First fastpacking trip of the summer season and it was a good one. After work we headed down to the Marble Mountains making our way up 2800ft and a little over seven miles to spend the night at the ABC lakes. The sun was setting as we trekked cross country over the final ridge providing some incredible lighting on the distance peaks.

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We set up camp next to Dogwood lake on a large flat slab of granite overlooking Chinquapin lake and the valley below. We watched the waning orange glow on the cliffs above, made up some grub, and chatted by the fire.

This trip I got to break in some new gear. I picked up a smaller pack by UltrAspire and a new down quilt by Enlightened Equipment. This new gear put my base weight under 10 lbs 🎉 (total weight with food and water was at 12)

The next morning after breakfast and coffee we fastpacked back to the truck.

Yeah…so that was a rad day on the mountain – 12 runs at about a mile long each (plus 4 bonus runs on a short but beautiful secluded zone), 20k vert, 34 miles, 5.5 hours, and a whole lot of joy. Good times in God’s country.

We took a few runs off the summit to the west but low visibility and what we thought my be a bad belt on the sled took us to the north chutes closer to the truck. Turned out to be a great decision. The belt was fine and we found some amazing lines with buttery snow.

“Those were the best trees ever!”

Yesterday was a fun day. Nick and I did some sled skiing off the west side of Brown Mountain. We got ten runs in (five each) at about a mile per run. Snow could have been better, but it was plenty good for sled skiing.