Background
This year has been a pretty odd start to the ski season, but I feel like I’ve been saying that more frequently in recent years that it shouldn’t feel so odd.
I started off ski season with a few days on Mount Baker, which felt funny as ‘day one’. Picking up where I left off I guess, on volcanoes. Then a day at Washington Pass before it closed…it felt like a very novel start to the season.
Then a historic flood cycle came through the Snoqualmie Valley, bringing over 10 inches of water (not snow, water) to Western Washington. Wild. Mountain roads washed out, highways as well, just craziness. Really put in perspective that skiing is just a hobby we pursue; nature doesn’t really care.
Through all that, though, I’ve been very lucky to have made it up to the Selkirk Mountains twice before the New Year. It’s been really nice to get some time up at Rogers Pass, first with Lane in early December, then with Letty over Christmas/New Years. I wanted to take some time to reflect on the days up there.
Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2025
After being back in Miami for Thanksgiving with my family, I flew back and jumped in the car with Lane and drove up to Rogers Pass for some early season skiing. It’s funny…both times I’ve been up to Rogers with Lane have been in December. Short days, low coverage…one of these days we’ll have to get up there in the springtime.
Our initial plan was to resort ski most of the week and work remotely but Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR) announced just days before we had planned to leave that they were delaying opening due to low snow coverage. Oh well, guess we’ll have to go touring… We leaned into the trip being diffrerent than planned and made the best of it. We had a few great days, mostly fighting with visibilty and clouds.
On our first day, we fought clouds and low snow coverage on an attempt to ski the north face of Video Peak. Skiing down to an unanticipated rock choke, I radioed back up to Lane “I’m not sure it goes dude”…as I stared at ski tracks below a rock slab leading to the valley below. Some more sendy folk than I had either hucked the rock choke or just pointed it over them. Lane came down to me, and we made an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to downclimb the rock slab with crampons and axe. It just didn’t seem wise. We pivoted, went back up, and skied around Hospital Bowl and on the north side of Ursus.
On our next day, we learned even more about embracing uncertainty and rolling with what the Selkirks give you. We made an attempt to traverse the northern drainages of Grizzly and Ursus Minor, from Little Sifton to Bruins Pass. Again, fighting fickle clouds and low snow, we ultimately bailed far into our tour when dropping down an unknown gully into the north side of Ursus Minor seemed an unwise decision. We skied out Grizzly Gulch in the dark, learning, playing the game. We said that a lot on this trip, gotta play the game.
Our last day of touring, after a few days of working, we were rewarded for patience and playing that fickle game. We had great powder in the Cougar Brook environs, skiing again into darkness but this time intentionally. It was just so good.
Playing the game can mean a lot of things. For us, it meant going out to “have a look”. Letting the day evolve, making decisions when they needed to be made, and just being present in the place. The Selkirks are a good place for that, I found. They kind of force you to play the game; it can be a harsh environment if you are deadset in your ways, singularly focused on one objective. The weather is fickle, the clouds thick, and the terrain huge. You kind of have to play the game, or at least we felt like we should.
Dec 20, 2025 – Jan 2, 2026
Last year, Letty and I went out to Revelstoke over Christmas time and had a blast. We skied a day at the resort, got treated to some great touring days, and really enjoyed staying in Revelstoke. We wanted a repeat, this time for a little longer.
Once again, I found myself at the Revelstoke Lodge for the holidays. No complaints there! We drove up Highway 97, taking the long way to avoid gnarly road conditions on the Coquihalla Highway. Little did we know that our timing was going to be excellent. Locals would eventually tell us that when Snoqualmie was receiving that historic flood cycle, the Selkirks were getting dosed healthy amounts of thick, heavy, pastey snow that stuck to many of the mountain faces. This warm snow laid a great foundation for some cold Canadian powder to lay right on top of it. It’s funny…I felt like the forecast leading up to our trip didn’t really show any huge snow totals in particular, just little drips here and there, but all that adds up super fast.
