April 9-16, 2005, Fairy Meadows
4/9/05
2315
2
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Six of us just PNW types returned Sunday morning from a week at Fairy Meadows, in the Adamant Range of the Northern Selkirk Mountains. There had been a windy storm a day before our arrival and sun on the day we arrived, so we were greeted with four inches of sun affected freshies at the cabin, which translated to 8 inches of goodies on the upper slopes.
Just about every day we had a brief weather event to add 2 at inches at cabin level and 4 inches above 7500 ft. to the snowpack. Every afternoon the sun and thermal cycle would turn this to mush and then evening the mush on all aspects below 7500 ft. and on all aspects not within 45 degree of north on slopes above 7500 ft.
The composition of the group of twenty was fortunate. Most of the folks were basically climbers or touring types, so we pretty well had the steeper slopes to ourselves. To keep from worrying about the two guys who might be scoping our lines, we adopted them as temporary Baker Boys. One was on tele and the other on a split board, making us a suitably diverse posse.
Most folks stayed in the cabin until after the morning snow squall and the heating of the day gave them smooth, thick cream in the late morning and early afternoon. The Baker Boys left early and skinned our way through the morning storms to the higher slopes to enjoy surprisingly good but occasionally wind effected pow in the sun on upper slopes within 45 degrees of north. That sounds limiting, but it is a big country up there. There are plenty of slopes fitting that definition. Unfortunately, many of the slopes I had been lusting after for two years were not in aesthetic condition. The Houdini chutes faced too much afternoon sun and were a mess of rubble and crust. Sentinel was a wind-loaded trap covered with morning-sun crust. Pioneer Pass was too wind loaded at the roll-over to want to cut a 50 degree slope above a schrund that ran just about all the way across the face. But what was in shape was in fine shape, indeed.
The chutes under Gog and Mogog, the Epic chutes, according to Zap, were the prizes above all others, once again.
Six of us just PNW types returned Sunday morning from a week at Fairy Meadows, in the Adamant Range of the Northern Selkirk Mountains. There had been a windy storm a day before our arrival and sun on the day we arrived, so we were greeted with four inches of sun affected freshies at the cabin, which translated to 8 inches of goodies on the upper slopes.
Just about every day we had a brief weather event to add 2 at inches at cabin level and 4 inches above 7500 ft. to the snowpack. Every afternoon the sun and thermal cycle would turn this to mush and then evening the mush on all aspects below 7500 ft. and on all aspects not within 45 degree of north on slopes above 7500 ft.
The composition of the group of twenty was fortunate. Most of the folks were basically climbers or touring types, so we pretty well had the steeper slopes to ourselves. To keep from worrying about the two guys who might be scoping our lines, we adopted them as temporary Baker Boys. One was on tele and the other on a split board, making us a suitably diverse posse.
Most folks stayed in the cabin until after the morning snow squall and the heating of the day gave them smooth, thick cream in the late morning and early afternoon. The Baker Boys left early and skinned our way through the morning storms to the higher slopes to enjoy surprisingly good but occasionally wind effected pow in the sun on upper slopes within 45 degrees of north. That sounds limiting, but it is a big country up there. There are plenty of slopes fitting that definition. Unfortunately, many of the slopes I had been lusting after for two years were not in aesthetic condition. The Houdini chutes faced too much afternoon sun and were a mess of rubble and crust. Sentinel was a wind-loaded trap covered with morning-sun crust. Pioneer Pass was too wind loaded at the roll-over to want to cut a 50 degree slope above a schrund that ran just about all the way across the face. But what was in shape was in fine shape, indeed.
The chutes under Gog and Mogog, the Epic chutes, according to Zap, were the prizes above all others, once again.
nice Tim! sounds like y'all had a good time.
Sorry to hear that not all the runs on your 'to-do' list were in shape...but now it might be easier to convince you to go back to the hut next season :)
Sorry to hear that not all the runs on your 'to-do' list were in shape...but now it might be easier to convince you to go back to the hut next season :)
Tim, Glad to hear you finally got back to Fairy to see and ski many of the slopes that your knee limited you back on our previous trip. Fairy Meadows is truly a ski mountaineers mecca. Our first trip was an "11" on a scale of 10. The DVD you created of our trip is in my will. :) Zap
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