July 2, 2011, Tricouni and Cypress Peaks

a gorgeous day was in the forecast so we couldn't let it go to waste (even after lack of sleep and some hangovers from Canada Day)!  Alex, Maddy and myself left Vancouver around 6am and were at the end of the logging road below Cypress at about 8:30am (~1100 m).  It only took us about an hour and a half to get up Cypress where we were treated with some magnificent panoramic views in the sun.
 
The ski down from Cypress to the valley below Tricouni was quite nice, although already getting heavy with its south-facing aspect.  We descended to about 1400 m and then started straight away on the long skin/bootpack up to Tricouni Peak.  Alex and Maddy summited the peak while I enjoyed the views and then we were ready to head down the 45 degree slope of Tricouni. 

We descended down the fall line directly below the peak from the first picture; there was only one sketchy narrow section near the top which took some effort to get through, but after that we skied excellent corn.  As seen in the second picture, there was a naturally-created gully from sluffing snow which was pretty interesting.. it definitely did a good job at capturing all our sluff, and we later saw a pile of it deposit into the fan at the bottom.. would be a wicked slide down on a magic carpet!

Luckily, we were able to ski all the way to 980 m, down a cool open gully between cliffs and waterfalls (third pic).  It was an excellent ski from top to bottom, although there was a good hour slog back to the car through alders, insane avalanche debris, and creeks.

Glad to see everyone getting at it this summer.. the snowbase is insane !