Dec 21 – Ursus Trees
For our first day in the zone, we planned to check out either Ursus Trees or the backside of Balu Pass. I had looked at telemetry data for Rogers Pass and didn’t see any overly remarkable snow amounts, but when we rolled into the parking lot at the Discovery Center there was knee-high blower snow.
We shared some skinner with two locals who had plans of either STS or the Cheops Shelf; not quite our plans for the day. Realizing that we were going to make very slow progress in all this snow, Letty and I opted to turn off the Balu Pass trail and head up to Ursus Trees. There was an old skintrack in that we could reset. Still, resetting even that one was super deep! As we neared the top of the runs others caught up to us…classic. We chatted with a really nice couple from Victor ID who were comiserating in the bleak outlook back in the States snow-wise.
Our first run was one of those silly deep runs where it’s up to your hips and you can’t even really make turns. Keep those tips up! Absolutely nuts overhead blower. We trenched on for a few more laps, exiting a kinda funky way that worked but was definitely not “the way”.
For a day one, this one was pretty funny. Trenching, deep trail breaking, and blower powder. Not a bad way to roll up!
Dec 22 – Grizzly Shoulder / Little Sifton / Rogers Run
With a slightly better cloud forecast, we made a plan to try and get a little higher. I’d toured up Little Sifton with Lane and knew it was a beautiful walk. Letty and I layed out a plan to head up Grizzly Shoulder, try and punch up to Little Sifton for some views, then ski back down Rogers Run. We’d read that Rogers Run was a great “classic”…we had to see what it was all about. Our friends Kat and Kyle from back home were also keen on the idea, but we loosely agreed to link up.
The pre-Christmas crowds all had the same idea. A group of four California skiers were ahead of us on the skintrack breaking trail up Grizzly; we pretty quickly caught up to them and started helping break trail. Again, it was stoopid deep. Slow going, the kind of day where the person behind the trail breaker still has their work cut out for them.
By the time we got nearly to the top of Grizzly Knob 10-15 people had caught up to us and started to traffic jam. Whoever was in front just couldn’t move any faster! Letty and I opted to tag out and do a lap down Grizzly Shoulder, get some skiing in before the crowds got it. It was awesome!! Such fun runs in there, bouncy with tons of little hops and stuff to boop off of. I can see why Grizzly Shoulder is as popular as it is: zero approach, just go up and get your helping of skiing.
We mosied our way back up and saw Kat and Kyle atop Grizzly Knob. Funny enough, nobody had pushed up to Little Sifton! We opted to push further upwards, as the visibility was good for a moment and it made for a little more adventure. We got some great views and enjoyed some solitude. As we neared the Little Sifton Col we started to ascend into a thicker, soupier cloud and opted to flip it. No need to go blind skiing. We skied back down towards Grizzly Knob, ready for our exit run.
Earlier on the radio we had heard Kyle and Kat mention that they had messed up the Rogers Run beta and got too far skier’s left, into a “no-mans-land” of sorts between Rogers Run and Puff Daddy. There’s no way we can make that same mistake…right?! Well, sure enough we did. We didn’t start the run off the top of Grizzly Knob, like it typically is done, and surely enough, even armed with their intel, we ended up on top of a large cliff feature mid-way down the run. We had to do a little sidetracking and billy goating to get around said cliff band, which kind of ruined the vibe of the run.
In fairness, I could see how Rogers Run would be excellent if you did take it fall-line and didn’t have any route finding snafus. But this run, in particular, kind of requires that you either know exactly where you are going, or that you take it off the top of Grizzly Shoulder and stay skier’s right. We felt silly reading back through the guidebook at the end of the day, which said exactly what we had experienced. Oh well.
