April 9, 2004, Early Winters Birthday Tour

Started at 9:30 am from the Blue Lake parking lot and had an easy skin up to Blue Peak Col (had to boot up the last 50-ft). We saw a snowboarder launch off the cornice to the climbers right and rip down the slope. The descent of the south-east aspect slope from Blue Peak Col was a real treat, perfect corn for a 1,600-ft vertical run down into the valley. From there we skinned up to near Copper Pass, skied into the bowl on westerly aspects and then climbed up the notch to make the exit run down to the hairpin. The north east facing exit run wasn't very good because the snow never softened, plus it was a lot of traversing, rather than fall line skiing.

Here's a photo from near Copper Pass looking back at the run from Blue Peak Col (upper right).