We made it to Echo Sum­mit this evening, under 1100 miles to go. It was an inter­est­ing stretch as this it’s my home turf and I have hiked and skied this stretch count­less times. How­ev­er this was or first stretch ski­ing on this trip. We made good time in com­plet­ing the sec­tion in two and a half days, includ­ing two 25 mile days. The ski­ing has been rel­a­tive­ly effi­cient but has also had moments of com­plete mis­ery. It has been tough on the burned out sec­tions where the snow pack is dwin­dling to maneu­ver and con­nect the snow tongues. In these areas I dream of my snow­shoes and bowl­ing between dry trail and snow as if it does­n’t mat­ter. This morn­ing Pep­per had a bind­ing mal­func­tion too and could­n’t get it into tour­ing mode. It froze up after we walked across a creek in our skis and then had to spend twen­ty min­utes bik­ing water to de-ice the bind­ing. Indeed a com­bi­na­tion of mis­ery and glo­ry. The glo­ry being some nice corn turns and cov­er­ing about a mile and a half in about ten minutes.
We con­tin­ue south in the morning.