I felt a bit culpable for the route finding error. I often hold myself responsible for the fun-having and enjoyment of the group I am with, so I felt bummed that Letty didn’t have a good time on that exit. It wasn’t my fault, but I just wanted Letty to enjoy herself. I tried to reset us, remembering the good times we had up on Little Sifton. We laughed about it, in time, and just chocked it up to learning the ways of Rogers Pass. Playing the game…
Dec 23 – Video Peak SE Face / 8812 Bowl
Bonded by messing up the Rogers Run beta, we linked up with Kat and Kyle for a tour. We didn’t have a strong plan for the day other than heading up Connaught Creek and seeing what was what. Kat and Letty were the most psyched on 8812 Bowl, so we used that as the central anchor for the tour. I proposed that we check out the SE Face of Video Peak, using 8812 Bowl as an exit run. I knew that it might make for a longer day but I figured it’d be epic with the snow we had.
It was very quiet in Connaught, not many people were out and about. A sleepy Tuesday I guess, as people headed back home for the Christmas holiday. We agreed to head up towards Video and maybe link it into 8812 by skinning over into VCR Bowl then up the shoulder between VCR and 8812.
Sure enough, it was absolutely trench-deep trail breaking. We had broken clouds most of the day and it was slow going up Hospital Bowl towards Video. A guy from Crested Butte CO caught up to us just before Video and shared some uptrack with us. We paused as we reached the base of Video, talking through how to get up the thing. Last time, I had pushed up a small gully on climber’s right of the face with Lane and felt that was a good way to avoid exposure to the entire face while ascending. I know that in more stable and less deep conditions, people push the uptrack further onto the face. The group did some snow assessment, identifying mostly uncohesive dry snow sitting on top of an old interface. We agreed to continue, one-by-one, up the gully to the ridge.
Once we made it to the ridge, a wind picked up a bit and the mountain all of a sudden felt much larger than it had just a few hundred feet below. It’s funny how quickly a wind can make the mountains feel way more intimidating and big. We put on jackets, helmets, goggles, and continued on. There was some firmer windswept snow on the ridge but nothing too bad. As we pushed onto the summit the visibility improved for a brief bit and we got great views of Ursus Major, Ursus Minor, Cheops, and the line below. It looked awesome! Everyone was cold and I could tell morale was declining a bit just due to the arduosness of what we had just done. But the ski descent below would help with that.
We transitioned and prepared for an awesome descent. KJ went first and he punched straight down the face in perfect powder. Hell yes! It looked awesome, some flat light for him but now the rest of us had some tracks to follow. Letty followed next, arcing big turns in her new QST Echo. Kat had a blast bumping turns down as well. We skied Hospital Bowl in somer flatter-than-ideal light back to the skin track up to VCR. Everyone was psyched!
We sussed stoke and vibes and everyone was game to continue on upwards towards 8812. Everyone was feeling a little gassed from trenching up Video but still excited for more.
Morale and energy started to tank a little as we pushed up the shoulder towards 8812. Visibility was worsening and the cold and flat light was compounding fatigue that was already there. We tried to take breaks but food and water weren’t going to help much. As we neared the top we snuck into the bowl just beneath Bruins Pass and found a good spot to transition. Visibility was pretty poor, which was a bummer, but the snow looked excellent. I tried to use my clear goggles that I had just purchased but found that they fogged up really bad. Dang!
I went first, laying some blind tracks down 8812 for the rest to follow. The snow was a little denser and more bouncy than Video, having seen more wind. Everyone enjoyed it though. We found an awesome tree shot near the bottom and had a lovely luge exit. Psych was high! Even though it was a long and tiring day, everyone felt rewarded with the day. Everyone was ready for a rest day.
Dec 25 – Balu SW environs
Stoke was high for another linkup on Christmas Day! We linked up with Kat and Kyle and waffled on plans, as usual. We had talked about maybe going up West MacDonald Shoulder but it had DUMPED snow in town the day prior so we were expecting some touchy, storm-slab conditions. We agreed to head up Connaught Creek, again, and maybe check out Ursus Trees or Balu.
We were all a little shocked when we saw little surface snow skinning up Connaught. We were expecting trenching and hip-deep blower, and instead it looked like there was some boot-top, denser snow. Huh…telemetry had showed cold temps the entire storm. We had good visibility so we pivoted away from our idea of Ursus and pushed further back towards Balu, with options of Nicci’s Notch or Cheops North Bowl on the way back. There was some disappointment amongst the group, as we would have proposed different route plans if we’d known that there’d be less surface snow. Again, I felt semi-responsible for the group’s emotions and tried to think about how I could bring morale back up. But that’s the game! You have to go out, see what you see, and pivot when appropriate. Especially up in Rogers.
