Last Gasp at Malakwa?

Wow.

Now and again you have one of those days when everything just works. For once we arrived at the trail head at a decent hour. We put tire chains on Brenda's car for the first time and it wasn't a complete gong show. There was already an intelligent uptrack from the previous day (blessed are the trail breakers). The snow was deep and cold and fluffy.

And oh man the skiing was amazing!

We even managed a bit of a coup by finding a new route back to the car. This was made even better by the manner in which we pulled it off.

You know that feeling you get when you're pushing your luck a bit and you know it? There's that insistent little voice in the back of your head saying "Hey, Bub, this could get a little ugly if it doesn't work out"?

That was us as darkness closed in and the temperature was dropping and we were still climbing rather than heading down the easy route back to the car. We'd already been cliffed out once, our heads were down, legs weary, puffing along.

And then...

Revelation! Angels sang! Heavenly voices bade us welcome! A magnificent slope of gentle glades appeared through the failing light and we skied magically, effortlessly straight down to the car.



Chains. A novelty for Brenda and I.








Other notes:

1) We ran into Jeff and Chantalle from Revelstoke who we had previously met at the Asulkan Hut in November. Great folks.

2) Fred broke the cable on one of his bindings during our run to the car. (Of all tele bindings the G3 Targas are the ones I've seen break the most.) Momentary panic but he managed to jury rig it by securing the free cable end under his boot buckle with just enough tension to hold the boot in the binding.

3) Fred says to mention that he's single.