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Big Days: Fissile & Fingerchutes

pallinaaring — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:46:18 +0000

Helt siden nytt-år hadde vi hatt en plan om å bestige Fissile Peak sammen med John Løseth (nordmannen som vi møtte i heiseni romjula). Planen om Fissile ble realisert på Skjærtorsdag der vi valgte å kjøre Saddle Chute, en renne på 550 høydemeter med 55 graders helning. Forholdene midt i renna var litt hardpakket, preget av noen få som hadde kjørt før, og noen sluff som hadde gått. I kantene derimot, der var det urørt pudder som var like stabil som snøen i Alaska! Nedkjøringen var den bratteste vi begge har kjørt så langt. Vensterveggen av renna hadde flere spine-formasjoner med 60 graders helning.

Etter 10 timer ute i fjellet, ble dagen avsluttet med stil på Dubh Linn Gate nede i Whistler Village:) Shøla hadde i tillegg middagen klar til vi kom hjem.

Det ble heller dårlig med bilder på turen til Fingerchutes dagen etter, da både kameraet og fellene ble liggende igjen hjemme. Å traske på alpinstøvler hele veien opp til Decker Mountain er ikke å anbefale, men turen ned ble uansett en belønning for strevet…

Spring Ski Weekend

ecarter1 — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:29:00 +0000

Spring has arrived to the Coast Range and as the weather calms down, we got out for a few days in the sun.

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Sarah and I spent a morning ripping around Blackcomb on the goomed runs and after lunch decided we needed to find something a bit more interesting. We toured out of the resort and made our way to the Husume Couloir. The enterance requires a short bootpack.

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This is a fun, steep, out of bounds run that sees a fair bit of traffic but is well shaded from the sun. With other slopes afected by melt-freeze from the sun, our run was still nice powder. The middle photo is three quarters of the way down the run as it widens out and eases off in angle.

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The next day, I met up with Paul G and we toured out of Whistler to Fissile Peak. We beat the crowds and were the first ones to boot up the peak. We had out eyes on a steep chute down the north face with the hopes of finding powder. The climb up is a bit of a slog with a long steep bootpack on scree (very loose and slippery rock – vertical gravel almost) but we were rewarded with a perfect untracked powder line.

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We took turns jumping into the chute and I lucked out snapping a picture of Paul mid-air.

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Saddle chute drops off the foreground ridge from just below the summit. We were both pretty happy and headed back into Whistler for a late lunch and I got home to enjoy the sun on my deck.

Steep Skiing - Mt. Fissile Saddle Chute

ecarter1 — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:44:21 +0000

Alexis and I took the morning to ski a moderately steep line on Mt. Fissile. Fissile is the first of the larger peaks of the Spearhead Range beyond the Musical Bumps.

The Saddle Chute starts just off the summit from the NW ridge. A fast ski from the lifts on Whistler brought us to the base of the mountain and after a short bootpack we tagged the summit and made our way to the entrance.

Feeling fairly confident in the stability and seeing no tracks in the line we decided to go for it. I dropped in first and found good snow despite the lack of powder elswhere during the day. Sadly none of my descent photos turned out.

We dropped all the way to the bottom of the run and skinned back up to Cowboy Ridge. From there we careened down the Singing Pass trail to Whistler Village and headed back to Squamish. All in all a pretty solid ski, with almost 1300m of elevation gain.