I've been getting a lot more into skiing recently. A natural meshing of two of my interests (backcountry hiking and skiing) is going ski touring! Skinning up mountains, bootpacking when it gets too steep, threat of avalanche, all for those sweet untracked turns. What's not to love? Here are some notes from the first year of touring. Please note that we don't do this alone, we are new to this and so always go with someone who knows what they are doing. Avalanches are no joke. Don't go backcountry without gear & someone with the right knowledge/experience.

AST 1: Day One

My first touring experience was as part of an Avalanche Safety Training course. It was puking snow that day, with low vis, and the avalanche risk was high (storm slab plus persistent slab). A few of our group who drove up from Vancouver had a hard time getting there due to the snow and high traffic. We hit Glacier Lodge and planned out the day.

Alpine lifts were not open, and with the poor conditions we weren't going far anyway. Week took the high road past 7th Heaven, and then skinned the trees up towards Disease Ridge. We did some practice with the transceivers, then skinned up Disease Ridge just a bit, and skiied back down along the ridge, through the trees, and out.

AST 1: Day Two

The weather was better today, but snow conditions still spooky. Headed up Whistler side, and dug a snow pit to look at the layers while we waited for Harmony to open (Symphony not open today). Skiied/skinned past Symphony and up to Flute. Skiied down Flute in a short but beautiful powder run that was probably the best run I've ever had. Then a long skin back to the ridge, ski down Flute bowl to bottom of Symphony chair, and then hike up to the road to ski out!

Looking out over Cheakamus Lake.

Bodybag

Best run so far! After Glacier Lift/Showcase T-Bar, skinned up towards East Col but took turned right instead of left to head towards Bodybag Bowl. Skiing down to the bowl was pretty wind-affected, but once we got in the bowl the snow was amazing. First tracks on Upper Bodybag! Snow was awesome.

Even the backcountry is busy in Whistler.

Some nice turns.

Spearhead Glacier

Best run so far! (Seeing a pattern?) We had a little bit of snow in the days before, and it was the perfect time for touring. We arrive at the gondy around 9:30am. Funnily enough, DST had sprung us forward that morning, so in terms of daylight it was an hour before we were anticipating. However, that worked out for the better, as the day got really warm later on.

We got the gondola to ourselves, so planned the route on the way up. Up Glacier Lift and Showcase T-Bar, traverse across Glacier Bowl, skin up East Col, then traverse along the ridge and a short bootpack the gap to access the descent into Spearhead Glacier, got some great turns! Skin up to Corona Bowl got reall steep, and had to bootpack the last part. The snow started warming up, and we were getting nervous, but we got over the top okay. Our mistake was choosing to lengthen the day a little bit, we should have finished the skin out earlier.

Flute

Quick tour from Symphony Chair up to Flute's ridge and back down Flute Bowl into Adagio. We've done the lower bit of this quite a bit on resort days, but it was nice to do the upper part, as the snow was better (and much less tracked). Had to keep an eye on the massice cornices, but the cold temperatures the night before meant we were ok.

Look at that cornice!