There was a solo skier that had pushed all the way to Balu ahead of us and we yanked his skintrack most of the way. I took us down the southwest side through a zone that Lane and I had skied prior. I found it SUPER fun, nice little hallways. It was way more filled in than last time and honestly skied very mellow. The snow was kinda funky though, with a thin zipper crust and not the absolute blower that everyone had been spoiled by. The aura and vibe back in Cougar Brook was stunning, with huge views over towards Bonney and the other side of the highway.
The solo skier that we had seen ripped by us as we skinned back up, then caught up to us with a blunt in hand. Ha!
We talked about what to do next, and opted for another lap of the glades. As we skinned back up and crested Balu Pass a giant cloud engulfed the valley and we skied out in poor visibility. Bummer! We had a great luge out, chatted in the parking lot, and headed home for some Dairy Queen in town.
Dec 27 – Truda Col / Lone Pine Lite
Our first mission day of the trip! Letty and I wanted to head up towards the Hermit area on Saturday ahead of some really, really cold temperatures forecast. Armed with many more layers and heated socks, we got an early departure from the hotel only to roll up to the Hermit lot not being plowed. Shucks!
We rolled back to the Rogers Pass Discovery Center to put on our boots and waste some time, hoping that the lot would get plowed.
With our boots and boot gloves on, we headed back to the Hermit lot only to find it still not plowed and not a single car in the lot yet. I pulled us over to the side and got out my shovel. Letty was quite apprehensive at the idea of shoveling out the lot (appropriately so) but I thought that if we just managed to shovel out the thick snow near the highway we’d be able to push through the lighter snow that was sitting in the lot itself. Sure enough, as we began to shovel another car showed up, tried to push through and got stuck. It reminded us of when I did exactly that at the Bostock lot last year. This time, though, after 10 minutes of shoveling I managed to get our car through into the lot. Success!
A 4Runner plowed through as the Rav4 and Toyota Matrix were thoroughly stuck at the head of the lot. Letty and I started breaking trail up the Hermit trail, with cold temperatures and boottop powder. It was going to be COLD today, with temperatures at pass-level forecasted to drop to single digits F; this could only mean near negative temps up where we were going.
Our initial plan for the day was the south col of Rogers, with maybe heading to the summit. I was an idiot and left my crampons at home in WA, so I’d have to be limited to things I could bootpack up sans crampons. As we broke trail up the Hermit two crusher ladies caught up to us. Little did we know one used to be a skimo athlete for Canada. Makes sense! The two of them were absolute engines and helped break trail for parts of the day.
The trail breaking was pretty slow going and by the time we hit Hermit Meadows a thick cloud layer had developed. It was clear that the cold, stagnant air had made a thick valley cloud that was engulfing all of Rogers Pass. We got brief sucker holes as we climbed, but for the most part we were in a milk jug. The two ladies didn’t disclose their plans but it sounded like both of our parties were headed generally towards Rogers/Swiss.
Near the fork for climbing up towards the Tupper Glacier or Swiss Glacier, the ladies stayed high opting for the track that goes on top of the Tupper bench. Unfamiliar with that route and navigating in a white out, I wanted to stick with the familiar route I had taken with Lane two years prior just below this bench and more direct towards Rogers Col. This just meant more trail breaking for me. . .but oh well.
As we reached the flat Swiss Glacier we got above the cloud layer and were treated to much welcome sun. It had been FREEZING in the cloud deck and finally we got to thawing out a bit. Letty was toasty warm with her heated gloves and socks, but I certainly was not.
One look over at the south col of Rogers and we eliminated it from our plan. The winds were ripping over the north side, with significant flagging off the peaks. We could see active wind loading going on at the col. No-go.
