The snow was soft now, and I was pretty tired, so the climb up Granite Chief was a tough one. I did see tracks that I took to be Dee, Arun and Rick's leading all the way to the summit. By now the snow was pretty soft and the going pretty slow. I summited just before 4, then skied down to the Granite Chief lift and up the cat road to the top of Emigrant lift by 4:20. Squaw was closing the majority of it's lifts for the season so this was the last harrah and I had the place to myself. Snow was a bit sloppy, but very skiable. The "sweep" patrol - about 10 of them, came up behind me on snowmobiles and skis and announced I was the last one on the last day and they had to see me off the mountain. The head guy asked where I had come from and I told him Sugar Bowl at 7:30 that morning. They seemed impressed - my legs certainly felt it! I finished the run at 4:40 - 20 minutes not too bad. Total elapsed time - 9 hours. I think I could have done it faster if I hadn't biked the previous day, and certainly could have taken 2 hours off the time if I hadn't skied up Granite Chief. Cleaned up and closed the ski cabin for the year and drove home, arriving around 10:45 pm. A fitting end to a great ski season!
Aaron Schuman adds:
A shout from Aaron and Mike far below.
Just about ten minutes below ... Tim let us catch up and we chatted for a bit before he continued on his way.