Fairy Meadows – Day 9 – Practise slopes – Swan Creek trees

Exchange day and conditions really sh&* the big one. Freezing levels rose, 35 cms of snow fell on the already wet dense 20+ cms of yesterday. I cowered in a corner in the back of the lodge and furiously ate trying to recover lost body weight, dreaming of my wife flying in with a 12 pack of cream horns from Revelstoke’s Chalet Bakery.

It was not meant to be, I listened as both Don and Craig of Golden’s Alpine Helicopters tried to get even one flight off the ground. It was raining hard in Golden and visibility was pretty much nil at the hut. Frantic phone calls, rescheduling flights and shifts were made by our group and we settled in for another night.

The next day the weather broke and the birds flew. Little did we know that the next few days would bring bluebirds of happiness to the North Selkirks glaciers and peaks.


View north down Kinbasket Lake from the bird ~photo Benet Summers


Gothics Glacier and the Gothics Group from Kinbasket Lake ~photo Benet Summers


Kate jumps into all this new snow on the Swan Creek tree runs


Sharon charging the trees


Kate in the snow ghosts


The group with which I was to ski was unguided and self-catered. The other half of the hut had a cook and a guide. This turned out to work very well, due in large part to the general niceness of the other people in the group – but also to the professionalism of their guide Todd Craig and cook, Steve Doucette. Also, our group (whom I had never met before) turned out to be experienced tourers who were used to sharing huts and diligent at general chores.

We quickly settled in and prepared for the next day’s adventures.


View of the hut as the clouds break looking towards the Granite Glacier


Moonrise over the Bill Putnam Fairy Meadows Hut


Visions of summits and icefields brew in the dreams of tired skiers


The ski and snowboard forest

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