Handlebars as an ice ax

Had a sublime ride today with Jake and Buck. All other folks were probably skiing so we three scored the primo conditions by ourselves. The first hour or so, the ride was incredible: I was understanding the slickrock references folks were talkin' 'bout on the front end of this ice storm. Yes, 11 days after the Valentines Day ice storm, with a warm period in between, and the crust was still hard and ridable with great purchase. Sticky love was flowin'.

We dropped this no-name twisty gully (known as the gully that knocked Buck out once), and it was off the charts. I couldn't stop laughing and grinning the whole way down.
Bobsled-like,
banked turns that you could really rail.
Apparently this trail isn't that fun when it's dry; it's real rutty and rocky, but the snow had it completely filled in and we rode on top of it, as fast as we wanted.

We tried a descent called Asscrack Trail. A steep, hard to follow, off-camber drop off Piney Mountain. The crust was slick, too hard to walk, but easy enough to ride, until the trail started slanting sideways.
Then it got interesting
Many tire slip falls had us in "slide for life" situations, sliding on down until we hit, or could grab a tree. If we still had our bike with us, we could jab the handlebars into the snow and do a self-arrest. Then we'd have to kick steps to get back up to the trail.
Sketch City.
Jake took a fall, did not have the bike with him. He slid quickly downhill, far below his bike until he met a tree. That sketched him out pretty good. He'll be taking a big bruise to Peru next week. Lucky he's not taking a cast.

The snow had picked up by then and was giving us a few inches of freshies, and no more great purchase. Jake took the quickest way home, and Buck and I continued on searching for some more fun. It was still fun at that point. The many off-camber sections of Community Service started squeezing some of the fun out for me, but the rest of the trail was sweet. Deeper snow after that, and it turned the usually mild Log Sled climb into a hike in several sections.
Yes, walking up Log Sled,
starting to get a little workout in now.
trying not to sweat

I got back just in time to get the Subaru up Jake's long steep driveway before that became sketchy too. Thanks to Mrs. Gettier for the fine turkey chili to top off the day!

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