"The snow is likely to be deeper around the Icefields Parkway, and the southern aspects are probably crusty, so we should stay on the north facing slopes, no? Short day too. Hmm...we might have to get a little creative."
This is S talking out our options in his Quebecois accent over coffee and maps that morning. C, A and I have met up with S and B in Canmore to choose an objective for the day. They've all been backcountry skiing for god knows how many years. I'm the newbie - this is my third season. S is the one who enthusiastically (S has two modes of being - enthusiastic and more enthusiastic) informed me that there are six months of good skiing and six months of poor snow in a year, back when I'd only skied a handful of times, and only at resorts. B is saying to me, "Finally, we are going to ski together, hey!" I'm looking forward to it, too - this is a really good group of people, and they are old friends, except for A, whom I just met but I like her right away - she's nice, smart, interesting and funny. We decide to ski the Commonwealth/Pig's Back loop in Kananaskis, and the newly snow-facet encrusted trees sparkle diamonds all the drive out.
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| Look what a gorgeous day it is! Photo:A. |
We're off on skis. Soon we're too hot and stripping off layers in the sun. Feel the warmth of the sun. Smell the fragrance of the spruce trees. Listen to the muffled swooshing of our skinned skis sliding over soft snow. We're a chatty bunch. This is pointed out to us at the end of the day by a group that we had first passed at the beginning of the day: "Oh! You're the chatty bunch!"
S is the natural leader of our group. He's setting a comfortable pace for everyone, making the ultimate decision on the route, suggesting the best place to stop for lunch, noticing when we're starting to get cold and moving us along, scoping out a break in the trees to ski down, is the last one one to ski down each slope, and generally being encouraging and making sure we're all having a good time. Everyone keeps checking on me, of course, and sandwiches me in the middle of the group. Me...I'm just along for the ride, for once. I'm a sponge today, observing everyone else and learning how it's done.
As the pass comes into view it is incredibly aesthetic.
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| We saw this transcendental ray of light. Photo: Joanne |
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| Commonwealth Peak. Photo: Joanne |
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| The wide, austerely beautiful pass. Photo: A. |
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| Moi. Photo: A. |
We take our skins off on the slope above the pass between Pig's Back and Commonwealth Peak, and ski a big mellow line into the big bowl to the other side. Medium density powder snow a little over halfway up our boots and no crusts or unevenness made for very pleasant skiing. However, as we watched from the bottom, S went flying through the air as he hit a rock in the upper bowl. Scraped skis, oh nuts.
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| Forget everything - just ski, with good people. Photo: Joanne |
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| Photo: A. |
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| All of our happy tracks & Commonwealth Peak. Photo: A. |
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| Rrrrrrtt! Photo: Joanne |
After this a quick traverse led us to a nice long steeper line in a gully in the glades. What next? It was only 1:30 pm! Back up the valley to explore! Nothing much came of it - we were like a hesitant herd of sheep upon facing a choice between a big gully with a not insignificant amount of snow loaded on the steep slopes above, waiting to release in an avalanche, or the sun soaked glades that we just skied up...so we turned around and skied the glades and then skied back out to the car. It was nice that we didn't have to put skins on for the rolling ski out of the valley bottom. We didn't see another soul from the time we passed the group at the beginning of the day until we just about exited the valley.
It was a super fun day out with old friends and I made a new one, too - awesome.
Many thanks to A for the additional photos.
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