Nugget Creek --- same kind of ending

Rick Reese examines the layers in the pit he dug

Matt Marcinek enroute

I was hoping that some of the snow that had fallen over the past nine days would have made the lower end of Nugget Creek a bit more ski-able.
Unfortunately, not.
We thrashed around in the dark a week ago Sunday after pushing snowpack around all day on the High Porphyry run. Today, the track was fast but thin down below and we ended up passing on what are usually some of the best tele slopes of the run.
Luckily for us, though, the turning in the Mizpah bowls was exceptionally good.
We dug a pit and found the snow moderately sketchy ---- a couple of feet of powder on the hoarfrost. But the slopes are at about 23 percent where we went down and we took an educated gamble which turned out to be a good choice.
For me, that was the best fun of the day.
The further we got into the ski trip the clearer the ski became and we skied in mid-afternoon sun.
It was interesting to have Wayne Phillips along since he conceived this route about 7 years ago. I was able to see how our route more than a week ago varied from his.
We took off further south on the ridge above Nugget Creek and came down slightly south of where he finally landed in the bottom on Wednesday.
It was a fine ski despite the ugly snow on the bottom.