We looked over towards Swiss and saw the ladies emerging, headed towards the Swiss/Truda area. I talked with Letty about pivoting to either Swiss Couloir or the Swiss-Truda Col. Letty was the most psyched on Swiss-Truda col so we headed that way. I raced to try and get within earshot of the ladies so that we could sync on terrain choices and avoid conflict in constrained terrain. They were planning to go over towards the Swiss Couloir and I shouted that our plans were the Swiss-Truda Col. I asked them if it was okay for us to skin up behind them and they said yes and thanked us for asking. Letty and I skinned over to the Swiss-Truda couloir’s start, transitioned in the sun and discussed. The couloir had sluffed overnight and there was a clear fan of soft sluff right in the choke. We talked about hazards and noted that there was potential wind loading as we ascended and that there was a new-old snow interface in varying depths to take note of. Most importantly, it was wickidly cold so we had to limit our risk taking to avoid injury or loss of equipment. This was not a night to spend out.
As we ascended, I felt good about the snow. I was feeling a progressive snowpack, with definitely some wind effect and slab formation but not upside down. It seemed like there was a thin layer of new snow that was mostly loose on top of a firmer, more windboardy layer beneath. I didn’t feel it to be hollow, though, so I suspected that it would mostly just be sluffy.
The mountains here feel BIG. Much bigger than at home. Climbing up, we would ascend a little bit, re-assess, and go from there. We found a nice little rock nook to transition in near the top of the couloir; we forewent the top out, as it looked to be actively loading and pretty unpleasant to stand in up in the wind. I faffed around on this transition, taking a LONG time to fiddle with my boots. I watched my glove fall down the couloir, great. Come on Sam…keep it tight.
After a turn I felt that the snow was good, turned to Letty and made our descent plan. I skied down to a position where I could snap some shots and got out my camera. I hadn’t used my camera yet this year so it felt great to get behind the lens and snap some shots. Letty skied great, remembering what steeper skiing felt like after a turn or two. We could see the ladies had skied out of the Swiss Couloir without issue.
We skied over as far as we could towards Lone Pine / Lone Pine Lite, our intended exit. We were re-entering the cloud. This must have been the coldest I’d been all day. The aura was intense, with a thick cloud layer and sun peeking out just over the horizon line…a sign that darkness was to come. We transitioned, briefly, for the push over towards Lone Pine. My skins totally failed me in the extreme cold.
We saw sets of tracks heading down Lone Pine Lite; I peered down Lone Pine Direct, which also looked pretty interesting. We opted for Lone Pine Lite, which had some unreal turns in evening glow. I was having so much fun powder hopping that my tip dove and I took a nosedive into the snow. Oops!
Lone Pine Lite was deliteful (pun intended) but the visibility was pretty flat. It was nice to have some tracks to follow. Down in the lower avy path we found some harder snow in the path proper but the sides of the run were excellent! Our legs were both tired, so having quality skiing was a bit tough. I hit a few ice chunks that were a good reminder to not ski stupidly!
By the time we had gotten down the road, we were both pretty wiped. A lot of trail breaking and a cold, hard day. Someone had flagged the push-path through the trees out to the highway, which was super nice! We pushed atop the snowbank along the highway back to the parking lot. First group into the parking lot, last ones out. Classic. What a day! This day definitely pushed Letty and I as a partner-touring couple but it was memorable in all ways!
Dec 30 – Mt Swanzy SE Face / Sapphire Col
Well, conditions came together: stability plus high pressure. Reading over the guidebook, Letty got psyched on the southeastern flank of Mount Swanzy. Not too gnarly but plenty of adventure, staring back at the Dawson Range and perched high next to Mount Bonney. It sounded good to me!
We hadn’t done a day out of Loop Brook yet so I was psyched to change things up as well. We loosely planned to make it a traverse, popping over either Dome Col or Sapphire Col and skiing into the Asulkan drainage. I knew it would likely turn into a long day, but I didn’t quite expect it would turn into as long of a day as it did.
