Forever Young

Wow. Wow!

We skied Forever Young on Saturday, and today, two days later, we're still basking in the glow of good memories.

Forever Young is a steep couloir that drops off the north edge of Young's Peak. It's about 500m high and 40+ degrees for much of it's length. It's also extremely narrow in places, or at least it seems really narrow to weekend warriors like ourselves. And so yes I feel that we can legitimately use the term "couloir" rather than "gully" :)




(Photo from 2008)

The day started clear and warm as we skied up the Illecillewaet Glacier. The four of us were sweating buckets, but the great morning weather had turned foul and cold by midday. The visibility deteriorated so badly that we double-checked the GPS to make sure it was properly tracking our route, just in case. It's pretty easy to get turned around on the Illecillewaet in bad light.

We made our way over the rolling snow towards Youngs Peak. Along the way we met up with another party that were heading for the Young's Peak traverse; they were hunkered down to wait for the weather to improve. We said our hello's and continued over to the top of Forever Young where, admittedly, I could feel the butterflies beginning to form in my stomach.

It's just so bloody intimidating! The first turns are steep, but the real kicker is that the slope is convex; as you look down the gully it kind of rolls away and gets even steeper, hiding most of the run from view. The walls loom ominously above and pinch off part way down too for good measure. It's quite a sight.



It was simply an awesome ski; steep, exhilarating, thrilling, kinda nerve wracking, but most of all, exhausting!



We'd make 4 or 5 turns and then quickly scoot to the side to catch our breath and let our sloughs run past. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, the walls opened up a bit and the angle let up just a little, and we were left with a fantastic run down the lower third of the slope.

Best ski of the season, bar none. More photos here.