Headed up early to meet Charlie in the knowledge that top bin was opening today for the first time since the snow fall. We made the queue for the first lift (10am) and bumped into Steve who had already set his eyes on the 'H' prize. Originally the plan was to hit ENSA immediately but Oscar was late so we only had a single 30m rope, not long enough.
The bin was full of freeriders and we agreed to put the track in right away and just take our lines.
Steve was first to the track and started cutting. We had already agreed that things were primed and to leave large gaps, not to have multiple people on any part of the traverse. I drew the short straw and jumped past Steve to cut the track through the large bowl. The guys behind us played ball and even told the people behind them to back off when they tried to jump everyone. Cheers to them. Because I had to cut the whole track the process took a while but we made it to the top first.
 |
| Sticking to safe zones on the traverse |
Steve had already picked his line and headed off to the right so Charlie and I headed straight to the middle of the face. After quickly cutting the slope, releasing a small sluff (it had already sluffed from bombing), I flew down in good snow, waiting for Charlie on the brow before continuing down. Great run but not as good as the week before. In the queue we met up with Oscar and headed down to the entrance of ENSA. By this point at least 30 people were ahead of us. Real shame as it would've been epic first (we had been...)
Skipping the rappel we dropped into the couloir to the right. There had still been 5-10 people in front so the snow was tracked but fun. The exit was chopped and heavy with some bushwhacking. Charlie's knee was giving him jip so he headed home and Oscar and I headed back up.
We went up for a quick lap of skier's left of hotel face which had been heavily tracked but was still good, traversing out right for the exit. Oscar landed on a rock and blew a rail off his skis. They're done even by his standards... He headed home to switch skis and I went up for a quick final run. I'd seen Steve's original line and he'd chosen well so went and took a similar line. It was a great choice as none of it had sluffed. Lots of drops down a rocky shoulder. Deep... Amazing.
 |
| Rocky shoulder left of centre |
 |
| Think it's dead... |
On the lift back up I noticed the short section above the mid station was still untouched so quickly trekked up for a quick 40m powder hit. Nice big drop in the middle. Quick repeat and home for work. Great morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment