Peter Lougheed Area
Oh do we need some new snow badly! We spent the weekend wandering around the lunar environs of Burstall Pass and Tent Ridge and frankly things were looking better up there way back in late October. Pretty much every aspect above TL looked scoured or wind affected. Snow depth everywhere I cared to poke was under 95cm. Still, travel remained quite supportive with 1-10cm ski pen off the track.
Here's the view from the flats looking up towards Burstall Pass and the somewhat ironically named "Snow Peak" - perhaps named from the huge cornice that usually grows along most of the summit ridge.
More views from the trek in. This looking up the Robertson Glacier, looking more exposed than usual for this time of year. The route from/to the col would require a bit of navigating around open crevasses that seem to be growing bigger every year. I usually carry a rope, harness and rescue gear on this route, but I'm thinking this year I might want to actually be wearing it!
And this is what the route up to the Birdwood pass/col area in case you were planning a trip over to Commonwealth. Surprisingly, not bad coverage, probably a bit slabby though.
Meanwhile, we headed up into the south Burstall pass area, expecting to find some skiable east aspects.
...which ended up to be wishful thinking. The whole basin was blasted with most of the decent skiable lines being interrupted by exposed rock.
Luckily, I brought the helmet this time!
Still, big smiles were had all around. Hey, it's hard to have a bad day out on skis no matter the conditions.
That said, we did managed to find somewhat fresh tracks on the 'normal' ski slopes in amongst the tighter trees on the way down. Most lines had been completely skied, but the run down the canyon was like a terrain park session - a total hoot with excellent coverage!
Sunday we skied in the vicinity of Tent Ridge. There was a real crowd up there telling from the number of vehicles parked on the road. Still, we only saw a few folks during the course of the day as we quickly headed off the normal beaten path. We found some excellent untracked skiing in the trees. Not that I'll say exactly where, mind you. Some things should remain sacred!