The first, and the most pressing as far as we were concerned, was that Saturday was the 12th day in row that no permits were to be available for backcountry travel. Another was that during mid-week the control crews had fired five successive Howitzer rounds into the same slope without generating a result. They then moved on to the next firing location when the slope released on its own and ran down to the highway.
Tree skiing for us then! And off to McGill Shoulder we headed. We skied with Nick from Revelstoke for the first time. Blue skies and warm temperatures. It seemed more like April than the middle of January. Man it was great to see the sun and to feel some warmth on our faces. A nice change from Kelowna where it has been clagged in for weeks now.
We took it easy and did a couple of laps in the small clearings on skiers left of the two main avalanche paths beginning at about 1950 meters. McGill is a good option on low visibility days and we've often skied there under those conditions. It was a real treat to be there on such a nice clear day. Almost like being there for the first time. It became seriously hot. Snow was sloughing off the trees and snowballing down the slopes.
It's been a strange winter so far. In many ways we feel like it hasn't even really begun yet. I hope things settle down soon.
Photo: Nick
And check out these photos of the CPR Mainline taken last week near Rogers Pass (thanks Steve).
It was 12 degrees a the top of RMR that weekend. Amazing spring skiing, there were people out tanning and lieing around all over the place.
ReplyDeleteNice shot of the train :)