Here's a few of the videos we took from Friday's tree skiing at Evening Ridge.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Westies
Yesterday was one of those perfect days in the mountains. Steve, Tim, and I headed up for a last tour before I move out of Nelson. The morning dawned completely clear, the sky that deep, rich blue that is so beautifully amplified by the contrasting snow draped mountains. We got an early start because the freezing levels were supposed to sky rocket to 2500 meters by the afternoon, but we skinned up in perfect 20 degree (-6 Celsius) weather. The glide of our skis made the refrozen snow crunch lightly underneath our feet.
Our plan for the day was to ski a line in Prospector's Bowl. Tim had never been there so we thought we'd let him taste what he'd been missing all season. However, when we arrived at the top of the chute to enter the bowl, it was obvious that today was not the day for it. The winds, which normally come from the southwest, had come from the northwest and had scoured and distorted the normally beautiful entrance. It looked like an avalanche waiting to happen, or at best, terrible skiing. Only 10 minutes away from the entrance to West Ymir, we decided it was best to look over there. When we got to the saddle we looked into the bowl and it looked perfect. The sun was just beginning to touch the North facing slope fueling our desire to sky it even more. There were 2 tracks in the bowl from some people who had skied a different line, but there didn't appear to be any movement within the snow. We quickly deskinned and dropped in. The snow was perfect. Hero snow. The winds that had scoured Prospector's had actually helped pull the moisture out of the snow, which was so heavy yesterday, making for effortless turns. I don't think I stopped smiling until hours after we were finished. Oh wait, I feel a grin coming on. This was definitely one of the most memorable times that I've skied West Ymir. Great visibility, great snow, and great friends. A perfect day.
Tim
Joshua
Steve
Friday, April 25, 2008
Evening Ridge Trees
This has been a funny month in the Kootenays. April hasn't quite decided if it's going to be winter or spring yet. One day it'll be sunny, hot and 70 degrees (20 Celsius) in Nelson, and the next day or two it will be snowing. The last couple days have been raining in town, but snowing up in the mountains. Never ones to say no to April powder, Steve and I had plans of doing a tour somewhere up in Ymir Bowl. However, the snow we hoped to ski also thwarted us a bit.
I took the winter tires off of my car about 3 weeks ago, because, well, its supposed to be spring. But that act made it a little challenging to get up to Whitewater today as they hadn't plowed the road and I just couldn't make it up the final hill to the parking lot. So, we reassessed and decided to ski over at Evening Ridge since we'd already passed the parking lot. We found about 6 inches in the parking lot and it only got deeper the higher we got. However, we also new that all of this snow, which was of the high density variety, was sitting on top of a thick crust and could slide easily if we weren't careful. So we opted to play it safe, do some exploring and check out a treed line that we'd never skied. Our ascent and descent line is in red.
Skinning up through beautifully spaced trees, we knew that the run down would be great.
The snow kept getting deeper the higher we got. There was up to 16 inches sitting on top of the crust and 12 of those inches were from the last few days. Can you believe this is April 25th?
We had a blast playing in the trees on the way down. Joshua enjoying the late April pow.
Steve going big.
More pillow fun.
I have a couple of videos from today, but they're having some problems uploading. I'll try and see if I can add them later, otherwise I'll put them in a new post.
I took the winter tires off of my car about 3 weeks ago, because, well, its supposed to be spring. But that act made it a little challenging to get up to Whitewater today as they hadn't plowed the road and I just couldn't make it up the final hill to the parking lot. So, we reassessed and decided to ski over at Evening Ridge since we'd already passed the parking lot. We found about 6 inches in the parking lot and it only got deeper the higher we got. However, we also new that all of this snow, which was of the high density variety, was sitting on top of a thick crust and could slide easily if we weren't careful. So we opted to play it safe, do some exploring and check out a treed line that we'd never skied. Our ascent and descent line is in red.
Skinning up through beautifully spaced trees, we knew that the run down would be great.
The snow kept getting deeper the higher we got. There was up to 16 inches sitting on top of the crust and 12 of those inches were from the last few days. Can you believe this is April 25th?
We had a blast playing in the trees on the way down. Joshua enjoying the late April pow.
Steve going big.
More pillow fun.
