Report from January 6, 2023

We flew in here to this remote hut in British Columbia yesterday afternoon.

It hasn’t snowed up here in a long time and they’re experiencing a record low snowpack.

We were worried…

After we arrived yesterday, we quickly got organized and ran out for a quick run before dark.

We went for a nearby Southeast facing run and it was dust on crust…

Damn.

This is my 7th hut trip in BC and all of the previous 6 trips have had epic powder and tons of fun the whole time.

I went to be a bit perturbed, especially since I’d just conned 13 people into traveling up here and taking a week off work.

Today we woke up to something like 4-6″ of new snow on top of around 4-6″ of snow the previous day.

My crew dropped down from the hut after first light.

Lo and behold the snow was good!

Deep, dry, slashy, and extremely quiet.

We went to our go-to mini pillow zone and the pillows weren’t quite ready yet.

I took 3 turns, dropped a pillow, got hung up, fell off the next pillow, and into a creek.

I’d broken off the last pillow and it quickly rerouted the creek to come directly to me.

I scrambled up and just missed the deluge.

My skis got it though and I spent 10 minutes scraping ice off my skis.

From there we went up into a zone I’d found on our trip here a year ago and the snow was superb.

We are dealing with some avalanche issues so we spent a decent amount of time digging pits, testing the snow, and performing ski cuts.

The skiing was exquisite. 

Smoky, blower powder billowing off every turn for thousands of vertical feet.

It’s still low tide and the pillows aren’t exactly working right (and they’re a touch dangerous with rocks and creeks and trees sticking out) but the skiing itself is top-notch.

We skied 3 big fun runs and called it good.

Greggy skied run #3 like a champ – with one skin still on…

He didn’t even notice until it was time to skin back uphill.

That’s how good the snow was today!

It’s supposed to snow more tonight and more almost every day this week.

Hanging out with new friends and old in this plywood shack in the woods is a very unique and special experience.

The sauna is intense along with pouring creek water over ourselves and the odd snow roll spritz.

I cherish these trips and hope to do them every year from now on.

Especially this time of year during the coldest, darkest, shortest, stormiest days of the year.

Thanks, BC!

Photos