Home > Trip Reports > Feb 15 - 23, 2014, Fairy Meadow, Selkirk Mountains

Feb 15 - 23, 2014, Fairy Meadow, Selkirk Mountains

2/15/14
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Posted by Spang on 2/26/14 4:53am
Epic trip to a sweet hut.

We drove to Donald, BC (just outside of Golden) to pick up our helicopter but encountered an avalanche closure on the Trans-Canada Highway so were delayed by 4 hours. As it turns out the advice to get to Golden the night before the trip is good. 

It didn't matter though because we had to fly in a day late due to low visibility. It had been dumping the last few days and continued to dump for the first 4 days at the hut. We could see several natural class 3 slides in the alpine zone, encountered regular whoomps on all aspects and saw a few remote triggered slides on depth hoar below windward ridges, so we kept to the trees around the hut the entire time.

The skiing was amazing none-the-less. The dumpage made the trees an awesome playground with endless pillows to drop and steep lines to carve up. After 4 days the weather cleared up and we were able to take in the incredible views while finding bigger drops and new lines around the hut, with a couple trips into the alpine.

Trip video here: http://vimeo.com/nickspang/fairymeadow2014
You lucky buggers! I'm so jealous. 

Such an unbelievably awesome trip.  More pics and another video by Scott Heinz.

https://vimeo.com/87845715

Echoing the jealousy.  And thanks for the good ideas!

author=danpeck link=topic=30933.msg129784#msg129784 date=1393645114]
Echoing the jealousy.  And thanks for the good ideas!


Me too!  Nice work Branimal and crew!

Too bad you weren't able to romp up in the amazing alpine there, but nice that you got plenty of refills for that patch of tree skiing and did get up for a bit of viewtastic skiing as well. When I went, after about 1.5 days of really nice snow with perfect powder on the Granite Glacier etc., we sort of had the reverse issue - wind came up and cooked most of the snow except the trees (which we ran out of quickly w/o refills) and some sheltered bits here and there like the Shoestring. But we were able to ski for peaks like Sir William and Pioneer etc. which was pretty darn fun too. I liked the hut, particularly the downstairs area. Do they still have a sauna?

We had a day and a half of clear weather at the end of the trip so we were able to fully comprehend the awesomeness of the alpine there, but didn’t venture too far with the avy conditions.  We’ll be back for more.

The sauna is alive and well.  Tough to beat a hot sauna and a cold beer after a day out touring.

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feb-15-23-2014-fairy-meadow-selkirk-mountains
Spang
2014-02-26 12:53:01