My car exhibited some weird shaking on the drive up, which was enough to get my blood pressure to rise. We had stopped at Tim Horton’s to get some timbits and coffee on the way, so we were running a bit on the later side. It’s funny…when you’re starting off the day you don’t really calculate all the little time losses that ultimately add up to a big loss on a long day. That was today.
We got started out of Loop Brook with a few other parties. The Elephant’s Trunk went smoothly, no funkiness required. It was quite nice to float along a skintrack today, after so many days of heinous trail breaking.
We reached the Lily Glacier and started to get some breaks in the cloud action. The skin track we were following did not go up the ‘gut’, the way I had gone last time. At first, I was apprehensive about the other way, high along a bench above the main Lily Glacier. But on second thought, I remembered not loving the steep roll-over in the Lily Glacier and thought this other way could be a good alternative. It turned out to work well; there’s some hanging snow but overall I liked it much more than going up the glacier.
We reached Lily Col and there was a strong wind, making for an intense ambiance. The group that was following us had dropped off. What are you thinking?, I asked Letty. We were both psyched to at least go take a peek at Swanzy, feeling like there weren’t any glaring red flags to turn around. As we pushed over Lily Col the wind died and we got a little more visibility, enough to stare over into the Dawson Range at Mount Donkin and the Comstock. So sick!
We were finding really good conditions on the Swanzy, a few inches of light snow stacked on top of a very progressive base with little cohesion or slab texture. It was a green light snow-wise, thus far…clouds were our only issue. It’s funny, in the Selkirks it really seems like a ‘sunny day’ can turn into a cloudy day in an instant. I knew that there were some high clouds predicted but soon enough it started flurrying on us. Ha!
We skinned around to the wide ramp system that leads up to the upper face and continued to monitor snow conditions. As we got higher up, we found a thin wind crust that showed evidence of wind transport but still no slab formation. I eyed up a neat gully feature that would make for a more fall-line descent down the face.
Around half-way up the face we switched to booting once skinning became less efficient than just going straight up. I proceeded to accidentally turn on my Safeback, drop my glove in the process, and just be a total goob. Whoops! I felt pretty dumb at wasting time and energy faffing around but oh well, no harm no foul. My glove had fallen right in line with the ski line I wanted to ski so I’d be able to grab it on my way down.
We topped out the face in some passing clouds and forewent the summit push. It was 20 feet above us but the ridgeline was white out and we couldn’t tell what was cornice and what wasn’t. Seemed not worth it. Instead, we transitioned and readied for a break in the cloud action for visibility. Within a minute or two, a sucker hole came and we got great light for our descent. The top face was punchy windcrust but as we neared the gully I had eyed the snow turned hero. The gully skied great and I managed to snap some photos of Letty skiing with the Dawson Range and Mt Purity in the background.
Down on the Swanzy Glacier, we soaked in the position. Wow, what a place. We had been communicating so well all day, playing the game with clouds and going until it didn’t make sense. I was really proud of us. This was where I started to fail as a group leader, though.
Personally, I really wanted to push on towards Sapphire Col and out Asulkan Brook. I thought it’d make for an aesthetic tour, a traverse of sorts. Letty did some mental calculus, though, as we started up and posed the question do we have time for this? She noted that it was getting late and that Asulkan would likely take us into the dark hours. I was psyched to still go up to Sapphire, and I while I didn’t make the decision unilaterally, I didn’t exactly make it easy for her to say “hey, I just want to go down”. It was pretty short-sighted of me.
Getting up to Sapphire Col took us nearly an hour from the Swanzy Glacier; to avoid a large hanging snow ramp I took us into a wallow-y nook amongst the rocks that took a little bit of pistol-squatting. We had to walk over a few rocks but topped out Sapphire Col to wind and fading light. Dangit. I could tell that we were starting to inch towards dark territory, that feeling of ‘well, this is going to be a while’.