I have a couple of videos from today, but they're having some problems uploading. I'll try and see if I can add them later, otherwise I'll put them in a new post.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
The Whale's Back
I finally got the chance to ski a line that I've had my eye on ever since I first visited Whitewater: The Whale's Back. It's a fantastic line that takes you into some big avalanche terrain. The Whale's Back is actually a broad ridge between two gigantic avalanche start zones. It's a line off of Evening Ridge and offers a fantastic 2000 foot descent. Our ski line down in red.
Normally when I skin up to Evening Ridge, I've taken a path up through steep trees to gain the ridge line. However, today I thought we'd try and go through Hummingbird Pass because I'd heard it was faster. Well, it's not. The only thing it does is put you into a big terrain trap with lots of start zones above you and bad consequences if anything went wrong. We passed through today without problem, but I wouldn't go through there again. Steve in Hummingbird Pass.
A storm came through on Friday and Saturday and ended up leaving about 7 inches of new, wintery snow. On the way up the snow was very cold, dry and light, so there wasn't alot of concern about it turning into a slab because the sun wasn't out yet. Steve, Trevor, and I were all looking forward to light powder turns down this amazing line. However, about 20 minutes away from the top of our line, the sun decided to come out and it started baking our line. What we thought would be light powder started out a little heavy and got progressively heavier the lower we went. Steve, Joshua, and Trevor enjoying the heavy, but late season, powder.
Here's a little video of Steve on the lower half of the Whale's Back.
The sun's transformative power became quickly apparent to me the more we descended. The snow turned into heavy glop down low. I should have made myself pause a bit more before jumping into this line, having felt what I felt with the snow.
The sun had set the new snow up into a heavy slab and last weekends sun crust provided the perfect sliding layer. I ended up triggering a class 2 avalanche that fortunately I was able to get out of the way of, thanks to Steve yelling "Avalanche!" The slab broke about 30-40 feet wide and ran about 600 feet. Here I am with the avalanche starting to cut loose as I begin to get out of the way.
The start zone.
Looking down at the avi debris from half way down the slide path.
Looking back up. The crown and start zone are about 150-200 feet above this rollover.
Once I let everyone know that I was safe, Trevor began descending and inadvertently triggered another avalanche, class 1 to 1.5. I told Trevor to ski the bed surface of the path because he wasn't likely to trigger anything since it had already slid. The three of us skied down the path for a little bit before skiing mellow trees out and down to the bottom of the line.
Trev holding up some of the chunky debris.
Today was definitely an educational day. Honestly what impressed me the most was how much of a factor the sun can be, especially at this time of year where it sits high in the sky and the radiation effect is intense. The sun had really only been out for about 20-30 minutes before we dropped in, but that had been enough to turn cold, dry, blower snow into a dense, heavy, wet slab. It's always good to be able to learn these lessons and come home and write about them. Today was a good reminder to get even earlier starts this time of year and to never underestimate the power of the sun.
Normally when I skin up to Evening Ridge, I've taken a path up through steep trees to gain the ridge line. However, today I thought we'd try and go through Hummingbird Pass because I'd heard it was faster. Well, it's not. The only thing it does is put you into a big terrain trap with lots of start zones above you and bad consequences if anything went wrong. We passed through today without problem, but I wouldn't go through there again. Steve in Hummingbird Pass.
A storm came through on Friday and Saturday and ended up leaving about 7 inches of new, wintery snow. On the way up the snow was very cold, dry and light, so there wasn't alot of concern about it turning into a slab because the sun wasn't out yet. Steve, Trevor, and I were all looking forward to light powder turns down this amazing line. However, about 20 minutes away from the top of our line, the sun decided to come out and it started baking our line. What we thought would be light powder started out a little heavy and got progressively heavier the lower we went. Steve, Joshua, and Trevor enjoying the heavy, but late season, powder.
Here's a little video of Steve on the lower half of the Whale's Back.
The sun's transformative power became quickly apparent to me the more we descended. The snow turned into heavy glop down low. I should have made myself pause a bit more before jumping into this line, having felt what I felt with the snow.
The sun had set the new snow up into a heavy slab and last weekends sun crust provided the perfect sliding layer. I ended up triggering a class 2 avalanche that fortunately I was able to get out of the way of, thanks to Steve yelling "Avalanche!" The slab broke about 30-40 feet wide and ran about 600 feet. Here I am with the avalanche starting to cut loose as I begin to get out of the way.
The start zone.
