April 30, 2016, Vesper Peak

My wife and skied Vesper Peak Saturday in pretty good conditions.  The highway opened Friday, so we camped in Verlot and left the trailhead about 8am.  Mine road is in good shape except for one wash out area that requires attention.  River crossings were straight forward.  Ended up climbing the couloir that merges into the large one on the right and found the cornice very easy to climb past on solid dirt to the left.  Arrived at the summit at 1:30pm enjoyed great views and skied down at 2:00.  The top 3 inches of new snow from this past week made for smooth skinning and fun turns.  Snow was a bit past its prime by the time we headed down, but not too bad.  New snow was sluffing off on some of the steeper roll over sections.  Shade back in the couloir made for some nice turns and had some sticky side hill turns to the bottom of the valley.