Ed foolishly agreed to head up Bells Canyon with me yesterday. The tour essentially amounted to an uphill endurance festival, but thankfully had 5500' of steep descending in stable powder to make up for it. Heading to Bells was calculated - there was a high west facing slope (off N-Peak) that I had been eying for a while, whose aspect and elevation would hopefully result in stable snow. Since it was a bluebird day, we also gambled that any crust that might have formed the previous afternoon would soften by the time we got there.
Additionally, while skiing out Bell's Canyon is quite sporting, we hoped to find stable conditions allowing an exit out Coalpit #4. The surface hoar problem pervasive in Millcreek and BCC hadn't been seen much in LCC, and there appeared to be slide debris at the bottom of Coalpit #4 when viewed from the road a couple of weeks ago.
That said, there was a risk of deeming the high west slope too unstable or crusted to ski, then backing off Coalpit #4 and sking out Bells through the scrub oak. We planned to be very cautious, as this year's thin El Nino snow pack has been trouble, and this would be the first time we have had enough confidence in the snow pack to play in bigger terrain.
Ed skinning low in Bells, still skeptical about finding snow.
Passing Middle Bell Tower.
Nice views of Lone Peak
and Lisa Falls.
Higher still. Perla Peak marks the entrance to Coalpit #4, which thankfully had been climbed and skied by Volunteer Stability Testers earlier in the day.
Finally on top.
The run off of N-Peak. We weren't yet confident enough in our snowpack to center punch the slope. It was hard staring down 1400' feet of consistent, open, 37 degree powder and not skiing it, but we opted for the skiers right edge of the path.
Ed below Perla peak, preparing to exit 3000' down stable, slightly cut up powder in Coalpit #4.
Me, tired and done.
2 comments:
Great!
Good to hear there has been at least some decent descents this year...
Yeah, it was nice to finally be able to do something other than meadow skipping, but it could easily have worked out so that we skied neither of those slopes.
We brought a short rope so that we could investigate Coalpit #4 safely, but were pretty happy to see two sets of tracks from earlier in the day. We weren't willing to ski the steep tree shot entrance, which was too bad, because it is much more fun.
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