Looking down at the avi debris from half way down the slide path.
Looking back up. The crown and start zone are about 150-200 feet above this rollover.
Once I let everyone know that I was safe, Trevor began descending and inadvertently triggered another avalanche, class 1 to 1.5. I told Trevor to ski the bed surface of the path because he wasn't likely to trigger anything since it had already slid. The three of us skied down the path for a little bit before skiing mellow trees out and down to the bottom of the line.
Trev holding up some of the chunky debris.
Today was definitely an educational day. Honestly what impressed me the most was how much of a factor the sun can be, especially at this time of year where it sits high in the sky and the radiation effect is intense. The sun had really only been out for about 20-30 minutes before we dropped in, but that had been enough to turn cold, dry, blower snow into a dense, heavy, wet slab. It's always good to be able to learn these lessons and come home and write about them. Today was a good reminder to get even earlier starts this time of year and to never underestimate the power of the sun.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Osoyoos
France and I spent Sunday and Monday in the quiet desert town of Osoyoos, only a few miles from the US border. When I first came up to visit France a few years ago she was living here. We thought it would be fun to come back out and visit. We met up with a few of France's old friends and ate a lot of good food!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Ski Touring in the Rockies
I just got back from two days of ski touring out in the beautiful Canadian Rockies. John, my friend from Banff, and I were supposed to head out to Roger's Pass in the Selkirks, but high freezing levels had us alter our plans. John invited me out to Banff to do some touring since things seemed to be getting a bit more stable out there. I thought it would be as good of an opportunity as ever to check out that neck of the woods.
While I was excited about skiing in such a beautiful and historical area, I was also a bit apprehensive about the skiing. The Canadian Rockies are known for being big, burly, very cold and windy, and have a notorious reputation for a shallow and dangerous snowpack. Yeah! Sounds like fun! John has lived in Banff for the past three years and is used to tip toeing around the area. He's conservative in his avalanche decision making, like me, and is a good guy to go touring with. On my drive out I was wondering where all the snow was, wondering what the heck we were going to ski. John assured me that he knew some spots, so we headed off to Kananaskis, an area south of Banff, full of dramatic peaks and broad glacial valleys.
Our destination was Tent Ridge. John had skied there several times in the past week, so he was feeling confident about its stability. Here's a view of the peak with our ascent route (in green) and the two laps we took down the main bowl (in red).
It was a nice mellow skin up through the trees and then the pitch picked up as we approached gained the ridge. Here's John enjoying the last bit of skinning before we had to boot pack up the rest of the ridge. Welcome to the Rockies. Snow on one side. Wind scoured rocks on the other.
John enjoying some sun on the way up.
Me on top, enjoying my first Canadian Rockies summit.
John and Joshua enjoying the views from on top of Tent Ridge.
Summit Video
This was John's third time skiing this line in the last 7 days, and one of those times, one of the people he was skiing with fell heavily and repeatedly on this slope. They also cut a cornice on it, and we did the same as well. So, we felt good about the stability. This was a fantastic line to ski. Fast, fall line skiing, with about 4 inches of powder on top of a firm layer. Not deep like the Kootenays, but still fun! Here's John dropping in.
John snapped this video of me skiing down the bowl (some language not okay for the kids on this one).
We headed up for a second lap off the shoulder of the ridge, and then headed on down through the trees back to the car. Skiing trees in the Rockies is not like skiing trees in the Kootenays. Because the snowpack is so low, everything you can think of is waiting to bite your ankles or provide a dramatic stop to your downhill progress. Definitely some of the spiciest tree skiing I've ever done. It was a relief to get back to the car in one piece. Can you say survival skiing?!
That night we cooked up some mean tacos with rice and beans. Unfortunately, it left us both with really nasty gas the next day as we headed up to check out an area that John had never been to around the Wapta Icefields. The day was bluebird, warm, and beautiful. We new the snowpack would be a little different up here. Even more shallow and faceted than in K-Country. We headed up into the alpine via fairly mellow terrain, with our objective to get up to Crowfoot Pass, which is the obvious pass in the photo.
The views were incredible the whole day and it was fantastic to be surrounded by such big mountains and huge glaciers. The geology and glaciology are just so incredible in the Rockies. We had to skin across some flats and then a frozen lake, a first for me, to begin gaining the pass. But the Crowfoot Glacier was there to keep us motivated for the mile long skin across it.
