Photo COmp: Satan's Choice

 Whenever you go into the mountains your eyes are natural drawn to dramatic features. Skiing at Whitewater on a clear day your eyes are drawn to look up at Ymir Peak and feel a pull to stand on top. Your eyes will then naturally see the curving chutes of First Choice, Comba's and Dogs Leg snaking their way down off the ridge and into the delectable bowl of West Ymir. Mother Nature must of had recreation in mind when designing our surroundings because these features riddle our landscape. With a little creativity and funky contraptions we have been able to exploit these features and unlock ways to play on them. The result is long lasting memories, laughs, smiles, exhilaration, freedom to express ourselves in unique ways and just plain FUN. It is these features that get imprinted in our minds and souls. We lust for them and dream about them, waiting for the conditions to align to allow us to experience sliding down them under ideal conditions. Some of these features are ridable all the time and some take patience to wait for decent visibility, coverage and stability. If you are a member of the 5 day work week club this can sometimes be a little tedious. Face pressed against the glass in my classroom as I watch things start to line up mid-week hoping they last until the weekend. "Mr. Hammerich what do I do with the decimal after I multiply the numbers together?" The student asks the question again and this snaps me out of my dream world. Yikes, try to be present I tell myself. Despite the weekend warrior status persistence usually prevails and getting to descend one of these luscious lines is even more sweet when you have been waiting. 

When you drive up to Kootenay Pass my eyes were always drawn the steep face above the Twin Lakes area on the south side of the highway. Commonly mistaken as Ripple Peak, this peak has no name, rather it is just labelled 2234m. Just as reading Shakespear produces numerous different interpretations, different people will see different lines and ways of descending a mountain. My eyes were always drawn to a narrow ribbon of snow that slashed it's way down the face.

The only missing piece was how to get into the chute as a cliff blocked the entrance. After a little asking around I found out that the chute was totally skiable with a 35 m rappel into it and then 500m of fall line skiing all the way to Twin Lakes. With knee surgery fast approaching, a friend in town visiting from the steep skiing capital of the world Chamonix and reasonably decent stability, we decided it was time.

We skinned up Ripple Ridge to the Lightning Strike drooling over the awesome descent that we were about to have. The line looks really steep from the highway and approach, but rest assured it is much steeper then it looks. Skiing southwest off the Lightning Strike and down to a little pass we exchange whoops of joy for with every turn we are that much closer. Skinning around the backside of the peak gives us glimpses of the large steep north face of Ripple Mountain. More lines jump out and burn themselves into my memory for another day. I refocus my energy on the present task at hand. We skin to the summit, then take the skins off and do a combination of descending and traversing to find a little notch that marks the top of the line. After finding the notch, a short little boot pack and we are standing at the top of what we later find out is called “Satan’s Choice.” Peering over the edge only gives us more confidence, as the rappel looks very simple and secure.

Buzzing with excitement we find some slings that mark the rappel anchor. The slings prove to be in sound condition and the rope is fed through and tossed off the edge. A quick rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first. My girlfriend crushes Johnnos scissors with her rock and gets to go first. Skis on back, smile on face, rope fed through rappel device. Dustin wiggles her way through the constricted rock walls and descends to the bottom of the cliff and to the start of the chute. Dustin yells up, “Off rappel,” which signals that the next person can begin their descent down the rope.

Once everyone is down, we pull the rope. Everyone is simultaneously digging a ledge to put their skis on, smiling and giggling with excitement and readying themselves for a classic descent. One by one each person rips down the chute and loving every minute. Satan’s Choice starts out pretty steep and narrow, but with each turn the angle relents and the chute widens. The group regroups at the bottom of the chute and high fives are exchanged. Everyone continues to look back at the striking line and the grins last the whole way back to the car, and the whole drive home to Nelson. Future plans are discussed, memories are exchanged, and smiles illuminate everyone’s faces. It is these moments that we all feel so lucky to be able to visit and play on the features mountains have upon them. Like surfers catching a perfect wave, we feel like we have caught a perfect line and what makes it even better is we experienced it with such good friends. The glue that holds these experiences together.