How to ski for free!

Monday was a day off for the rest of my classmates who are doing their wilderness first responder course so of course everyone was heading to the ski hill!  I met up with a couple of the powder hounds in our class and we hit up some slackcountry (backcountry skiing out of bounds at ski hills).  Here are a few pictures from monday!

After a couple of rest days my legs where back to shape so it seemed like as good of a time as any to head back to the ski hill.  Me and my roommate Justin found a ride out to the hill with a lifty but she was staying the night so we needed to find a way to get back on our own...well paying for a hostel was too expensive and a hotel was out of the question, so what does every good mountain man do?  Snow cave!!!!  We spent thursday skiing all day and just before it got dark me and justin put on our climbing skins and crossed the out of bounds line to find a good place to dig in for the night.  After a little bit of uphill work we found a nice snow drift and dug in for the night.

There was a minor miscommunication leaving us with food a stove but no fuel for the night so after eating a few granola bars and apples it was off to sleep.  Our snow cave was cozy but the design we chose didnt quite work out the way we wanted it leaving us sleeping on a slanted platform...we were fighting gravity all night but managed to sneak in a few hours of sleep.  We woke up to one of the most incredible views I have seen since my trip to the bugaboos this summer.  We were treated with a wonderful sunrise and then started packing up our frozen gear.  Needless to say we got first tracks on the hill and then headed to the lodge to warm up and dry some gear.  A few friends joined us in the late morning to enjoy the fresh snow we got over the night!