We skied over towards Dome Cleaver and got some amazing turns in its protection. I was very glad that we hadn’t skied fall-line down the Asulkan, some of those rollers looked pretty weird! We pushed across the moraines towards Triangle Moraine and were down at the outtrack luge soon enough. Then began the long exit. I forgot how slow it is to get out and I could tell I was burning Letty. Her feet hurt, her ankle bone still nagging her with pain. As we pushed and pushed our way out the luge, darkness crept on and on and by the end we were in full on dark. It’s funny, even if you haven’t had thaaaat long of a day at Rogers, finishing in the dark can make it feel all that much longer.
We reached the Illicelewaet parking lot and I knew that we still had a ways to go. We had to get back to Loop Brook along the snow bank. I asked Letty to sit it out, offering her my puffy and for her to wait in the bathroom, but she insisted on coming with. I think part of her didn’t want to feel like she was doing less than me, which was totally fair. We should have tried to get a hitch from some of the people leaving, but oh well. What ensued was 2.5 km of pushing through thick snowbank snow, tiring and slow.
We had an absolutely epic day in a crazy position, but I pushed us just a bit too far. I should have put down my personal desires a bit more and just done what made more sense.
Jan 1 – MacDonald South Face
We met up with Michael and Alex at the Rogers Pass Discovery Center just past 7AM PST and put on our boots inside. It was quiet early in the morning on New Years Day; most people had likely been up late, drinking. We were ready for a day up high.
There was a valley inversion that made for a thick, cold cloud layer as we climbed up towards NRC Gully. Around 6000’ the cloud deck parted and we started to get a little warmer. Being a westerly slope, NRC hadn’t seen that much snow and we still found soft snow as we ascended. There was a skintrack in from the day before, from two parties that had skied the NW Couloir on Avalanche. We used their skintrack to gain NRC and prepared to traverse over to the base of MacDonald. We heard our friend John on the radio, just a few minutes behind us.
This was the sunniest and clearest day we had yet; gazing across the skyline we saw so many tracks everywhere! New Years Eve Day was clearly busy. We were happy to be out on a quiet day, even if the snow would be less than ideal. We pushed onto the east side of NRC, avoiding a large cornice that had failed the day prior. The snow was very wind affected, firm, and funky. Position over condition! The position was unreal, staring up at the Avalanche North Glacier.
We traversed over to the base of the south gullies on MacDonald and transitioned in the shade. There was no sun in the valley…a dark hole amongst massive peaks. We tried to skin but at one point it got too firm to reasonably skin so we briefly booted. We put skins back on and made the traverse that the guidebook notes around 2450m to the south face. It’s an impressive route, so improbable looking from afar but quite clean! John caught up to us higher up just below the face proper as we took a break and soaked in the sun. Everyone was psyched to be up high, enjoying the scenery. Salute Sir Don! Everyone waved to Mr. Don, high above the peaks on the skyline.
We gave the cornices on the summit ridgeline plenty of birth and topped out to a lovely view. Such a cool summit! We didn’t peer over to the north face but I could only imagine it dropping off for thousands of feet. We talked down a few paces from the rocky summit and clicked into our skis.
I faced the skier-photographer’s dilemma: do I ski the fall-line run I want to ski, or traverse out to a good angle for photos? Fall-line on the ridge looked like the best pitch to ski but further out skier’s left towards our skintrack would give a great vantage of the ski route. I split the middle and traversed out a little ways, not wanting to give away my ski run. I didn’t get the best shots I could have, but oh well. I’m still a skier at heart, even if I love smashing the shutter.
The upper face of MacDonald is unreal, such a beautiful panorama amongst the Selkirk skyline. We had lovely chalk-pow, which turned into some funky windboard then creamy warm pow. All flavors! An alpine buffet of sorts.
We shared the ski down to the valley then went our separate ways, John and Jon continuing on up to Avalanche at sunset. Alex/Michael/Letty/myself were content with our plan to exit NRC. We crested NRC as light faded and enjoyed big turns down the NRC Gully. Tired legs set in on the choppy lower half of the descent on MacDonald West Shoulder. We re-entered the inversion cloud and fist bumped at the cold cars. A lovely adventure day, what a way to end a great two weeks up in Rogers.
