Classic Mission Falls

Woke up to irritatingly warm temps today. The plan was to head for Mission Falls for a day of ice climbing with Travis. With the warm temps, I knew the ice was going to be wet. Quite honestly I hate climbing ice in wet conditions. On the positive side though, we were going to have "hero ice". Ice so gooey soft that every swing of an ice tool results in a buried pick giving a person the confidence to climbing like a super star.

Mission Falls, Whispering Ice

As expected the ice was running with water and after the first pitch, we were soaked. Luckily a front was moving in and the gusty winds accompanying it dried us out fast. Feeling dry and warm once again, Travis and I moved to a new location to finish off the day with some more climbing. We of course chose a dry line to climb this time.

Climbing Whispering Right-Center

Travis climbing leashless

Horsing around on the ice bridge

A glimpse of sun at the days end

Gash Point

Today was an amazing day of skiing. My buddy Shane and I headed to Gash Point south of town about an hour away. Rumor around town was that the snow was great so we thought we'd check it out. The approach is about a 4,000 ft skin to the top where we indeed found great snow. We found the snow pack to be awesome after some analysis and made our first run. The turns were great and after 500 ft vertical we were at the base of the northern bowl. It was too good to call it quits then so we headed back up for our final run. This time we dropped into the southern bowl and made amazing turns in shin deep powder for 4,000 ft back to the car.

Shane analysing the snow pack

Shane in the northern bowl
Getting ready for our last run

Whistler

The day after Christmas I headed to Seattle to spend some time with family. Bad road conditions and sleep deprivation slowed my progress, but I still managed to get there safely. The next morning my Uncle and I hit the road again. This time I was heading to Whistler, BC.

Whistler Base

Whistler is a trip. It is enormous. The skiing was great and the village was impressive. I got to ski with family for three days and had a blast. That was a great way to enjoy time with everyone.

Main strip though the village

Snow was falling the entire time we were there so the lighting was very flat for photography. I didn't take too many shot, but did get some fun night pics.

Another shot of the strip