The air was crisp and fresh, the weather was looking excellent and we had 4 days ahead of us. It was a great way to start a trip. . We figured we had about 15km to ski in before we'd hit the basin to the black tusk at which point we'd either spend the night there or try to make the shelter of the hut. After a bit we could see Black Tusk off in the distance but knew we had a long long way to go.
We ended up spending the night in the basin beneath the Tusk in a comfy little bivy pit. It had been a crisp fresh night and we'd all slept well. We quickly packed up and headed out excited to be skiing in the back country.
Day 2 we skied to the base of the Tusk at which point we decided to take a hike up and check out the conditions at the base of it. Jay was carrying the rope, so he was definitely on the look out to use it. No point in carrying dead weight right? Naw, there's nothing wrong with a little training weight. So we headed to the base, Me and Nick in crampons and Jay on his ski's, took a good look around, caught a breath taking vista of the entire Garabaldi Park. We could see from Whistler to Garabaldi and even down into Howe Sound. It was pretty amazing.
After Jay skied an icy, sketchy descent from the base of the Tusk we made our way down into Taylor Meadows where we knew a shelter awaited us. It wasn't so much a a shelter as it was an area with 3 walls and a giant snow drift for a door, this would be our home for the next couple of days. It was a relief to set up camp and have an opportunity to relax. While Nick provided and excellent way to lose ourselves we gorged on food and water. A luxury I haven't had on previous trips because weight is such a concern.
The next morning we decided we'd go do a bit of yo-yo skiing. The snow was light and fluffy, visibility was good and we were fresh from a good nights sleep. We made our way out towards the hills we had descended from the previous afternoon and soon found a very nice slope. First things first we dug ourselves an avalanche pit to test the snow stability.
The snow was great. There was 2 foot layer of fresh snow sitting atop a hard, well consolidated base. We knew that the snow was bomber and avalanche risk was low. We spent the rest of the day skiing up and down an amazing bowl of fresh powder, new tracks each time till our legs just wouldn't carry us up any further.
On our last run the sun was setting over Howe Sound creating a beautiful vista.
Another night in our little 3 walled shelter, huddling togeather for warmth brought us to day 4. I The end always comes so fast.
We decided to head out via Cinder Cone flats then follow a certain creek, name forgotten, out till we reached a logging road which essentially would take us bake to the car. After skiing for the entire day on flat terrain it didn't seem likely that we'd make it back to the car that evening. So we settled down for another bivy.
We woke early the next morning finding that the logging road was only another 300m away and finished the rest of the morning off skiing back to the car. All in all it was a good trip.
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