I had just gotten back into service after a week on the river when Mark mentioned the idea of getting our with Parker for another ski objective. I was immediately excited, and while I didn’t have any planning done for any particular ski line we had had success with last minute planning previously and I was stoked to get back on snow. We decided to ski Star Mountain, a popular peak amongst skiers off of independence pass, known for its many destructive avalanche chutes.
Looking forward to a shorter objective, we decided to meet later than we usually do, aiming to meet at the Graham Gulch trailhead at 6:30 am. Mark and I showed up a half hour late, finding Parker almost ready to leave (assuming we had overslept) when we got there. Another thirty minutes of dialing in our packs and navigating an initial creek crossing and we were already an hour behind our planned start. Bushwhacking through the base of the peak and a groupwide lack of route planning made for slow moving. Eventually, we decided to start climbing, hoping that one of the old avalanche paths would provide consistent snow to the summit. The snow didn’t last and as we began to posthole to our waist, Parker pointed out that we had passed the timing threshold to be able to ski our planned line in good/safe conditions.
We plodded along a little longer, but as the snow worsened and our prospects of skiing anything remarkable dwindled, we made the decision to transition and start making our way down.
Unable to contain our joy at the hilarity of the situation we created for ourselves, we cracked jokes and shared lots of laughs as we “skied” down the sloppy intermittently snowy route up which we had hiked. Eventually we reached the end of the snow and were back on dirt. After a cold creek crossing and a little more bushwhacking, we were back at our cars, recounting our mistakes and making plans for a more successful ski day next time.