Heading for untouched snow

After a lovely day celebrating Telefest at Powderhorn Ski Resort
we headed up to Mesa Creek to check out some backcountry ski runs.  Back before Powderhorn was created, Mesa Creek, or "Old Powderhorn" was the Mesa's only ski resort.  There were tow lines and a warming hut...but people wanted more, so the whole works moved down to the current location and Powderhorn Resort was born.  What was left were some awesome runs that just required a little more work to get to.

This link was quite helpful to us in helping us to see where the runs were, which way we should head, etc.  We got to the parking lot around 10:40 or so, got all our gear together (backpacks, skins on skis, helmet, water, snacks, cameras, map, etc.) and headed across the sled hill around 11.  At this point there were no kids on the sled hill at all!

It took us a few minutes, but we eventually located the bridge across Mesa Creek and carefully began our ascent.  Never having skied UP anything before, I wasn't sure how the skins would grip the snow or how much effort it would take to glide up.  Turns out it was fairly easy! 

Several times I had to stop and rest.  Each time I thought to myself, "This is just like backpacking...all the hard work is rewarded with a great campsite...or in this case, skiing DOWN!"  Or I would think about biking and how sometimes you have to work really hard on the uphill to get some awesome downhill bike time.  Mostly what I kept thinking was just how beautiful it all was.  The sun was shining, trees were snow covered, and the only sounds were us breathing and the occasional "whoop" of joy from the sledders now busily traipsing up and down the sled hill.

Finally we reached the top.  What a beautiful view!  There were no other ski tracks around that day...we could see old ones, but it was clear we were the first ones to the top of the hill Sunday.  We'd skinned up Pruess, one of the old blue runs, and as you can hear from the video, skiing down was well worth the trip up!  We made one more hike to the top and then called it a day.  We will definitely be back!