My first Pic of the season
December 31, 2005
Ok. Here it is. This was last tuesday at Tline. The Pic is of my son on upper salamander.
![](http://users.adelphia.net/~wendell_ellen_sam/images/uppersalamander1.jpg)
Dang. Nice. Whenever I go to Timberline, Upper Salamander looks like an arctic wasteland. I could just as easily stand in front of a white wall and photograph that. Glad to see the sun and blue skies come out once in a while!
Artic wasteland is a tip of the iceberg for Timberline. I've been there probably 25 times in 3 years and have seen it in just about every condition from -20*F windchills to 50* toasty afternoons. My personaly favorite has to be however when the temperature is down in the single digits during midweek when hardly anyone is there. Going down that straight shoot from the entrance to Salamander to that first turn reminds me of being on the Alaskan or Canadian backcountry. The pine trees do alot to add to that affect. Being on a snowboard I've hit some of those windy days on that first large turn against the fall line that can take me going from 25mph to a near dead stop. The wind that comes up that valley is fierce and I swear once me and a few others who had to walk down that turn because of the wind, we weren't walking on the salamander, but the antartic ice plate.
The day started out with the typical gray skys and fog, but by 1230 it was perfect.
I'm EXTREMELY jealous now. :P Me being with limited time and a poor vehicle to get me to CV, I'm anxious to go at least twice this year.