Mountain Trips

Ok, now that Ullar or Jesus, or whoever else may be in charge of these things, has buried the Woodlot snow stake, 300cm tall, its time to work on burying the Greenroom Weather Plot stake, at 400cm tall.  This stake is right in front of the lodge.  The snow creep has bent it over a bit, so its not quite vertical anymore.  It needs another 10cm of snow to cover it.  The last dump dropped 70cm of settled snow in about a day and a half, so if the recent trend continues, that stake is a goner.  I have never seen the lodge this buried.  The snowbank on the east side

Last week was a week of snow, wind, deep powder, avalanches and quite a few runs down the Woodlot.  We did get over for some great runs in Never Never with 70cm new snow over the old bed surfaces.  Max kept us entertained with his Jolly Jumping.  Plus we almost hit 3 mters at the Woodlot Plot, get the champagne ready....  any day now....

Thanks for the pictures Geoff.

This winter has been on or off.  Big dump on opening week, hardly any snow in February and now, snowing for the last two weeks, especially this week.  We have gotten a meter of settled storm snow at treeline over the week.  I think we may be getting into record snowfall territory.  I'm waiting for the HS stake in the Woodlot to get buried and it might already be there.  Have to go down and have a look.

We're stuck at the Abbey again!  Third time this winter.  What the....?  It must have something to do with the 265cm snowpack we have in the Woodlot.  I think Mother Nature might finally bury our HS stake down there this winter.  Only 35cm to go.  Haven't seen it happen yet, but there is always a first time.  Eileen, Tom and I haven't been stuck here for 15 years.  It was Eileen's first week at the Abbey and we were stuck for two days.  Hope it doesn't come to that.

Back in the Abbey after a week at Sorcerer Lodge.  We got about 40cm at the beginning of the week at Sorcerer.  Skiing was great in the trees and we weren't very adventurous with the ski program because the avalanche hazard was high.  We went up in the alpine once even though the weather was good for it.  Getting out of Sorcerer was a chore.  We got hit with a good storm and couldn't fly until about 4:30.  Then the heli broke down and it ended up that only half of us got out.  This is a rare thing for Sorcerer.  In the meantime, Battle Abbey was stuck

The Drought is over.  Snow started at 10am and its still snowing.  We went over to Schooner South today and Jeff took a group up Pillow Talk and up the Throne to ski the couloir next to the Crow's Nest.  If it going to snow, snow hard!

More party creatures from last Friday night.

We almost got fog out for our exchange on Saturday.  On the second flight, Don had turned around and was heading back to Golden when the pad cleared and he was able to come in.  We have had 10cm of new snow over the last few days to freshen things up.  On Sunday we skied the King's Backside, Never Never basin and the Throne.  First time up there this year.  Yesterday we went over to Missenmast and had a fine run down the left lines and over into the large slide path at the bottom.  Today we have some clear weather so we'll head over to Typee and maybe do a lap

We had some wild characters show up at the Abbey last Friday night.

The sun continues and the moon is full.  We're taking full advantage.  Skied Missenmast Bowl from the top the other day.  Nice steep alpine roll on the top, undulating bowl in the middle and trees at the bottom.  About 1000m down to Butters Creek.  Yesterday we skied Never Never and Schooner South Bowl which were in great condition.  We thought we would run into more suncrust, but it is only on the SW and steep S aspects.  The SE sides of the bowls were in great shape and it was nice and warm.  Good for long lunches in the sun.  Max did some Joll

We were stuck for two nights at the Abbey due to the ongoing storm.  Finally flew out on Monday morning. Thanks to Theresa, Tannis, Rick and everyone else who helped out with the fine meals we had while we waited for the heli.  It is hard to starve at the Abbey!