We headed downtown and I was psyched when we walked up to my favorite sushi place. The surprise was just beginning. We were a few minutes early so we grabbed a drink at the bar before heading into the reserved seating area that I had always wanted to check out. There are pillow on the floor in front of a very short table. I always thought it was really cool but it must hurt to crouch down like that while you eat. Turns out that under the table it is cut out so you can stretch out like normal. This was pretty key when everyone started showing up and in our group of friends we had one pregnant and one that just got knee surgery. One by one all of our best friends from Seattle showed up. It was great to be surrounded by all my favorite people in Seattle, great sushi, and some tasty beers. We all had a great time eating way too much and chatting away. Before we knew it 11pm had arrived and it was time to head out. Thanks again to everyone, it was a great time!!We got home with plans to catch up for one last drink but I was heading out early in the morning to go up into the mountains with Ross and decided it was a good idea to call it a night.
Saturday morning I rolled out of bed, met up with Ross, threw the last of my gear in the car, and we headed out of Seattle. We headed back into the mountains after the snow gods had blessed us with 3-5 feet of new snow, depending on where you went. We pulled up into the Hyak snowpark parking lot (same place as last week) at about 9:30. The plan was to take the same route up but then branch off and head over to the Kendall clearcut. This is a mountain just next to Kendall Peak (sort of) that was clearcut years ago and has trees coming back in but is still open enough that it is a fun place to ski.
We made pretty good time getting up to the top of the road and then headed out into new territory. It looks pretty straight forward getting over to the road that we planned to take to the top of the clear cut. Once we got close though we realized we were going to have to get across a crevasse about 10 feet down. The creek that runs through the valley had managed to keep this gap open all winter. We had to move quite a ways up the mountain before we found a snow bridge that was substantial enough for us to cross on. After this little adventure we decided to take a nice long lunch/coffee break.
After lunch we kept heading up and discovered that there were going to be several snow bridges we were going to cross before we made it to the main part of the road. Things turned out great and we managed to work our way over to the road and head up. and up.... and up some more.... That mountain was a lot taller than it looked. We set a turn around time of 2:30 and as soon as 15-20 minutes were left we kicked it in to high gear and surprised ourselves as we crested the top of the mountain. We took a few minutes to catch our breath but the high winds had us strapping on the boards for the ride down pretty quickly.
It was not a long ride but we got some great turns in. We even scouted a much better run for next time. Funny how you don't see the routes until you are looking back at where you came. The snow was amazing and worth every inch of the climb.
I am getting better on the splitboard but still have a bit to learn. These past few weekends have been a great way to get out and figure out what I am doing.
Saturday night the neighbors all got together for a mexican dinner out over in Greenwood. After that we took it easy over at Jake and Kays until about midnight when I headed back home.
Sunday arrived early and Natalie and I hit the road/ferry to Bainbridge Island for an open house at the resort where we are having the rehearsal dinner and are having guests stay for the wedding. It was a beautiful day and we knocked out several big items on our to do list as well as tasting all of the choices for the rehearsal dinner. Luckily there was enough time to squeeze in a good sun break out on the back lawn of the hotel overlooking the water. Not bad...After the open house we headed over to the Farm Kitchen (where we are getting married) to meet a potential florist. We got there a early and soaked up a little more sun before meeting with Amy (the florist). She was great and we gave her a deposit before packing up and heading to dinner at a little restaurant on the water looking back at Seattle.
Now that was a great weekend!
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