After a gut busting breakfast at the Original Pancake house, I had to get out for a few peaks to burn off the guilt.
Sierra and I started from the S. Mesa TH, headed up Homestead to Shadow and went up S. Boulder first. I went a solid moderate pace, but the piffy fresh snow, a bit of waiting on Sierra and a social stop after bumping into some acquaintances all added up to a somewhat slow ascent. Oh well, it was crappy footing and I was not very determined.
I took a few minutes on S. Boulder to put on my jacket, changed into a dry hat and warmer, dry gloves, snacked, drank some water and then headed over to Bear. Even with the Microspikes, I was slip sliding all over and just took it really easy. There were some tracks up the steepest approach to the summit of Bear, which I assumed to belong to Homie (I called him before I left, but I had missed him by a while). I contemplated heading over to Green, but I just was not feeling a strong enough pull, so I called it a day.
I took the descent super casual and cautious, as conditions were slick, with the middle section being hard rock under unconsolidated powder snow. Hiked a bit with my friends who I caught up to on the Homestead Trail and soon continued on.
Once I arrived back at the TH, I got a message from Allison stating she was just starting up the trail down near Eldo (the apparently un-named one on the left ~.25 mile before getting into the town of Eldo), so I headed over there where we put in an extra hour of running into the canyon via the Fowler Trail. It was snowing hard and I was pretty cold and low on energy, so I eventually bailed while Allison added on the Goshawk Trail. Great day in the snow.
Splits:
S. Boulder: 1:05
Bear: 1:18
Finish: 2:01
+ an extra hour in Eldo
