Fissile Banana Chute

With our high pressure system gone, and a new low pressure system on us, we were unable to get out after another larger objective.  I headed out with Tyler Petrusic and Dave Booth, to use up the last of our good (but deteriorating) stability on Mt Fissile, as a quick morning tour before having to head into work for the day.  We decided to ski Banana Chute as it gave us the simplest line down (and is beautifully aesthetic), and provided a handrail of rocks for us to follow down through the poor visibility.  (Photo Left:  Mt Fissile with Banana Chute marked in red)

Fissile sees a large amount of traffic in the backcountry, as a result of its close proximity to Whistler Mountain, and it's ease of climbing.  There are many different lines which drop off it's summit and ridges, all of which make this mountain "a skiers mountain," and all of which look awesome.  A quick bootpack up the South Face gets you to the top of the ridge, where you can drop in to NW Face, Banana Chute, or ski down the ridge a bit more to Psycho Chute.  From where you top out on the South Face, you can choose those three lines, or continue onwards to the North Face, Summit, Saddle, Fissile Like A Missile, or the Elevator Shaft Chutes. 

With fresh snow and faster travel conditions we got in and out nice and quickly.  The snow was deeper than we expected, but still stable, and the Chute remained fairly sheltered from the Southern winds coming in with the new system.  At the bottom, we skinned up to the top of Cowboy Ridge for a quick extra lap on the way back to work.  Simple, easy but great skiing, and will stop you from grumbling at work later in the day, knowing that you've got your ski fix earlier that day.  (Photo Right:  Ty Petrusic Shreds Up Banana)