Fairy Meadows - March 17 to 31, 2007

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Fairy Meadows - March 17 - March 31, 2007
Day 4 - Mar 20 - Swan Creek trees

Words and pictures by Lee Lau unless noted otherwise

WEEK 1 - || Day 2 and 3 - Mar 18 and 19 - Practise slopes - Hut moraine - Echo Glacier - Swan Creek trees || Day 4 - Mar 20 - Swan Creek trees || Day 5 - Mar 21 - Echo Glacier - Granite Glacier - Pioneer Pass approach || Day 6 - Mar 22 - Echo Glacier - Friendship Col - Practise Slopes || Day 7 - Mar 23 - Echo Glacier - Friendshop Col - Outpost Ridge trees ||

It's apparent that the crowd I'm skiing with is not the type to get up at the crack of dawn. Most people are out of bed at 8am or so and not rolling out of the hut till 10am. Can't say I blame them as an early daylight savings time change has meant that the sun doesn't set till 8am or so. It also gives us time to dig out the sauna, the bathrooms and the waterhole - another 25 - 30cms falls overnight. During the day another 15 - 20 cms falls. Ridiculous doesn't begin to describe it.

View east down to Kinbasket Lake along Swan Creek. Outpost Peak and the Swan Creek north-facing treed runs are to picture right.

The Swan Creek runs

Stability isn't all that bad. The storm snow isn't terribly well bonded to underlying areas but it fell without much wind and fell at an ambient air temp of close to freezing. Stability improves throughout the day. The best call seems to be to stick to trees and it's not too hard to find pillows and convexities to ski-cut. Most ski-cuts flush out the top layers and then it's a piece of cake to ski out the sluff.

Jeremy sets the tone for the day

A short-lived sunny break

Sunny breaks are short-lived and we're only too happy to take advantage of the added visibility in the trees, lapping the Swan Creek north facing slopes until we're wet and tired.