DEEP, Insane Powder Skiing at Monashee Powder Snowcats

This was the best powder skiing conditions we've ever had. It was DEEP, brutally cold, Insane Powder Skiing at Monashee Powder Snowcats

[petehawley]

Dem were the days 😢 70+ now but what a highlight reel this pulls up in my mind. Early 70’s we pitched in and bought a 4 pontoon cat from Squaw that had been in an avalanche. Pounded it out and got to zerking the 50+ nipples and cranked it up (Plymouth straight 6?). Montezuma, below The basin. Sway Basin before the Pallavicini lift, yes it used to be a hike, was our quasi base. The “Steep and the deep” Arapaho Basin pass that year was a hundred bucks but could be worked off with a few weekends of spreading hay to hold the early snow. Latest day of recall was June 14 with 36” of new snow. We were all fresh back from the customary pilgrimage to Escondido (Maybe 3 surfers to be seen or Bullfrog Marina in Utah). Had two idiot’s hanging off one side like a Hobi cat to keep from tumbling down the switchbacks. Sunburned my armpits and a few cases of snow-blind including my dog Rico. Yikes! Also do remember driving it down Main Street in Frisco on New Years eve and not a soul in sight. “As the Summit Turns” as we used to refer to Summit County Co. Came from a year in Aspen in 1972 to put a a Teepee in Ten Mile canyon and buy the first lift ticket Cooper sold. They declined to take my picture cause l smelled of open campfire smoke (What’s up with that?) We truly believed that we were born to cut the boundary ropes before the B-lifts😮. Rico, Nyberski and a few others have passed but oh dem memories. Wifey got a job with Pan Am in 86 and left (Snowboarding was illegal) to grow up and that has proven to be a moving target but oh dem memories. Never got the hang of surfing but powder skiing is still a close second behind sex. Keep these clips coming please.