We skinned up through steep trees to gain the alpine and the views just kept getting better. John getting up to treeline.
Since the sun was out in full effect today, we didn't want to expose ourselves to any of the solar induced avalanches that we knew would be happening. From a safe spot, we got the pleasure of watching three small avalanches cascade down 1000 feet off of the cliff walls in front of us. John caught the first two on camera.
The terrain that looked mellow from the road, ended up being a bit convoluted once we got up into the alpine. And with the amount of faceted snow that we were finding, I wasn't okay with commiting us to the terrain that would need to be navigated to get to the pass. So after a fairly mellow 1000 foot climb, we ate some lunch and called it a day, skiing down very mellow 20 degree-ish slopes, then steeper trees and back across the lake to the car.
John minutes away from our high point.
Me with Bow Peak and Crowfoot Pass in the background at our lunch spot.
We had a great laugh on our way down as John demonstrated his skill in doing 100 turns in 100 feet. Look at him go!
Here's his twenty turns compared to my four turns.
All in all a great trip with John, and great to do some skiing in a new mountain range...but I'm glad to be back the deeper snowpack of the Kootenays :)
While I was excited about skiing in such a beautiful and historical area, I was also a bit apprehensive about the skiing. The Canadian Rockies are known for being big, burly, very cold and windy, and have a notorious reputation for a shallow and dangerous snowpack. Yeah! Sounds like fun! John has lived in Banff for the past three years and is used to tip toeing around the area. He's conservative in his avalanche decision making, like me, and is a good guy to go touring with. On my drive out I was wondering where all the snow was, wondering what the heck we were going to ski. John assured me that he knew some spots, so we headed off to Kananaskis, an area south of Banff, full of dramatic peaks and broad glacial valleys.
Our destination was Tent Ridge. John had skied there several times in the past week, so he was feeling confident about its stability. Here's a view of the peak with our ascent route (in green) and the two laps we took down the main bowl (in red).
It was a nice mellow skin up through the trees and then the pitch picked up as we approached gained the ridge. Here's John enjoying the last bit of skinning before we had to boot pack up the rest of the ridge. Welcome to the Rockies. Snow on one side. Wind scoured rocks on the other.
John enjoying some sun on the way up.
Me on top, enjoying my first Canadian Rockies summit.
John and Joshua enjoying the views from on top of Tent Ridge.
Summit Video
This was John's third time skiing this line in the last 7 days, and one of those times, one of the people he was skiing with fell heavily and repeatedly on this slope. They also cut a cornice on it, and we did the same as well. So, we felt good about the stability. This was a fantastic line to ski. Fast, fall line skiing, with about 4 inches of powder on top of a firm layer. Not deep like the Kootenays, but still fun! Here's John dropping in.
John snapped this video of me skiing down the bowl (some language not okay for the kids on this one).
We headed up for a second lap off the shoulder of the ridge, and then headed on down through the trees back to the car. Skiing trees in the Rockies is not like skiing trees in the Kootenays. Because the snowpack is so low, everything you can think of is waiting to bite your ankles or provide a dramatic stop to your downhill progress. Definitely some of the spiciest tree skiing I've ever done. It was a relief to get back to the car in one piece. Can you say survival skiing?!
That night we cooked up some mean tacos with rice and beans. Unfortunately, it left us both with really nasty gas the next day as we headed up to check out an area that John had never been to around the Wapta Icefields. The day was bluebird, warm, and beautiful. We new the snowpack would be a little different up here. Even more shallow and faceted than in K-Country. We headed up into the alpine via fairly mellow terrain, with our objective to get up to Crowfoot Pass, which is the obvious pass in the photo.
The views were incredible the whole day and it was fantastic to be surrounded by such big mountains and huge glaciers. The geology and glaciology are just so incredible in the Rockies. We had to skin across some flats and then a frozen lake, a first for me, to begin gaining the pass. But the Crowfoot Glacier was there to keep us motivated for the mile long skin across it.
We skinned up through steep trees to gain the alpine and the views just kept getting better. John getting up to treeline.
Since the sun was out in full effect today, we didn't want to expose ourselves to any of the solar induced avalanches that we knew would be happening. From a safe spot, we got the pleasure of watching three small avalanches cascade down 1000 feet off of the cliff walls in front of us. John caught the first two on camera.
