Never Call Last Run...

It usually just takes one photo to motivate me to go ride something. 36 hours ago, I was content with being back in summer. Not expecting to go snowboarding till late October or early November. Then I came across a photo on Instagram of someone skiing the snowfield on Mount Timpanogos. Knowing there were still turns to be had, I texted my friend Tony Aadland to see if he'd be interested in going for it. Naturally he said yes so it was time to mount the bindings on the rock board and prepare for today's suffer fest... Getting out of bed when you know you're going to subject yourself to some pain and suffering is always difficult. Today was no different. I could have easily turned my alarm off when it went off at 5am and went back to sleep. But where's the adventure in that? When I got to Tony's house, he was also struggling to get motivated for the day. We were both wondering what the hell we were doing. After all, it is August 17 and there was a very good chance we'd get all the way to the top only to walk right back down without even strapping in.

We were both wondering what the hell we were doing.

The total hike up and down is 10 miles. That's a long way to go with snowboards strapped to your back only to get shut down. You just have to push out those doubts and start walking. Lucky for us, our trek up Timp was not a waste of time. There were two fairly large patches of snow on what many people in Utah refer to as the "Timpanogos Glacier" (Whether or not it is an actual glacier is up for debate). We managed to go snowboarding in mid August in Utah after one of the hottest summers in Salt Lake history. A lot of people would probably say that only making a handful of turns is not worth hiking as far as we did. I think it's always worth it. Any time you can make turns this late in the summer without being in the Southern Hemisphere is a rare treat.

Any time you can make turns this late in the summer without being in the Southern Hemisphere is a rare treat.

The season is probably over for real now. But you never know! Never call last run!