Coast Range Skiing Rocks!

With avalanche conditions getting better, but not disappearing, high pressure has suckered us out to ski as much as possible.  The block of skiing started with skiing one day, teaching an avalanche course throughout the weekend, and then continuing on to more skiing.  And more.  Then some more.  Until it all came to a unhappy ending.

Jeff Van Driel and I spent a day firing around the Spearhead area looking for snow that didn't have significant wind effect on it.  We found ourselves over on the Chisel Chute, edging in the shallow bony entrance, being stopped by a rappel with nothing but faceted weak snow, loose rocks, and other poor anchor material, forcing us to skin back.  We still managed to blast some uber long glacier runs in, before finding some sweet pockets of south facing snow.  (Photo Left:  Jeff Van Driel skinning up the Decker Glacier heading to the Chisel)

Paul Cordy and I managed a sweet day up in the Joffre area, firing up Tzil skiing the North Glacier, then Taylor skiing the West Face spine lines, then exiting via Heart Strings, in time for an early luxurious exit at 3pm.  Although my GoPro recorded nothing due to the cold, ski quality was excellent!

Then came the girls.  Christina Lusti and Kate Devine from Revelstoke, came out to get some skiing on the Coast.  So, naturally pushing as much vert touring was an essential choice! We skied one day on South Facing lame trees, deciding to go for an ultra classic 9th hole spine descent, and then another day running over to Fissile and skiing the Banana Chute before heading out to work.  The ski quality was pretty wind-packed this week, but being able to get out see peaks, and ski really fun terrain is always worth the sacrifice.  Check out the video below Christina made.

The Coast Time! from Christina Lusti on Vimeo.
So stoked on Skiing, ready for a day off, then off for a big multi-day mission on the Duffey with Christina and Kate the unexpected happened.  Driving home on a one way Southbound portion of highway, a group of idiotic girls heading to Whistler to party decided to go Northbound to avoid slow moving traffic in there lane, and ended up destroying my car.  Now beaten up, still alive, there won't be too much skiing for the next few weeks.  Sorry Ski Theory readers, gotta get better to go out and crush it in the future, so it's off to Physio.  Moral of the story, tourists have no brains while driving on highways, don't have snow tires, and driving home is the most dangerous part of your day.  I'll take fall you die exposure, rock hazard, avalanches, and crevasses any day.

In the meantime, expect some gear info, and other cool articles to keep the winter stoke high!