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With family obligations complete for the holiday season, I was able to get out in the BC at the tail end of the ideal weather window. After viewing bc_skier's TR from the 29th it was clear that we missed out. However EDub, EE and Myself managed to ring in the new year in good form, despite mother natures best efforts.


clouds blowing over the saddle

My 1st trip to this area since the boot packin' days of yor, it was quite enjoyable to reconnect with the Crystal area BC. A well established skin track was clear all the way to the saddle between points 6654 and 6479, where-in we encountered stiff winds and moderate snowfall. Off the back was delicious despite being a bit heavy, fairly light pockets below tree bands where protected were nice surprises, found some goods to far skiers right which funneled into a protected gully for slashing heal side turns. The up-skin was a bit challenging due to snow surface, 5 hours of sleep and hit and miss rain causing some skin glopping.

Consensus was in favor of heading for home with the precip being of the unfrozen type. Dropped off into the ski area basin to find horribly wind affected rained in snow, followed by fairly think foliage, but there have definitely been worse shwacks, exiting to the top of gold hills. I am sure our party was not the only to observe the 1st 20-30 minutes of the rain layer we'll be dealing with next weekend.


Edub Killin' the hard pack


Look forward to exploring out here some more!

Thanks Chris for the post and for being a good sport about missing the good weather the day before. You know what they say about best laid plans.....

Anyway, despite the wet pack snow we found on the northwest aspect on the way out, the east facing slopes of cement basin held some great snow. I look forward to more tours out there.

Good times were had by all.

~ Edub