Saint Mary's Glacier

So we went skiing at Saint Mary's Glacier. Cold front was moving in with some snow in the forecast and we decided to go for it. About a half an hour up 70 East and a sketchy/icy/winding road up a steep mountain later, we found ourselves strapping on our ski boots and gearing up for the first day of the year...in SEPTEMBER. It was really weird cause it felt like yesterday that I was putting on my shit up in New England to go shred. Anyways, the hike was tedious, rocky, steep, icy, and so damn hard in ski boots. I was sucking air pretty hard too due to the fact that my body was still getting adjusted to the altitude change from being back East. Nick decided to hike up the main glacier slope and rip down from the top. Although his run was mellower, it seemed like he was able to make some nice big turns in, which must've felt pretty sweet. My chosen line, on the other hand, was a little bit hairier and idiotic. It involved climbing up a steep zone that was full of jagged and icy rocks, followed by a traverse over/above this huge exposed and steep field of ice chunks, then finally arriving at my dropping point; the top right corner of the face. The climb was scary and very sketchy at times, but I was just so stoked to finally be in CO with a pair of skis and some snow that I kept pushing forward. When I got to my dropping point though, I literally said out loud to myself: "what the f*** was I thinking?" All I could see was a steep drop off with ice on one side, rocks and cliffs on the other, and a short alley of semi-skiiable snow. It also took some time for me to crawl around the little area and find the best spot to click in and get myself prepared. Long story short, I made it. Dropped in, made two or three hopping turns, then straight lined it through the rocks and ice down into the valley. Hauling ass to say the least. Perfect way to get the adrenaline pumping and the stoke factor up for a sick season! My hike-to-ski route is shown below by the shitty paint job I did on my Mac. The pic doesn't include the steep rock climb I had to do over to the right to initially get up to the top of the slope. Nor does it do justice to how steep it really was. Whole different world at the top. Sick line though.