Russet Lake 2/11/06

We had a great time at Russet Lake and Mt. Fissile. Nick, Jason and Rob went up Friday morning and I followed in the afternoon. The snow was for the most part wind blown slab, in the open areas with some decent powder in the trees. The weather was some of the nicest I've ever had, warm, sunny, totally calm, it's hard to hit that in July.

Skinning up Piccolo.

Not a cloud in the sky.

Moon in the afternoon.

Alpenglow.

Mt. Fissile

We even had a full moon.

Skins off.

Nice weather.

Nick and I in the hut.

Some nice powder.

Rob.

Rob got crossed up during a switchback and took a tumble.

He slid about 100 meters. Lucky there was no cliffs, crevasses etc.

Nick obviously has no fashion sense with this get up.

Jason strikes a pose.

Mt. Fissle slopes.

Rob.

Typical snow conditions for much of the trip.

Nicks tracks, my tracks and Jason, the Fissle Missle.

Nick's is not doing too bad for only learning how to ski a month ago.

Rob and Nick.

Back to the hut.

Some nice powder on Cowboy ridge.

Black tusk in the background.

Jason trying out for next years Backcountry Hunks calendar.

Nice view of half the Spearhead in the background.

First hint of clouds in 2 days.

Nick in his purple suit.

Mt. Cheam 2/5/06

Mike and I headed up to Mt. Cheam enticed by reports of bottomless powder and a forecast that called for clearing skys. Lots of powder as it turned out but we never really got much sun.
Some snowmobiliers had thoughtfully laid tracks down so that made the climb easier. We eventually found them stuck in the deep snow and passed the foul sounding/smelly bunch about where the alpine started.
We dug a cave and messed around and came down the next day.

I went down to the creek to fill up the water bottles. There was about 14 Ft. of snow.

Mike digging a deluxe snow cave.

It finally started to clear up on the way down.

The wet snow made it difficult to turn in the narrow trail.