I stumbled out of bed at 6:30am on Saturday morning after two kegs of beer and one hell of a St. Patty's Day party. After three and half hours of sleep I somehow made it out of bed and woke up my buddy Aaron. It had dumped 46 centimeters over the past 5 days and it was finally bluebird. After two hours driving up the Sea to Sky highway with a coffee in one hand and Ibuprofen in the other, we finally got to a very packed Whistler mountain. The avalanche report for the past few days had been moderate with a weak layer of snow about a foot down. We decided to take our chances and head for the glacier.
It was nearly eleven o’clock when we got to the Glacier Express on Blackcomb and our buddy Mathieu was not impressed. He had been waiting for us for nearly two hours. Finally we were at the backcountry gate and started the trek out to Decker bowl. By the time we got to the top of our first line I felt like a new man, I had finally sweated out most of the beer from St. Patty’s day. We took a pretty casual line down into the valley but it was fresh, deep, and sweet.
Once in the valley we traversed to the base of Decker and slowly crept up and around the side of the mountain. About a hundred meters from the top, a front started to move in. We grabbed our gear and got moving. When we got to the top, the clouds were in and we were losing visibility fast. We found a safe entrance into the bowl that avoided a massive cornice, dropped in, and Mathieu took the first line. It was untracked, deep, beautiful cold snow –some of the best lines of my life. We ended up cruising back in-bounds around five o’clock and had the mountain to ourselves. The weather held clear and we had just enough time to get a beer and watch the sunset from Longhorns Pub. These are the kind of days that can wash away just about everything and can even make Monday morning manageable. - Michael Alexander
Epic day? Fun tour? Send photos and stories to tess@powdermag.com.
Yo Guys, Recently returned from an incredibly successful trip to Northern B.C. One of the best Powder assignments I've ever done. Multi-layered story line, solid adventure, big ass avalanches, bombs, storms, and of course, with the Heath brothers, muchos good times. I won't speak for Dave, but from what I saw he killed it with the photos. Shot a size 3.5 avalanche from the helicopter. Here's some of my digi cam pics for a sneak peak. -Mitchell Scott
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We heard SNOQUALMIE Pass got pounded with 20 inches-plus from a massive coastal storm, so we decided to pull off I-90 and check it out, breaking up our trip to Whistler for the K2 Back Nine. Atop the pass, snowbanks were piled so high that streetlamps no longer served a purpose.
Once we rolled into the Alpental parking lot and geared up to shred some new snow, we found out Chair 2, the chair that accesses the higher part of the mountain, derailed and was out of operation.
Nevertheless, we teamed up with Todd and Ben of K2 Skis and found some sweet, deep pillow lines on the lower mountain. Alpental dished it out and solidified its status as one of the best gems on the West Coast.
After we exhausted ourselves from skiing deep, untouched lines, we cruised over to the Summit-at-Snoqualmie Summit Central and made a few laps through the expansive terrain park. Summit Central’s park included numerous rails and boxes, a super fun wall ride, a legit Superpipe, and four tables.
Back on I-90, we were completely satisfied with our first stop on this West Coast journey. -John Stifter