Decent snow finally arrived towards the end of July. We had a 10-20cm dump which finally made things a bit more user-friendly in the backcountry.
Myself and Todd have been riding together for about 2 years now and we haven’t ever come across another splitboarder in the Remarks BC, not even skiers are that common. Through social media for the blog I made contact with Brad who was keen to also go riding with his own kind and not skiers.
Todd and Brad skin underneath Wye Dome (2050m)
We headed out towards Wye Creek using the new Curvey Basin Chair at the Remarkables Ski area. The Visibility was ok in the ski area so we thought perhaps it would be the case in the BC.. It wasn’t. High alpine and low vis pretty much just plain sucks but we thought who cares we are out here anyway! The snow ended up being fairly nice wind packed storm snow through a nice drainage that flows into the tarns that form into Wye creek.
Visibility was bad, But Todd finds good snow.
After reaching the col back towards the ski area we looked back down the valley to see the skies clearing and the sun breaking through, Todd coined the term Variablebird to describe the day’s weather.
Todd scores the best snow of the day above Lake Alta
Being the weekend warrior that I am now, the next day was Bluebird and my lovely other half had the day off as well so I took her out to the Doolans for the first time. With the Avalanche risk on Considerable and a huge avalanche releasing off the back of Centurion a few days earlier we kept it low angle but still managed to find some good snow. Things weren’t quite filled in yet so it was back to riding wind-blown snow in drainages.
Jaime makes her way down from an Unnamed peak.
It was great to show her an area she hadn’t been to before and great for me to check out where the snow was loading and what was going to be shaping up for riding.
Lunch spot with a view, A rad Cirque of Chutes behind us
We came down a steep-sided drainage with some nice wind loaded snow so decided to lap it a few times. The snow was soft and fast and so nice to ride.
Jaime makes some beautiful tracks.
On the approach back towards the ski area we spotted two other tourers coming up from the southern end of Wye creek. Turns out one of them was a Splitboarder on his first day out and a fan of the blog!
Another weekend down and what was coming on the Forecast charts was promising to be the snow that would finally get the season under way!
