lift is closed. 
