Sean skiing the Pearl Couloir.
Earlier this week, a group of us went out for our first real backcountry ski day of the season. Better late than never.
Sure, we’ve been in the backcountry on mellow tours through moderate terrain, but conditions and snowfall haven’t been suitable for taking on anything more. Now that we’re into spring and the instabilities that existed through the winter have been nullified somewhat by the melt-freeze cycle, it was time to go skiing.
Sean, Pierre, John, and I went up to ski the Pearl Couloir on Cathedral Peak. The coverage was thin and the approach was dry, but we had a great day. Not surprisingly, most of us agreed it was our best backcountry ski day of the year.
Hopefully there will be at least a few more days to come. From the looks of things up high and with temperatures nearing the 60’s most days, the whole season in the high country here could be wrapping up very soon. We’ll see.
Here are some more photos from the best day of the season.
Pierre Wille and John Doyle make their way across Cathedral Lake en route to the Pearl Couloir. There isn’t a skiable line on Cathedral’s big face, and Electric Peak out to the right looks even drier. The top of the Pearl Couloir is visible, descending from the col down to the right of Cathedral’s summit.
Pierre starts up the couloir.
John nears the top of the couloir and Pierre documents the event. It’s pretty steep where it tops out and was actually a committing first turn of the season.
Sean
John
Pierre
It was just fun to be out in real terrain.
Like I said, better late than never.
The route, marked in a photo taken during one of the recent big snow years . It’s quite a difference when compared to the photo near the start of the post.
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