Asulkan Cabin

We were at the Asulkan Cabin last weekend with the ACC. Given the conditions so far this season we hoped for great things, but in the end it was a more typical February weekend with mediocre visibility and higher avalanche hazard. Still pretty darn good!



We got in some skiing above the hut on Friday afternoon. Saturday morning dawned with heavy snow and high winds so we spent most of the day in the Toilet Bowl adjacent to the summer trail. Very good skiing but the steeper leeward slopes were getting a little touchy.



No matter how good the skiing is, doing short laps over and over again below tree line isn't exactly inspiring, so it was with some relief that we woke up on Sunday to a brief weather window that allowed us to get back above the hut.





Some new friends, some old friends, and plenty of good food and drink.

Ross Peak

The foot bridge over Loop Brook was a unique way to start our day on Ross Peak. No plow no plow no plow...



A steep climb up the shoulder of Ross brought us to a sunny lunch spot with great views down to our tracks on the Lily Glacier from the day before.





After lunch we thrashed across a gully and continued on upwards until breaking out onto the upper reaches of the slide path.



The skiing on the upper part was excellent.





The lower part was much tighter with gullies and small trees that made it a challenge to find a good line.



It would probably be better in a bigger snow year. Still, no complaints. It was a fine day of exploring on some new terrain.

Lily Glacier

Up to the Lily Glacier from Loop Brook. It's a spectacular setting. We did a couple of laps on the upper glacier and then put the skins back on to climb up over a shoulder for another run down to the toe of the moraine.







We've skied on the Lily a few times before but only after coming over from Sapphire Col or Dome-Rampart. It's definitely worth coming up directly from Loop Brook. A fine day out.

Napoleon Spur on Cheops

Bishop: "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones".
Curate: "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!"

Napolean Spur on Sunday. And yes, parts of it were excellent. The middle bit mostly. Getting there and getting back were pretty grim. But the most redeeming aspect of the day was that we had never been here before. Again.



Departing from the NRC parking lot we followed The Worst Track in the World too far to climber's right. We knew that we should have been trending further to the south but it was so hard to leave the existing skin track. Well, for some of us anyway. Ahem. We amused ourselves by felling some of the innumerable tree bombs along the way.





Eventually we found our way to some very nice open tree skiing where we did a couple of laps.



We had intended to descend back directly to the Asulkan parking lot at the end of the day and then hitch a ride (or ski) back to the cars. However we quickly realized that the snow on this south facing aspect was sporting a diabolical death crust from the warm temperatures mid-week. So instead we took a descending line to skier's left trying to short cut back towards the north as much as possible. Let's just say that it was character building at best. Nevertheless it was great to explore a new place and the skiing here would be excellent under better conditions.