Big White

With family visiting over the holidays there wasn't much time for skiing. We did manage to sneak in a quick return trip to Big White one sunny morning. Following the same route from Gem Lake as last time we came out of the trees into the sun and had some great views.



This time we had enough daylight left to actually explore a bit. The run down off the ridge is short but fun and there are loads of options. We looped back around the base of the ridge to find our uptrack and then veered skiers left and found some more flagging tape that lead into some reasonable tree skiing.

It's not an awesome destination (so far) but being within an hours drive of home makes it pretty good in our books.

On a side note here's the new camping rig we got this fall. Yes we bought a truck and we're this close to buying Truck Nutz. Little ones.

NRC

Compared to some years there still isn't a whole lot of snow in Rogers Pass. We made a quick trip up a very brushy NRC Gully and skied the adjacent slide path. It was a bit of a thrash on some tricky upside down snow but we tried our best and came away smiling.

Big White

After a lazy Sunday morning we dragged ourselves up to Big White for some exercise. We knew that there was some backcountry skiing on the Gem Lake side but didn't have any real information. Parking below the unopened chairlift at the crack of noon we followed our noses up the cat track on climber's left. Eventually we came across a flagged track and followed it up through a cut block and into mature timber.

The guys who cut the trail have a good sense of humour. We came across ski poles hoisted high into the trees, old advertising displays for K2, and hand crafted wooden signs. The best was "Fischer" Camp where some 'emergency' supplies were stored in plastic buckets hoisted up into a tree. Thanks Rick!



When we emerged onto the ridge adjacent to the ski area boundary it was blowing hard and the light was starting to go. Discretion won the day and we elected to return via the uptrack rather than dropping off the ridge into the unknown.

Good enough. We got some exercise close to home which is mainly what we were after. We'll go back another day and explore some more.