I'm in the background skiing the line on the gully lip, skiers left ahead of Dave and then I stop below and watch the show...
Monday, February 1, 2010
Asulkan... and now...back east
It took me a full 10 days to recover from the 10 day backcountry adventure. Got back to Nj and hosted an ice skating birthday party for Nina at the Ice House in Hackensack last Saturday. It was really fantastic too. Had to miss the 5 foot dump in JH and it was worth it. At 8% water content that stuff was heavy. I'm sure everyone enjoyed it and packed it out for a great base. Back to coaching and instructing at Campgaw. This little hill has sucked me and Nina in. A great crew and lot's of slalom turns on ice. Perfect training for Nina to negotiate an icy entrance to a powder filled couloir in her future. Or how about the only woman at the Asulkan hut who showed up with her husband (of course) and... her dad. They toured up and over the glacier on Young's Peak dropping the 50 degree first step of Paradise onto a windslab. They continued over the next six steps of windblownpow. How old was dad? probably about 65!!! Will any of our daughters become backcountry skiers and invite us on this kind of trip? - we all hope so.
We had a super group. The Magnificent Seven. Four canadiens and three Americans. We skied really well together. Our US contingent really took to the newly named "American Tree Triangle" Popping over pillow lines. Landing ten footers on some tight western steep lines with big pines that funneled into the top of the moustrap. We even hit it on our way out of the hut. Each day we farmed a new area rarely crossing our own tacks. By the time we were finished, the whole place looked tracked out. Yeah, we did that. And it was time to leave it all behind... until the next one. But thie next one won't include the 13-15hour car trips from JH. Thanks to satellite radio and Dave's obsession with classic rock, the radio sustained us and we did great out on the open road.
Crossing back into the US, the border guard asked "Where you guys been?" Response, "Touring on Roger's Pass." She hands us our passports back immediatley, "Oh you guys are Hardcore." That sounded so sweet! Keep skinning, and...
"May your turns be deep and ever so sweet"
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Evening Ridge-near nelson bc
A great cup of coffee and breakfast sandwich at Oso Negro with Dave. We toured up evening ridge. Skied off the backside fora arun. Sketch!!! Had to negotiate around some bad aspects. But with a bluebird day and the storm having passed, we were psyched to be out in the sunshine. The perfect pb&j lunch and then down a 1000 foot beautiful tree run. The snow was very spongy and the drifters floated. Out to prepare final fixins for dinner. Well actually Ian took care of that.
Stormy Stormy
Skied Whitewater-full on lift service . Bell to bell. Pillow lines deep cream cheese. The wind was howling.
A lot of discussions between Andrew and the other guys coming with us about when to go to the hut. The weather was real rough all day. We decided to delay our trip to the Asulkan hut by a day to be safer. Tomorrow a tour...
Border bs
Driving Driving Driving. 13 hours Rotated through drivers during fill ups. Border gurds slowed us down. After pulling us into a side area and searching a couple bags, talking mountain biking, skiing and keeping in touch with old friends on facebook, they had enough and let us go. A minor pia. Arrived in Nelson in time to see the entire Creighton family before they headed off to Vancouver early the next morning.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wed January 13th
We had hoped to ski the resort today but it just doesn't have the snow. So we toured again on Teton Pass with Dave, Tom McKay "Crawdad", and Ian. Tom put a couple of roses in a tree in remembrance of Big Wally and Jay Moody . We went out to Edelweis Bowl and skied The Nose. It was again variable and we all managed to find some good turns. A nice pb&j lunch and a great day to really get the skins under us. Tomorrow the drive...
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