My first ever backcountry ski day was a 2-day epic trip to Mt. Baker. Some friends were renting a cabin up at the mountain and I was lucky enough to get an invite!
The weekend of February 18-19 it was DUMPING snow. Seriously, look at this:
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| Can you call that ass deep? |
It was deep!The snow was also super fluffy and awesome for skiing. I was a happy camper!
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| First run, so fluffy! |
My partner for the day was Imran, a very experienced (and patient) backcountry aficionado who shared his backcountry enthusiasm with me. I am very grateful to him for breaking trail and showing me how to make safe, educated decisions.
What did I learn my first day?! How to put on skins (you store them in your jacket when you are making laps, thus the “square” look to my jacket pictured above), how my new bindings functioned, how to track a beacon, and how to NOT layer your clothes. You get pretty hot skinning up a mountain it turns out, and you have to save room in your pack for those discarded layers. Who knew?
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| Lake Basin at the bottom of our route. I love how quiet snow makes everything. |
The 2nd day of our ski adventure started with a bang when I forgot lunch at the condo. Never fear, that’s why you keep a bag of stale bread in the car! We skinned up, took a run down, and stopped for “lunch”.
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| Who’s hungry? |
After fueling up (if you can call it that) we went back up to take another lap. I already posted this video, but here is the picture of (at the time) the best 8 turns of my life. Yes, I did face plant at the bottom, but only because there was TOO MUCH SNOW!
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| My tracks are clearly the more awesome looking ones, ending in a deep hole |
My favourite part of the whole trip? Besides skiing in freshies, being outside, and getting an awesome workout? Meeting so many other peeps who love BC skiing too! It was just Imran and I partnered for the day, but look at all the great people we ran into – including my friend Ben, who I know from running group!
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| Party – Backcountry Style |
