Asulkan to Lily by Dome Col

Sunny skies and good stability. What to do? First option; go somewhere that we've been before but that we know will be an excellent trip. Something like the Tupper Traverse for example. Second option; do something a little different and risk having a mediocre trip on a day with possibly the best conditions of the season.

Let's hear it for novelty!

We left Fred's car at Loop Brook and made our way up the Asulkan with designs on the Dome Col.



This route is basically a variation on the Sapphire Col traverse which we had done a couple of times previously, but rather than skiing south from the upper part of the Cleaver to Sapphire Col we would instead climb up on top of the Cleaver, ascend to the Dome-Rampart Col, and then (hopefully) drop down onto the Lily glacier.

Nice day. Spring-like, but not too hot, with great views over the Asulkan Glacier.



We were at the col by 2:00ish and had our first tentative look over the other side.



No worries, that'll go. A little rocky but nothing a little p-tex couldn't fix.



We scratched our way down from the col and over a little wind scoop to have a look at the Lily far down below us.



We were a little tentative on the way down from here; the terrain was constantly rolling off making it difficult to see what exactly we we're getting into. But we sussed it out and enjoyed several long runs until finally dropping down onto the glacier. I like this photo of Fred, even though he's barely visible, with Swanzy and the upper Lily in the background.



Huge country up here.



Plenty of places left to explore when novelty next wins the day.