Jan 29-30, 2011
A very cold trip up to Caspar Creek, for the VOC’s Introduction to Backcountry Skiing. The last time I was here, I forgot my ski boots and ended up skiing in some 3-sizes too small mountaineering boots that were barely functional with my tele bindings. So this time when I saw that the VOC was going up to Caspar Creek, I was quite keen to join them for some skiing. This area sees a lot less attention than nearby areas on the Duffey, but there sure is some fantastic looking ski terrain up here.
Jacob skinning up through the open forest pass the end of the road. For those who haven’t been here before, the road up Caspar Creek is basically dead flat, and feels uphill both ways. Much less slide alder than the last time I was here though. We spent most of the day on Saturday getting to our campsite in some open meadows, and only managed two short runs that evening.
By the time we reached camp on Saturday afternoon, there was only time for two short little runs on a nearby slope (not this one!) It was really cold the next morning, about -26C. For some reason, I was still way too warm in my tent though, and had to unzip my sleeping bag before I could fall asleep. It might have been the combination of pesto goat cheese gnocchi, or the backcountry nachos that we had for dinner.
Spencer’s frosty eyelashes. It was a cold Sunday morning, and half the group stayed behind at camp because due to frozen boots etc. Most people spent the morning thawing themselves out or huddled in a giant ball of down.
Chris Scott and I ended up going skiing by ourselves, although we were suppose to be “instructors”. We just didn’t have any non-frozen students to follow us.
We chose a relatively conservative destination, going up to the 2100m col at GR475743. There are definitely some steeper slopes around to ski though!
Chris sampling some of the Duffey powder before heading off to Australia this month.
Powder, shadow and light
Scott’s turn.
An artistic shot by Scott Webster. See the rest of his photos here
Looking back at the col from where we skied this short but sweet run.
Matt skiing down through some open avalanche trees.
Some very nice powder to be found. There was generally 30-40cm of low density snow on top of a crust.
Breanne’s frozen hair, but only on one side. Did I mention it was cold out?