Turns All Year: Month 63

January was a good month to chase turns all year. Deep, light, fluffy pow was abundant early, then cold temps assured our snow would stay light before the rain came mid-January and squashed our powder dreams. The rain slab made for scary conditions in the backcountry for a while, but that's why beer and chairlifts were invented.

I'm stoked to have made 8 trips on my skis last month - 4 of them inbounds and 4 earning my turns. I kicked off 2017 with a bang, with 11" of snow overnight and throughout the day at Bachelor. It was so good we went back the next morning to ski another 5" of fresh for just 2 hours before driving home. I celebrated another great Get The Girls Out ski day with my besties from SheJumps, and made two trips to Hyak for dawn patrol in the same week.

January is also the time I downloaded and fell in love with Gaia GPS. I started tracking my total number of runs, total time moving, total vert, and best of all MAX SPEED! I only hit 49.1mph this month, but I'm looking forward to doing better in the future. If you don't have it on your phone, download it now! Mountaineers members get a free download in fact.

Seems hard to beat. Good thing I'm heading to the Valhalla Lodge in BC for a week in February for good measure.

Here are my favorite shots from Turns All Year Month 63 - January 2017:

Bachelor - January 1

There's a saying, "No friends on a powder day." I think MORE friends on a powder day!

Bachelor - January 2

Photo does not do it justice. Skied amazing, deep treelines for 2.5 hours then spent 10 hours driving home. #worthit

Stevens Pass - January 13

Our plan was to ski at Loup Loup, but we made a detour to Stevens after already driving thru Snoqualmie pass. The sunrise was on point.

Winthrop Area Backcountry - January 14 

This is what losing at bc skiing looks like. Not enough snow on reasonable slopes, so we took our skis for a 2.5hr walk and covered a whopping 400 vertical feet.

Stevens Pass SheJumps Get The Girls Out - January 21

The girafficorns came out to play.

Visibility was amazing.

Stevens Pass Sweat Fest - January 22

After the GTGO day, Rachel and I stayed at The Mounties Stevens Pass Lodge. Then we skinned up to the top of Tye Mill lift for me to just barely get an hour on my skis to count as a day of TAY. #nailedit

Gaping our way back to the car with everything we own on our backs.

Hyak Backcountry Dawn Patrol - January 23

Pele!

My reward view after suffering through a third solo lap.

Hyak Backcountry Dawn Patrol - January 26

When Flat Stanley is visiting, go big or go home!