The Circus

After about the third time that Bode came home and bragged about skiing The Cirque, I decided it was finally time that his old man gave it a whirl. My buddy Scott was up for the weekend and we figured it was as good a time as any.

The hike starts at over 12,000 ft (~3700 m) and winds around the ledge of a cornice to some pretty crazy looking chutes. After about 400 meters, you can sometimes catch ‘The Sled’ but you need a special pass that costs 20 bucks. The sled was there, but we didn’t have the pass. We hiked it all the way around – maybe a few kilometers.

At the top, it’s double-black diamond territory. Not my normal run. You can’t see over the edge – you just have to drop over and hope for the best. We spent about 15 minutes sizing up the entire cornice and trying to decide our best options – the goal for our first time was just to find the easiest way down.

We dropped it. We survived. We had fun. Of course, from the bottom it doesn’t look nearly as gnarly as it does from the top.

Next time, we’re bringing Bode as our guide.