December 14-16, Icefields, K Country, Rogers Pass
12/14/14
Canada BC
21528
2
Belayed into hero knobs NE face in K country on the 14th and found the snowpack to be 65cm deep with the ice crust down 40 with facets below. Failed to ground on CT6 so I climbed out and we went home. Ski conditions were worse then burstall pass with smooth turns up top turning to dust on crust.
Meadow skipped on cirque forepeak on the 15th and found much better snow then K country. Very weak crust at the road level but other then that it was nice faceted pow.
Went to pearly rock and over the illy silly to forever young. A guided group beat us to the line by about 15-20mins. The top section was excellent buffed pow. While the bottom half was stiff in the sluff line with pow on the sides. I was not playing it smart and traversed into a convex hanging snowfield on skiers right at the bottom of the line and popped a 1.5 windslab with a 20-25cm average crown. Skiing was good for another 200m below the fan before turning into death ice for the remaining ski out aslogin.
Meadow skipped on cirque forepeak on the 15th and found much better snow then K country. Very weak crust at the road level but other then that it was nice faceted pow.
Went to pearly rock and over the illy silly to forever young. A guided group beat us to the line by about 15-20mins. The top section was excellent buffed pow. While the bottom half was stiff in the sluff line with pow on the sides. I was not playing it smart and traversed into a convex hanging snowfield on skiers right at the bottom of the line and popped a 1.5 windslab with a 20-25cm average crown. Skiing was good for another 200m below the fan before turning into death ice for the remaining ski out aslogin.
Nice work, such a beautiful line!
"From: elliotts on: 12/17/14, 03:52 PM
I take it you skied the main couloir off of youngs peak? Any more pics? How is that line in general? Always wanted to ski it, but never had the right conditions the 4 or 5 times I have been up that way.
Also, can you show me on a map your route you took, perly rock and over the illy silly (Illecillewaet glacier?). Thanks!"
Line is pretty good, the actual couloir is fairly short. The problem with this line is everyone staying at aslogin cabin wants to ski it so you can generally assume it gets skied as soon as possible after a storm. If you like waiting for really good stability I would recommend looking elsewhere for first tracks. Doug Sprouls guide gives numerous ideas for alternatives. Although he doesn't cover Rogers Pass South as thoroughly as Rogers Pass North.
As for our route over the illy silly we went the long way around Perly Rock as we were planning on skiing Terminal as well. The route from Perly Rock also has very few slots so it was the safer way to go with our low snowpack. Our friends from golden ended up showing up late though. We still started with the intention of doing terminal-youngs in less time but with the conditions down low my ego was writing checks my body couldnt cash. With limited time we just had to settle with the slog to youngs.
Posted a pic of the glacier just past pearly rock.
I take it you skied the main couloir off of youngs peak? Any more pics? How is that line in general? Always wanted to ski it, but never had the right conditions the 4 or 5 times I have been up that way.
Also, can you show me on a map your route you took, perly rock and over the illy silly (Illecillewaet glacier?). Thanks!"
Line is pretty good, the actual couloir is fairly short. The problem with this line is everyone staying at aslogin cabin wants to ski it so you can generally assume it gets skied as soon as possible after a storm. If you like waiting for really good stability I would recommend looking elsewhere for first tracks. Doug Sprouls guide gives numerous ideas for alternatives. Although he doesn't cover Rogers Pass South as thoroughly as Rogers Pass North.
As for our route over the illy silly we went the long way around Perly Rock as we were planning on skiing Terminal as well. The route from Perly Rock also has very few slots so it was the safer way to go with our low snowpack. Our friends from golden ended up showing up late though. We still started with the intention of doing terminal-youngs in less time but with the conditions down low my ego was writing checks my body couldnt cash. With limited time we just had to settle with the slog to youngs.
Posted a pic of the glacier just past pearly rock.
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