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.
Antony charges hard as we skin up for the second run
Sarah drops in
John drops in for another pillow session as the brief window of sun fades
Eric hits hard
Jeremy again setting the tone
Jeff looks for his snorkel somewhere in cold Selkirk smoke
Pillows beckon Homi for our third run
Jeremy again charging hard
Jeremy
Homi threading the Swan Creek glades
Tobin
As it really starts puking for our fifth run, John drops in
Charley wondering whether the splitboard might have been the better call today
Rock heading for the creek
Our last run was perhaps the deepest – Eric tries to head for the other side of the world
Homi
Rock
It clears up as we make our way up to Hollywood Bowl and then down through more cold smoke to the hut
Day 4 map