Duffey Powder - Dec 28 & 29, 2010

words and photos by Sharon Bader and Lee Lau unless otherwise noted.

December 28, 2010

Sharon and I had been doing entirely too much inbounds lately. With 150cms of new snow in the Whistler area over the past week before Christmas we had resigned ourselves to skiing inbounds and duking it out with the (surprising lack of) resort monkeys in Blackcomb. This new dump of snow also meant that our favorite areas in the Duffey were now prime and ready to go. Dec 28th and we headed up with Tyler, Trevor and Kevin to reunite North Van cidiots, Surrey and Lillooet in one glorious righteous plundering of new snow.

This was supposed to be an easy day just to work out the kinks especially since it was Ty's first day back after three months of developing couch-butt recovering from an injury. However, 120cms of stable storm snow in Chief Pascall lured us on. We contented ourselves with a 1500m of vertical, and chest deep refills run after run. The quality of snow was adequate for our needs.

Of note, ski pen was approx 35 - 50cms. Boot pen was 80 - 100cms. Temps - 5 to - 7. Overcast. Winds light from SW.

Graybeard skin up

Kevin - guaranteed rugged

Trevor

Sharon

Chief Pascall from Tyler Wilkes on Vimeo.

December 29, 2010

It was so good that we returned to the Duffey the next day. With more information on the snowpack (gained from yesterday), we were keen to revisit old lines and seek a bit more steepness. The winds had played havoc with aspects up higher so we settled for a wall with a few 300 - 400 m shots of steep pow. Although another party followed our tracks they left us lots of room and we managed laps of non-wind-affected powder skiing. Ty had to get back to Vancouver early so we skipped one lap and headed out after 1400m of vertical. Coverage in lower elevations is now good enough that skiing out to the road is relatively trouble - free.

Of note, ski pen was approx 30-35 cms after the steep approach. Temps - 11 to - 15. Scattered clouds. Winds light from NE.