Needle Peak Tree Skiing (and week -42)

This week ended up being basically a holiday from the holiday.  It happens every year, but it didn't help that this year we got back to Vancouver and immediately went to Revelstoke.  Way too much to do.  We ended up surviving the week, and were going to take the weekend to catch up on all of the jobs and plans and everything that we were so far behind on...and maybe even get in some workouts.

Then Dan called.

So we ended up going to the Coquihalla on Saturday.  We drove up into a storm, met Dan, and were ready to go by about 10am. This weekend the avalanche forecast was moderate above the treeline, so we decided to stick to a route we knew, and just have some fun laps in the trees.  Needle peak route was in our sights, and it turned out to be in  lot of people's sights - I think we saw at least 12 other people over the course of the day.  The first people up that day or the day before had also set an "American" style skin track - straight up. Dealing with that wasn't the most pleasant, but also got in our cardio for the weekend...so less guilt over missing those workouts. 

We passed a few groups on the way up, but when we got close to the top there were still some people ahead of us, and a few more hot on our heels.  Now, aside from the skin track, the skiing was untouched.  We weren't quite at the top, but the people ahead of us could turn around at any moment and lay down fresh tracks.  What would you do?

We skiied.

(those suckers.)

The we headed back up, and actually passed one group who we had passed before.  So we actually lapped people in the backcountry.  That was a first for me.  The rest of the ridge was pleasant, and at the top the view reminded us of why we weren't headed for the summit:

Heading back down we veered off to an area that we had hit by accident the year before.  We had been trying to follow our ascent route up, but lost track of it and then headed left when we should have headed straight.  The result: a little bit of confusion at the end, but spectacular glades all the way down.  This year we took the same route deliberately, and were not disappointed.

(yes, this is natural. I have no idea how.)

We had a slightly better sense of direction this year, and ended with a much shorter skin back to the car.  All done by 2pm, and time to head back to Vancouver.

The chores can wait.

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Our week triathlon wise: like I said, holiday from the holiday.  Biking to work and skiing only.  Stats are:

(T-42 weeks and counting until New Zealand)

	Matt	Caroline
Swim
Sessions	0	0
Distance (m)	0	0
Bike
Distance (km)	54	46
Elevation (m)	0	0
Run
Sessions	0	0
Distance (km)	0	0
Backcountry
Distance (km)	7	8
Elevation (m)	620	660