6000 feet or so
Since last Thursday evening it has been snowing off and on here in Sitka. Makes for sloppy bike riding and since my mountain bike is still suffering a broken front shifter, I haven’t really been out on the saddle…
So Friday, Pete and I decided to get out for a little cross training. We packed up the snowboards and a few snacks and headed for Verstovia to see how the snow looked up on the mountain. We hiked the 2000 plus feet up to Picnic Rock and strapped in. It took us just a little over an hour to make it up to the start point and then a quick ride down from the front side into the backside bowl. That first ride for me was pretty wild as I hadn’t been out on a board for a couple of years and we had some alpine scrub to get through. We then hiked back up the bowl to the South side of the untracked powder loveliness and made our second run down. The following is my attempt at a few graceful carving turns down the hill…
After working our way up to a sheltered spot in the trees and out of the wind, we had a bite to eat and left our packs for the next run. Stomping up one more time up the hill we cut in one more 600 feet of vertical down the bowl and our uncut 2 feet of powder. That last run was much better for me with turns coming easier and even a couple of launches off a natural half pipe. (of course the helmet cam footage didn’t work that run!) We had a quick bite before we packed back up out of the back bowl. One more quick run to the tree line and the hike back down.
All told with the hike up, three full rides down the bowl and the hikes back up and the final hike back down the mountain we figured at least 6000 feet of exercise! I am still feeling it a little in the hamstrings! Of course I am hoping to get back up there again… and with the snow falling here in town I am sure there is plenty up top again!
