Hand Crack and Singletrack: 9to5 work+skiing=Ἀπόλλων

Apollo Couloir on Mt Olympus

Can you really ski anything cool during the week when you work till 4 or 4:30?
Yes.

I met up with fellow 9-5er Pete and unemployed "I ski everyday dont be jealous" Court at 4 today at the Olympus Hills Dan's to see what could be done on a wednesday afternoon with the estimated sunset around 6:45 or so. With the city's bright lights close by, we thought we could get away with 7 pm being the cutoff time before headlamps were required.

We drove up Oakridge Dr to the tippy top, parked at the private gate, donned the necessary gear, and started schwaking up through the dense and thick wooded nature grove from the bad place that guards the entrance to the Apollo Couloir on Olympus. Advanced skinning technique required. It took us an hour to gain the couloir proper, with one side detour following a fellow skier's skin track who we ran into in the shrubbery that claimed he had just skied Apollo, when in fact he had skied some really crappy-looking chute thing. Having been in Apollo many times in the summer, I was confident I knew to continue up the 5.tree rated gully for another few hundred yards, but due to my track record not often do my friends believe me. Luckily I was right this time and we made it to the actual open couloir without too much pain.

Court enjoying some schwak

More schwak

Pete struggling on the mandatory 5.6 tree assist mantle over the snow hump while Court laughs

We skinned up the awesome couloir on pretty dang good snow, stopping about 100 yards from the top where Zeus comes in due to darkness. Nevertheless, we were stoked with the turns we got. It was some really good skiing in a wide enough chute to actually turn. Found a fun hopper, then skied out through the endless drops and eye whipping trees to the cars, all by 7 pm. The boys went to Apollo Burger to round out the linkup, but I had leftover pulled pork and rolls from some ortho rep at work waiting for me in the car. As court put it, "what a gem!"