The terrain that looked mellow from the road, ended up being a bit convoluted once we got up into the alpine. And with the amount of faceted snow that we were finding, I wasn't okay with commiting us to the terrain that would need to be navigated to get to the pass. So after a fairly mellow 1000 foot climb, we ate some lunch and called it a day, skiing down very mellow 20 degree-ish slopes, then steeper trees and back across the lake to the car.
John minutes away from our high point.
Me with Bow Peak and Crowfoot Pass in the background at our lunch spot.
We had a great laugh on our way down as John demonstrated his skill in doing 100 turns in 100 feet. Look at him go!
Here's his twenty turns compared to my four turns.
All in all a great trip with John, and great to do some skiing in a new mountain range...but I'm glad to be back the deeper snowpack of the Kootenays :)
Saturday, April 5, 2008
West Ymir + Pipline Chute + Hummer B
Today turned out to be one of those days that started modestly but ended surprisingly good. This weekend being the last weekend of operation for Whitewater, I thought that I'd try and do some backcountry stuff that is easily accessible from the lifts since they won't be around to give me their 1300 feet of vertical boost for much longer. After a quick inbounds lap to taste the freshly fallen powder, and to remind ourselves why we don't like skiing moguls, Steve and I headed up into the alpine and took a lap into West Ymir Bowl. The visibility was poo and it was like skiing blinded for the first half of the run, but the snow was still decent.
There are some fun inbounds chutes that lie above Catch Basin, but they require some skinning to get to. So we went for a lap in one of them, called Pipeline Chute. Here's me in it.
During lunch at the lodge we talked to some guys who had skied Hummer A and B that morning. They are two steep, but amazing couloirs, or chutes, that sit between Prospector's Bowl and West Ymir. I've looked at them many times and always wanted to ski them, but never thought much about hitting them up until today. We went up to take a look and they were big, steep, and impressive-just how they look from below. They were made all the more imposing by the fact that we couldn't see all the way down them because we were socked in by the clouds. After checking them out we decided to ski Hummer B. The entrance was spicy and super steep, but it then opened up into 40 to 40+ degree terrain where you could make nice jump turns down the long couloir. Here Steve descends into the beast.
After 500 feet or so of steep couloir goodness, it opens up into a steep open bowl where we just ripped big turns down the boot to knee deep powder. Amazing! Hummer B has to be one of the best lines I've skied around here. Here's me opening 'er up in the bowl.
And a video of Steve skiing the upper part of the bowl once we exited the chute. A-freaking-mazing run!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Ymir Peak
Be forewarned: This is a long blog post with lots of photos and video!!
Everybody who goes to Whitewater Ski Resort gazes up from the lodge to gorgeous Ymir Peak (pronounced why-mir). Although, not in bounds at the ski resort, Ymir is the King of the area. Ever since I moved to Nelson I've wanted to ski it. However, skiing Ymir takes you into fairly complex and big avalanche terrain. There had been a few opportunities to ski the peak earlier in the season, when stability was good, but I wasn't able to find a touring partner for those windows. Well, I convinced Steve to skip school today, because conditions were setting up great for a descent of Ymir. Fortunately for both of us my arguments proved persuasive.
Last Sunday was Whitewater's last day of full time operation. They are closed this week and will reopen this weekend for the last two days of the season. Normally, you could catch a ride up the lift and cut out about 1300 vertical feet of skinning. However, I'm much happier that this window presented itself when the resort was closed so we could really climb the peak without mechanical assistance. Steve and I pulled up to the parking lot just before 10:30 and began skinning up through the ski resort at 10:35am. Steve, in the parking lot, pointing at today's objective.
Here's a view of Ymir Peak. Our ascent route is in black. Descent route is in red.
Although neither one of us were feeling particularly quick today, we made good time and had the first 1350 vertical out of 2600 finished in the first 45 minutes. We gave ourselves three hours to summit, but it only took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Steve and I on the way up.
A view of the peak on the way up. We followed the steep corniced ridge/face leading up to the summit.
Steve skinning up the steep face.
Steve cresting the ridge.
Joshua almost at the summit.
Joshua on top.
Summit shot.
Summit Video.
We were going to ski directly off of the summit, but to get to Popcorn Ledge, the ramp above the cliffs in the route photo above, you have to go around the backside of the peak. Unfortunately, this side of the peak was totally wind hammered and gutted. We threw the skis on our backs and down climbed about 100-150 feet to where we could strap our skis on.
