Up front/down back. Was supposed to meet J.P. at 4:15pm, but ended up having to bail. At the last minute though, I got the nod that I could indeed go, so I hurried in hopes of catching up to and surprising J.P. who I thought was ahead of me (I started around 4:20pm). I was moving cautious, trying to not twist an ankle in the foot + deep fluff, as it was hard to predict what I was really stepping on. I was mostly limited by footing, which in turn kept the physical effort relatively low. Once past the Saddle/Greenman jct., there were fewer tracks, down to 2 or 3 from 3 or 4.
I soon noticed that a big dog (or what initially looked like big dog prints) had walked on the footprints of those ahead of me. The tracks seemed to appear from nowhere, as I had not seen them until after the junction (Mountain Lion maybe?). On the summit, I swapped into a dry wool hat, added a windbreaker and got the lights up and running for the descent. It was obvious that the back had more traffic and has a smoother base, so I opted to head down that way to keep ankle twisting to a minimum. I moved quick at times, but mostly cautious. Bumped into Tony, Scott and Joe at the Greenman/Ranger junction and chatted with them for a few minutes. I only ate it once heading down, luckily in a very soft section of deep snow, but had many near misses.
Never did see J.P., but saw his car when I finished. Sorry I missed you.
Splits:
Top of Amphi: 8:30
Greenman/Saddle: 28
Summit: 50
Descent: 29
1:19 RT
