Feb. 11-15, 2010
Rogers Pass: the best ski touring in the world?? Seems like a reasonable claim. Instant access to big country, rowdy road shots, good snow, peaks, glaciers, trees, and pillows, with a hotel at the top, 2 funky ski towns within an hour, and a couple of huts in the backcountry, all human-powered and within a National Park. But the goods, of course, demand respect, especially from the tourists. A couple of layers of buried surface hoar made for a touchy snowpack and slabs were becoming more and more cohesive each day. We took this as an opportunity to explore new trailheads, scope out new (to us) terrain, and get a better feel for the area as a whole.
The first day we headed up the Connaught drainage hoping to ride one of the big N. facing chutes off of Cheops. A ski cut on a smaller chute of similar aspect released easily, decidedly removing the urge to ride the object of our desire. After that run, we skinned up the ridge from Balu Pass hoping to drop into the gargantuan 8812 bowl. The wind was ripping up there, loading the east-facing slopes below us with slabby snow, so after poking around in the flat light and not feeling it, we headed back down the ridge and had a nice long run in OK snow (you could feel the crust underneath on the more southerly slopes) back to the parking lot. We toured a little bit on this day with a pro patroller from Whistler who is fighting brain cancer, which was inspiring and fired us up to ride hard.
The next day, we rode the steep N. facing trees by Ross Peak hoping to find stable powder, but the warm temps had already done their work; one and done. We drove up and did a blast up the NRC gullies in the afternoon sun.
Sunday was warm and wet, so we used that as an excuse to recover from a sure-to-be-legendary night in Golden ("Who were those crazy backcountry-riding Americans???") and to hang out with our new friend Luc, the ranger working at the Discovery Center.
On Monday we headed up Cheops 2. Holy sh*t, needs more snow!!!! We dropped into this old avalanche path after touring up a shoulder in old growth, and we quickly learned that the new trees are growing back and need a lot of snow to cover them. Super sketchy, big drops and big holes. We got back into the big trees as soon as we safely could. Whew, that was exciting.
The drive back to Seattle was brainless and easy in the good weather despite the fact that we didn't have a map. Even though we didn't ride anything "big" on this trip, we had an awesome time, got away from the crowds, stayed safe, and now have a lot more ideas for the next time.
