Ski Review 03-04 The Fall Line Blisters 100 ... - Off-Piste Magazine

Beautiful dry boot-top powder pummels my
chest with every turn. It is April 24th, six
months plus a day since my first turns of the
season and I’m still smiling and expelling
excited shouts with every turn.
Wow comes to mind.
Awesome the virgin face below. Tiny are we and alone on our
ridge top goal waiting for the perfect moment. So alive as we
swirl down in gentle arcs leaving trails and floating plumes
disturbing perfection that will return tomorrow.
As an incredible season comes to a close I’ve been tempted
once more into the mountains. The lure of fresh adventure
and the prospect of touring to a place I’ve never been still
manages to overpower my exhausted motivation. Perfect spring
promotes early mornings to contour south slopes and the wintry
north side beyond. Beautiful dry boot-top powder pummels my
chest with every turn. It is April 24th, six months plus a day since
my first turns of the season and I’m still smiling and expelling
excited shouts with every turn. Wow comes to mind. A third of
our day done we tour up a mellow glacier inspired by the two
peaks and a pass before us. Summits glow irresistibly with
today’s conditions, snow preserved perfectly by cold weather
and broken clouds. Upwards we skin until steep pitch and
sloughing snow indicate its time to boot pack. A smooth shaved
face, a perfect ridge, and beyond to a summit turret offering
three hundred and sixty degrees of visual stimulation.
High five cheers and laughter, hard to believe to string of days
we’ve put together. Steep face demands control. Second turn
brings a stoplight, a shooting fracture and I cut out to watch as a
soft slab avalanche tumbles down below. Hazard gone we
swoosh to a glacial bench: a fine place to rest and skin up one
more time. Short climb through well bridged crevasse field to
another short boot pack and our third summit of the day. Crazy
the century of incredible days we’ve had this year. Everyone
highlighted with memories of good times shared with my
spectrum of friends. One more to live. Visual confirmation of an
awesome south face we’ve looked at all year, only now we are
looking down. Line of sight to the valley bottom, 3000 feet below.
Rock spines like porcupine quills stretch up, erect menacing
obstacles to be avoided. Bed surface melt freeze bomber for our
descent of slow controlled jump turns. Easy does it down and
out. Wow, again. To the end from the beginning, thanks for an
incredible season.
Myles Berney spends his summer planting trees and his winters skiing
the backcountry of British Columbia.
Issue Issue XVIII XVIII Off-Piste 19