Rain, wind, and low freezing levels have made avalanche bulletins in the sea-to-sky a bit depressing. For a while we have been seeing a lot of High and Considerable warnings making skiing anything but the simplest terrain unappealing. I have been spending a significant amount of time at the resort and have been itching to get out into the backcountry.
A turn for the better cam in the form of sun, light wind and cold temps. With a much more comforting avalanche forecast we made plans to ski some more interesting terrain.
Wednesday morning I got an early start with Alexis and two of his ACC friends and we headed to the Coquihalla area to ski some lines on Thar Peak. We parked at 1200m and in under 25 minutes of skinning, found our way out of the forrest into open glades and sub-alpine bowls. Three long laps of Thar peak was enough for the day and we skied out to the car just as the sun started to set.
Thursday morning I headed back to Squamish with the hopes of going climbing but feeling a little lazy, Nick and I decided that a day of lift served slack-country at Blackcomb would be more appropriate. We headed out past Mt. Decker and after a little over an hour of skinning, stopped for a break at the Mt. Pattison Col. We briefly considered continuing the Spearhead but a quick inventory of food and water led us to decide that was not the best idea. We did end up skiing steep lines on Mt. Pattison, Trory, and Decker. BY the time we made it back inbounds and started skiing out we were both pretty worked from a long week. I was pretty happy we had decided not to finish the full traverse.