It’s another lovely winter day in the Highlands, where the color of the sky and the snow merge between the flocked and frosted trees. There was brand new grooming on Antoine this morning and we followed it up Hello Kitty. The skate platform was perfectly textured and the track, which George was using with his skin skis, was in mint shape except for a few places where trees had dropped debris. When we got into the aspen we stopped at an array of huge bark flakes on the snow, and looked up to see two small larch trees stripped to the cambium on one side of each stem. We had watched a pileated woodpecker throw bark in the same way off a dying Ponderosa last summer, and assumed that was the responsible bird, but we didn’t hear or see any sign of a living woodworker (except for George).

It’s always such a joy to skate across the top of Hello Kitty after a climb that I never seem to get used to. When we reached Antoine again it was in good shape, though not as recently groomed, and we continued counter clockwise and went over the top. Once on the other side, the grooming was new again, which made coming down really fun. We descended into the frosty cloud we had seen laying over the mountain and frosted ourselves, making the lift to the junction with Goshawk a welcome chance to warm up a little. As we approached the last leg we met other skiers beginning their way around, a continuing highlight of our outings.Come ski!"

~Patti Baumgartner