Late April— snow is everywhere but the lifts are closed. It doesn't always make sense to me, for example, why Aspen Highlands' maximum base depth is often reached on or near the mountains closing day. There's still so much skiing to be had when everyone starts thinking 'summer'.

Jared agreed, so we went to Quandary. In ten days or so I was headed to Peru with Chris Carmichael and Jann Stoeckl for three weeks, I wanted some acclimaztizing before tackling our laundry list of 5000-6000meter peaks we were hoping to summit(it wouldn't come so easily).

This was standard Quandary. We skinned the East Ridge from the car all the way to the summit, I can't quite recall how long it took, but quick comes to mind. The greatest part of the day was eating lunch within petting distance of a whole pack(?) of mountain goats. Jared was glad I had that disposable camera.

Weather was fine, snow in the Cristo was getting soft. The ski down was possibly the best I've had in this couloir. I'd show everyone but the camera that captured it all, lunch w/ goats included, never made it back to the car because of my 'chronic unzippered pockets syndrome'(CUPS-self diagnosed). Bummer.

We got home and I sold Christy and Jill on a trip to Grays and Torreys, which I thought looked good from Quandary today. We would leave in the morning.

Zip up!