XC Ski Tophet Chasm

We've had the best snow in years over the last two weeks, so I've been XC skiing instead of biking. (At the same time, the snow piles at intersection corners are so high that I've heard car drivers voice fears about the poor visibility with other cars.) For the first week I warmed up on the trails I help maintain behind my work building. After that, inspired by MF's description of snowshoeing there, I took my skis to Tophet Chasm. This is a place I've mountain biked plenty of times, but it hadn't occurred to me that it could be skied.

When I bike at Tophet I usually drill Oak Hill, which for me is a textbook on climbing and descent. When I go with friends we generally take in the Chasm trail too, but I'm still nervous on it. There are only one or two places where this trail is beyond my strength/skill, and that would be ok. My problem is controlling fear as the side drop on the right side of the trail steepens as we climb, becoming downright cliff-like.

The first time I went to the chasm, I brought snowshoes and fully expected to need them for the approach to the chasm. Half of it is a fire road, but so steep that I can have trouble biking it. I found I never needed the snowshoes, and was further surprised that other ski tracks were already on the trail. I skied up and down the trail a couple times, and tried a little off-trail. The whole area was spectacularly beautiful, and the skiing was wonderfully fun. It's a tribute to the quality of the snow that as of Thursday there were only about three bits of exposed rock on this trail under pines.

I took these pictures going both ways on the trail. I found the lens of our digicam isn't wide enough to capture a real flavor of the trail alongside the chasm edge. The picture above shows the steepest place on the Chasm trail, where someone approaching the camera skis down a steep rock face. It's so steep I've never biked it, but these pictures look more flat than the real place. My climb requires stair-stepping through the trees to the left of the trail, around that rock, and as far as I can tell I'm the only one doing that, so I believe the other skiers are descending only. (That surprises me because descending is much riskier than the climb.)

Forecast shows another good week, staying below melting and some snow Wed, so I'll be out there some more. One of the great things about Tophet is it's nearly on the way to work when I drive, so stopping there on the way to the office costs little time and energy. I hope the XC ski season keeps on running!