Kootenay 4

We finished our breakfast by candle light because the power went out at about 7:20 a.m.  Regardless, the pilot and mechanic fired up the magic machine and we went skiing!

A fresh foot had fallen overnight, and it heavily snowed most of the day.  Temperatures rose to a very wet state up to about 4300 ft, our lowest pick-up of the day.  The snow was deep and we needed steep to ride and we got it.  Sloughs were less frequent than yesterday, but some were quite large and dense.  Skiing was great with over-the-head plumes.

After completing the CMH 4-day trip, yours truly left the Kootenay operation for self-propelled ski touring at Rogers Pass.  I followed Gord and Debbie from Nakusp back to Revie.  Like the opposite direction, we made the ferry with not much contingency.  I was the last car on the Revelstoke return trip, versus next to last on the Nakusp-bound ride. 

The avalanche report is not promising.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Kootenay 3

More snow (big sigh), more weather down time (wah!).  But, thanks to pilot Sluggo and the guides, we were able to get out at 11 a.m. in heavy snowfall; 8 a.m. is normal departure.  We skied untracked lines in 14 inches (35 cm) fresh snow until dark:  Pleasure Center, Shotgun and Squarehead, 12,100 ft vertical by my count. 

Slough management was key today as the fresh snow was moving a bit.  There were sloughs that could knock a man down, but skiing out of them or skiing faster than the sloughs were good enough solutions to safely keep us in powder paradise.

Kootenay 2

Day 2 weather delay, rotor icing.  Finally got up and out for 8600 ft vertical at  Pleasure Center, Shotgun, Squarehead.

 Kootney CMH glades are perfect pitch, perfect spacing and perfect snow.  This trip is their first of the season, so the only tracks we see are ours.  And later in the season with the frequent Selkirk snowfall, the untracked experience is the norm.