Thought I'd go see how corny the snow got the last few days and hopefully get a few corn turns on this little south facing slide south of the notches. I needed something that could kick a few miles back, in more comfort than plastic, but I also wanted somthing that would be stiff enough to ski fun on the slide if there were good enough conditions, so I came up with a package. I dug out my old Merrill Super comps, grabbed some rock skis mounted with three pin hardwires, don't forget the bamboo touring poles, and some short narrow little kick skins. I've done this tour a few times, different set up every time, don't know why it took me so long to come up with this one, it worked great. Got a good kick and glide on the long rd portion of the tour, snowmobile pack corned up nice! The bushwack was a bit of mashed potato trench warfare, rock skis only 88 under foot and too late of a start. Frozen snow in the shade was totally supportive in spots, kept the hope alive that the higher elevation of the slide would stay firm enough long enough. I pushed on racing against the mashed, questioning myself every hollow step of the way, but I didn't really care, with warm spring sunshine hitting my shoulder all was good. Then, near the base of the slide, the snow firmed up. Freezing rain created a crust that buffered the heat from digging into the snow, and finally after all that work I was going to get some corn on a backwoods slide!