bla bla bla.
We did some hiking and then some skiing. It was mellower than expected.
The picture that inspired (Justin Brown photo)
It took less than 90 minutes to hit snowline on a pleasant trail. There was some BS to cross the 2 creeks and get into the correct valley, but it was pretty easy.
There is also other stuff to ski here... like that nice looking couloir. But the main summit is the northernmost peak and we wanted to ski from zee top.
Kewl views of Silvertip, Payne, and Rideout. The crust recovery was less than ideal overnight and so some post-holing occured.
Our vertical progress slowed as the postholing worsened.
Near the top the crust recovery was even worse and there were some thigh deep isothermal moments. But this is also around the time that the clouds parted and the sun started beating upon the face. We decided to turn around beside the summit mushroom because it would have taken 30 minutes to tunnel through the semi frozen slurpee mix and we were in a giant sucker hole with good light.
The East face has some spines
First few turns. It was pretty mellow. 40 degrees on the steep bits?
600m to the bottom of the face. It was pretty decent corn all the way down.
Rich gets all aero on the sticky snow at the bottom
We took a quick nap on a rock in the sun on the hike out. Harrison was unimpressed with the warmth.
On Sunday we went mountain biking and then decided to do a quick afternoon jaunt up Calculus Crack.
We hit Memorial Ledge at 5:30 and Rich decided it was as good a time as any to go for the top
The shadow approaching part way up the Buttress
It's a good thing I left my headlamp in the car.
That was a full value weekend. More please.
Outram West Face
- skykilo
- olikyks
- from Santa Fe
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Re: Outram West Face
Good job, neato big mountain, no slurpee death. Squamish granite looks good. Hoping to touch it in July.