More big lines and deep snow in the Duffey

There’s only one way to describe what happened in the BC south coast over Easter: it was going off! Due to the coldest april in 74 years in Vancouver, the snow on almost every aspect was deep, stable, and waiting for some clear weather to get high. It showed up for 3.5 days straight and resulted in the best conditions I have ever had for big tours in the Duffey. So I hooked up with my usual crew of Lee and Sharon (http://www.sharonandlee.net) and a few others and ticked a few peaks and lines off the list.

Day 1 – Spetch and slalok:

We got a nice start at the crack of 9am in the clouds and took a bit of a dicey route up towards slalok in an effort to save time. The clouds were upon us for most of the 3 hr climb to the matier glacier, so we avoided the sun and stayed safe, although just as we reached the top the clouds parted and the sun beat down on us in full force. We heard several collapses from the ice fall in the chute beside us, which was a bit scary. The chunks of blue ice at the bottom of the slope in the afternoon were size of cars so we were happy to get the climb out of the way earlier in the shade.

Up the left in the morning, down the huge face in the afternoon (1km vertical!!!)

We did the initial climb so quickly that we were sitting on the matier glacier with time to spare, so we went for a leisurely bonus lap on another peak above the glacier called spetch…I don’t think it get skied very often because its right near a bunch of other big lines, but the snow was some of the deepest I’ve ridden on a 45 degree slope.
Lee laying it down in the pow:

My turn to surf:

Sharon admiring our destruction of that poor thing:

Then it was time for the big one. Slalok has been getting hit like a surrey girl lately, so it’s not exactly a big deal or anything to ride it, but it was pretty special hitting it in these stellar conditions. The slope has 1km vertical relief over the lake below, and the snow was absolute blower pow for 95% of it. This was one of the best sustained runs I’ve ever had.
Sharon in the white room trying to hide from the shade:

Thanks for this shot Lee:

Lee with a looooong ways to go to the bottom of this run:

After a few lake scootches we were back at the car at a reasonble hour, just in time to hear the sun pounding the south and west facing slopes so we were happy to clear out of there for the evening and gear up for day 2.

Oh, and of course, the video:
[vimeo:1emeg788]http://www.vimeo.com/22731061[/vimeo:1emeg788]

And story: http://www.leelau.net/sharonandlee/slalok-finally/