Jen and I had planned to do the Pfeiff last weekend, but I went and got sick and decided to summit the couch instead. So this weekend, despite both of us feeling far less than 100%, we decided to re-institute our previous plan. When morning came, we were so thrashed that it took us nearly two hours to get out of the house. And we were even pre-packed. We then talked about bailing when we sat in the car at the trailhead, but we decided to at least start moving and see how it went. Fortunately, by the time we were half way up Red Pine, we were both doing reasonably well and decided to keep going. After a few stops to tape blisters on Jen’s feet, we finally got to see the amazing 360-degree view from the top of the Pfeiff.
The snow on the few hundred feet back down to the saddle was wind-packed into a bullet-hard, glistening sketch fest to which the Megawatts were definitely not the right match. In addition to what was already a bit of a puckerfest for someone of my skiing ability, I had also neglected to bring my Whippet pole for some stupid reason, so any fall would have ended very badly. It’s the first time in my life that I’ve even cranked the toe piece of my Dynafits up to won’t-release-no-matter-what mode. I now understand why people would do that.
All in all, there wasn’t much good skiing today, but it was a nice adventure considering that we almost didn’t leave the house.