Steve down climbing.
Since neither one of us had been on this side of the peak, we weren't exactly sure where to drop off of Popcorn Ledge into the bowl below. There are several large cliff bands that you could get sucked into if you chose poorly. However, we found our way through fine. Here's me looking down at Steve's tracks from Popcorn Ledge down to the bowl just before I dropped in. The pitch was nice and steep and we had great boot deep powder the whole way down the bowl.
Joshua skiing from Popcorn Ledge down into Ymir Bowl.
Steve in Ymir Bowl. Popcorn Ledge is behind him.
Steve letting the skis run.
Me in Ymir Bowl.
A look back at some of our tracks.
Joshua enjoying the wide open run down.
Steve skiing lower down the bowl.
A look back at our descent route from the bottom of the bowl.
Skiing down Ymir offers a fantastic 2500+ vertical descent. We hit it just right. It stayed cloudy for the ascent, keeping the sun from loosening up some of the avalanche slopes we had to cross and from turning the snow into mush. The sun then came out for our descent giving us great light for our photos, but didn't have enough time to loosen things up before we were back at the car. I'm really glad to have ticked this one off the list for the season. A fantastic day!
Everybody who goes to Whitewater Ski Resort gazes up from the lodge to gorgeous Ymir Peak (pronounced why-mir). Although, not in bounds at the ski resort, Ymir is the King of the area. Ever since I moved to Nelson I've wanted to ski it. However, skiing Ymir takes you into fairly complex and big avalanche terrain. There had been a few opportunities to ski the peak earlier in the season, when stability was good, but I wasn't able to find a touring partner for those windows. Well, I convinced Steve to skip school today, because conditions were setting up great for a descent of Ymir. Fortunately for both of us my arguments proved persuasive.
Last Sunday was Whitewater's last day of full time operation. They are closed this week and will reopen this weekend for the last two days of the season. Normally, you could catch a ride up the lift and cut out about 1300 vertical feet of skinning. However, I'm much happier that this window presented itself when the resort was closed so we could really climb the peak without mechanical assistance. Steve and I pulled up to the parking lot just before 10:30 and began skinning up through the ski resort at 10:35am. Steve, in the parking lot, pointing at today's objective.
Here's a view of Ymir Peak. Our ascent route is in black. Descent route is in red.
Although neither one of us were feeling particularly quick today, we made good time and had the first 1350 vertical out of 2600 finished in the first 45 minutes. We gave ourselves three hours to summit, but it only took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Steve and I on the way up.
A view of the peak on the way up. We followed the steep corniced ridge/face leading up to the summit.
Steve skinning up the steep face.
Steve cresting the ridge.
Joshua almost at the summit.
Joshua on top.
Summit shot.
Summit Video.
We were going to ski directly off of the summit, but to get to Popcorn Ledge, the ramp above the cliffs in the route photo above, you have to go around the backside of the peak. Unfortunately, this side of the peak was totally wind hammered and gutted. We threw the skis on our backs and down climbed about 100-150 feet to where we could strap our skis on.
Steve down climbing.
Since neither one of us had been on this side of the peak, we weren't exactly sure where to drop off of Popcorn Ledge into the bowl below. There are several large cliff bands that you could get sucked into if you chose poorly. However, we found our way through fine. Here's me looking down at Steve's tracks from Popcorn Ledge down to the bowl just before I dropped in. The pitch was nice and steep and we had great boot deep powder the whole way down the bowl.
Joshua skiing from Popcorn Ledge down into Ymir Bowl.
Steve in Ymir Bowl. Popcorn Ledge is behind him.
Steve letting the skis run.
Me in Ymir Bowl.
A look back at some of our tracks.
Joshua enjoying the wide open run down.
Steve skiing lower down the bowl.
A look back at our descent route from the bottom of the bowl.
Skiing down Ymir offers a fantastic 2500+ vertical descent. We hit it just right. It stayed cloudy for the ascent, keeping the sun from loosening up some of the avalanche slopes we had to cross and from turning the snow into mush. The sun then came out for our descent giving us great light for our photos, but didn't have enough time to loosen things up before we were back at the car. I'm really glad to have ticked this one off the list for the season. A fantastic day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)