November 24/25 - Blackcomb and Whistler backcountry

I've had some good days skiing the Whistler/Blackcomb backcountry, but this Thanksgiving holiday the dessert being served up north was extra sweet. Seth, Chris, Jason and myself rolled into a white Whistler village late Thanksgiving night (this alone is rare.) With a couple plans on the table we had to wait until morning to see if any of the higher lifts would open for the first time this season, giving us easy access to either the Whistler or Blackcomb backcountry. The coast mountains have been receiving a lot of snow this year, so we were fortunate that the weather had settled a bit with little wind and only occasional snowfall. Morning came quickly and so did the good news...

The Glacier Chair was opening for the first time, which meant we were heading to Blackcomb. Thankfully, with Spanky's Ladder accessible the masses went in that direction (we did too for a very good, deep 'warm-up' run) so we basically had the terrain out beyond the Blackcomb Glacier and towards The Spearhead almost to ourselves (we saw four others touring) Because of variable visibility and the fact that we had untracked pow right below us, we spent the good part of the day running laps just below East Col, laughing and hollering with each buttery turn. But we knew there was more (getting greedy already!) and as the day wore on visibility improved, so we decided to scope out the possibility of skiing the Husume Couloir. At this point we were fortunate to run into a 50-year old Vancouver'ite who was kind enough to show us the way to the couloir (but not very smart to be skiing alone), because the way wasn't easy, as you have to drop a couple steep pitches, cross just above the nose of the Spearhead Glacier and boot-pack to the entrance. But boy was it worth it...

Here's Chris looking very small on the lower half of the Husume Couloir


Jason pointing back to the best run of the year (and it's only November!)


Despite the darkening sky it was difficult to pull our gaze away from the tracks we just laid. It was November and we just had an amazing day of touring.

But all good things must come to an end right? Not on this weekend; although we didn't find any chutes or couloirs to ski, we had to keep our yelps to a minimum for fear of choking on white fluff. Again we were lucky, as Saturday saw the earliest ever opening of the Peak Chair and unlimited views of the surrounding peaks. Instead of taking a warm-up run though, we headed directly for the Singing Pass area with hopes of hitting the Banana Chute on Mt Fissile. Unfortunately our visibility quickly diminished and we had to be happy with the runs below Oboe -

Chris in the white room


Seth enjoying some November pow in the PNW


With snow falling and light rapidly fading, it was time to head out and ski our way back to the village for a couple pitchers of well deserved, early-season powder-bagging beer. 

Ian

Oh, the ten hour drive back to Seattle was well worth it!