September 27, 2009, Wesach (60km N of Terrace)

Hi again, TAYers. After a long drought of no-posts i figured I better "represent", so I joined my pal Z-rip in sampling some of the best Sept offerings round these parts. Z's been getting out once a week since um, something like last November with the exception of a couple of weeks spent on holidays, or in jail or something.. so he knew the conditions, the easiest access, and where the bears have been hanging out. Also brought along a fit young keener which sort of sucked, as I had no doubt as to who would lose the foot race vs. ursa horribilis. A false start slowed our departure down a little, due to the fact that I had brought my Goodes to the meeting point - this brought howls of derision from Z, who noted that anyone who would take THOSE skis to THAT area in Sept, must be making WAY too much money. I don't, so I headed back home to pick up the circa 1996 Explosivs to offer the rock gods. Upon leaving town and the ubiquitous late Sept valley fog, it appeared the peaks above 5000' had all received a dusting the previous evening, so we were excited about the prospect of some decent turns on an inch or 2 atop the neve up high. The logging road in was in good shape (some sledders must have done some summer maintenance), and only 3 large black bears were seen within 30m or so of the logging road cut. Parking at the trail head, we followed a quad trail about 2kms and then started to gain elevation quickly. Our first sign of fresh snow was about 3500' and about 4000' we hit our first real snow patches. This is when Z proudly showed us the results of his "rock grooming" over the last number of weeks  - sure enough there was a rock free zone about 10m wide. All the hike up the ski-infatuated (picture a border collie and a stick type infatuation) Z would stop at all rocks smaller than a basketball and chuck them if they were in our "line". At about 5500' there became no real place to throw them though due to the slope geometry.

We continued up the pocket glacier kicking in steps most of the way, though above 6000' the snow depth was enough (perhaps 2 to 3 inches) that easy boot packing became the order. The top of the saddle at about 6700' garnered some amazing views of the Seven Sisters, and the myriad of peaks surrounding our private ski stash. A nice break was had, and I was given the honour of jumping in first. The first 500' were good steepness (about 40), and the fresh snow had bonded incredibly well to the neve beneath, the turns were sublime. A shrund, was negotiated (Z of course launched it), and the next 800' though a little less steep, were very nice. Sun cupping under the dusting was minimal and few rocks were nicked. The next 500 were a little dicier, the dusting was less, the neve below was more like rock hard suncups. Thankfully this was the same area that Z had chucked rocks off so while the skiing wasn't great, at least it wasn't a true mine field. The last 400 were very nice again, the flatter slope and lower elevation allowed the neve below to soften a bit, and we giggled our way down a couple of snow patches to eke out about 2000 vert.

All in all a great outing, a perfect way to bid fall goodbye and embrace winter 2009.