Derrick, Julie and I (friends from Spokane) decided on a ass-crack of dawn departure from Spokane Saturday morning allowing for two full days of touring among the Kootenay's of Canada.
The weekends plan was to ski the zones north of Kootenay Pass. Saturday unfortunately ended up being one of those all to common low visibility days. Between the visibility and the miles of heavily corniced ridge, finding safe lines to ski was a challenge. At one point in the day I cautiously crept towards a cornice that ended up snapping off in a blink of an eye. The result of the cornice break was me flying through the air in the opposite direction, kinda like a cat.... well a cat with a stoned like reaction. Lets just say, your not going to jump off a cornice before it breaks:) Later on in the day on the west face of Cornice Ridge Peak we noticed a
huge fraction line that appeared to originate from a large rock outcropping, then managed to propagate for about 100 yards, likely the result of a warm clear Friday.
Quick plug for an amazing meal after skiing at the pass. This little gem of a restaurant sits amongst a handful of liquor stores and a gas station based SUBWAY in the quiet mountain town of Salmo. Derrick said it the best "Why cant the US give a shit about their food like these Canadians". Check it out:
The Peppercorn Bistro
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| 8 mile day tour ( yellow is lines skied) |
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| elevation profile |
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| A view of Cornice Ridge Pk taken from near Wolf Pk (Sundays Tour). We skied the lookers right face of the lower rounded sub peak |
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| An inviting chute. Notice the large fracture line on the face in the background |
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| The best visibility we had all day, unfortunately we are back in the truck and heading to Salmo |
Best visibility all day pic is Awesome....almost looks unreal!!!
ReplyDeleteAs far as Cornice Ridge Pk ---- Quite a Cornice ... glad I didn't witness the cat.
Ohh the cat...you would of gasped, heart would of dropped...then you would of started laughing histarically. Im surprised i was able to jump without hitting myself in the head with the skies :)
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