Robson G.'s blog

We're melting down at the Abbey this week.  Overnight temps of +5.  Lots of mush everywhere, peak to valley.  Its not so good for skiing but great for watching big wet avalanches and the afternoon beer drinking is not so bad either.  We skied Typee on Sunday and now we are skiing the local high country because we are too scared to go low in the valleys and get underneath anything.  Once it cools off, it should be great for the corn season.  Snowpack is down to 330cm.  I haven't seen it this warm at this time of year before.

Ok, now that Ullar or Jesus, or whoever else may be in charge of these things, has buried the Woodlot snow stake, 300cm tall, its time to work on burying the Greenroom Weather Plot stake, at 400cm tall.  This stake is right in front of the lodge.  The snow creep has bent it over a bit, so its not quite vertical anymore.  It needs another 10cm of snow to cover it.  The last dump dropped 70cm of settled snow in about a day and a half, so if the recent trend continues, that stake is a goner.  I have never seen the lodge this buried.  The snowbank on the east side

Last week was a week of snow, wind, deep powder, avalanches and quite a few runs down the Woodlot.  We did get over for some great runs in Never Never with 70cm new snow over the old bed surfaces.  Max kept us entertained with his Jolly Jumping.  Plus we almost hit 3 mters at the Woodlot Plot, get the champagne ready....  any day now....

Thanks for the pictures Geoff.

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So, we skied down into the Woodlot today and there is 289cm on the stake.  11cm to go to bury the thing.  Its snowing like hell right now, maybe tomorrow...

I found this baby outside my door today.  Anyone with information please contact me.  He is quite good humoured and answers to "Max", sort of.

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On Thursday we went to Never Never Basin to check out the debris we saw from the King's Backside.  The whole bowl had slid.  Lots of trees gone, the natural glading program is continuing.

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Back in the Abbey after a week at Sorcerer Lodge.  We got about 40cm at the beginning of the week at Sorcerer.  Skiing was great in the trees and we weren't very adventurous with the ski program because the avalanche hazard was high.  We went up in the alpine once even though the weather was good for it.  Getting out of Sorcerer was a chore.  We got hit with a good storm and couldn't fly until about 4:30.  Then the heli broke down and it ended up that only half of us got out.  This is a rare thing for Sorcerer.  In the meantime, Battle Abbey was stuck

Last Friday we woke up to 5cm of low density stellars.  It looked like everything was covered in little diamonds.  The forecast had called for a snowy day but it started to clear.  We went up to King's Landing and poked up above the fog.  All the peaks were showing in the sunshine.  The skiing was awesome, deep snow with 5 to 10cm of fluff on top.  We did a few in the Burnt Offerings, had lunch at the sunpit overlooking Billy Goat Bowl.  All in all, one of the better days in the mountains this winter.

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The Drought is over.  Snow started at 10am and its still snowing.  We went over to Schooner South today and Jeff took a group up Pillow Talk and up the Throne to ski the couloir next to the Crow's Nest.  If it going to snow, snow hard!

Yesterday we took advantage of the last clear day of the February Drought and went up Mount Butters.

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More party creatures from last Friday night.

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More blue sky at Battle Abbey.  We woke up to a half moon over Omoo and starry skies.  -15 Celcius and moderate Northwest winds up high that tapered through the day.  Some of us went to Little Ahab for a run in the sun, while the others went to Typee for some north facing powder and a run down the Typee Glacier.  After we got back to the hut, we went up to Kitchen Envy to catch the evening light and get one more run before getting to work on the kegs.

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We almost got fog out for our exchange on Saturday.  On the second flight, Don had turned around and was heading back to Golden when the pad cleared and he was able to come in.  We have had 10cm of new snow over the last few days to freshen things up.  On Sunday we skied the King's Backside, Never Never basin and the Throne.  First time up there this year.  Yesterday we went over to Missenmast and had a fine run down the left lines and over into the large slide path at the bottom.  Today we have some clear weather so we'll head over to Typee and maybe do a lap

Dave Brailey enjoying some of the fine weather we had last week.

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