Skiing in the Backcountry

After finally escaping my foot bandages, it's been off into the backcountry for some skiing.  The past week or so has involved several days of uphill and downhill in some pretty decent snow.

Stu and I spent 2 days up at the ski cabin and put in a few good lines down through the trees into some nice snowy bowls.  We did dig one snow pit and discovered a weak layer, so we weren't all that surprised when Stu cut one line across the top of a slope that caused a fracture and a slide of snow right to the bottom of the hill.

A few days ago, a friend from Calgary arrived to learn something about Kootenay skiing, so we headed up the the ski cabin again.  For at least part of the time, there was light snow, so by the end of 3 days, the upper layers were sliding all over the place.  Because of this, our ski lines were pretty conservative and in the trees.  It was interesting to watch slopes sliding on the track back out as the skidoo passed.  Probably explains why the avalanche hazard was raised to high....

Down at valley bottom, snow is slowly disappearing, but at 2000 m it's still deep and fluffy.  I'm a bit conflicted, wanting spring and warmer, sunnier weather, but still enjoying the turns on the slopes.  Maybe after a couple days of rest I'll try out some XC skiing this weekend.