Fairy Meadows, January 2014

After a bunch or friends our ours put in for a drawing to go to the Fairy Meadow hut we were soon  planning our trip at the end of January, hoping for good weather and conditions, we lucked out and had an awesome week!  I am going to apologize for some of the picture quality, it was overcast or we were in the shade for a lot of the pictures so I tried my best to make the clarity good, oh well at least it gives our friends and family more of an idea why we like to surround ourselves in a snowy wilderness with too many layers on for the love of skiing.

  We left on a Thursday stayed in Idaho Falls at Dan's house then drove 12 more hours to stay at the infamous Rando Inn in Golden, B.C.  Here we were all practicing the Candadian Z-drag system for crevasse rescues and going over some rope work.  We ended up getting some gourmet burgers afterwards then stocked up on chocolate at the grocery store.

This is the group sans our Canadian friend Eric.  Three other British guys were on the trip, the hut can accomodate 20 people but it was great to on,y have 13 trying to boil water in the mornings and have more room in the sleeping area.

 

Seriously some amazing views on the flight up as we got closer I could not believe how steep the mountains were and could picture myself skiing a hundred different lines as we flew to the cabin.

Kind of funny kind of not trying to get this cooler and all of our other gear up the hill, luckily we had an awesome sled.

The first day we decided to climb to Pioneer Pass one of the more popular routes in the area.  Cody was the only one who had been up to the cabin previously, the first day we actually went up what I felt like was a fairly significantly difficult route.  Not gonna lie after that first day I felt like it didn't compare to that first day with the climbing and skiing, definitely no easing into it.

After hanging out for an hour trying to find our way the the crevasses Eric and Scott did an awesome job going ahead while we waited and found this route through.

The last section was a little sketchy in route finding and there was nothing to do but head up over this ice wall.  Would have been a lot easier with three feet of snow on top, we were looking at the ice falls on the peaks nearby wishing there was enough snow on them to ski.

Luckily we had an awesome ice climber on the trip and he was able to chip some steps into the wall for us, then belayed us on top as we went up with two ice axes in hand..  While we were waiting to go up the ice wall we heard something settle underneath us, it was a little unnerving and we picked up the speed to finish.  I think at this point our brother in law was wondering what he had gotten himself into.

Topping out on pioneer pass and finally getting to be in the sunshine, the wind was blowing though and we decided to keep moving.

Getting ready to ski down Friendship Col which was incredibly icy, just a bunch of side slipping avoiding a crevasse at the bottom, turns all the way down to the hut the first day were really icy and not what we had hoped for all the months leading up to the trip, luckily there was some snow in store for us in a couple days.

Nate standing on top, he's headed to do his residency program for medical school in a little while so this was his last big trip for hopefully not too long.

Cody and Nate in the background taking in the view

On the third day after glacier travel we were ready for a change of pace.  Here is Dave, Ben and Mike making their way up for another tree ski run.  I think at this point Nate and Cody were jumping off some cliffs they had found.  Dave was worrying about torn ACL's and grateful we had brought our emergency rescue tarp.

Once again the views were incredible!  A little further over we were able to ski a great hillside right behind the cabin and ski right up onto the deck.  Each day was finished with an awesome dinner, a lot of card playing and chocolate eating.

At the end of the day Dave was nice enough to do a snow pit analysis for us, we also talked about different snow conditions throughout the day and things to look for while touring to assess avalanche danger, kind of a mini level I class, as well as beacon practicing.

Here we are making our way across the glacier and up and over, here the wind was blowing and I couldn't feel my nose or cheeks, it was great to finally make it into that patch of sun in the corner after a few hours.

Here we are heading to Mt. Sir WIlliam it was a bitter cold day and we kept moving to stay warm.  nice to have some good snow but made the trail breaking slower also.

 

I just have to put a plug in for what a great group of guys I hung out with for the whole week.  I asked Dave before we left if he thought they wished I wasn't going or that a guy was going in my place because I didn't want it to be akward, it's not like we're all in college anymore.  Dave was nice enough to say, "I don't think it matters I don't think they see you as a guy or a girl."   I thought what the heck is a comment like that supposed to make me feel like, but anyways...doesn't really matter.  I loved hanging out with everyone, I have not laughed that hard that consecutively ever really.  Everyone was out to just have fun and do some sweet climbing everyday.

Here we are about half way to the base of Mount Sir William, a peak we summit that day, we did not realize how long it would take just to get to the base of it.  Here we had just had some great turns down then up again to the base.

Mount Sir William

You can see our turns in the background, that was the second set we made like that before we started  climbing to the top again, we spent a couple minutes on top enjoying the views then hurried back to our skis to get down, it was getting late.

This is the last day, we woke up and Cody and Nate took off first thing because they had done all the wood chopping the night before, I think they climbed about 4,000 feet by the time the helicopter showed up.  We did one run to the top and then headed back in because it was pretty windy and cold, the snow was also not as great as it had been the day before.  We started the fire up and played a couple hours more of SCUM, the most addictive card game in the universe.

Needless to say we were really tired on the drive home, tired enough to let the wife drive the truck while he slept.  We stayed outside Kalispel in Montana then drove all the next day, leaving a winter paradise behind, wish winter lasted longer!

So here's one last picture and some cheesiness.  I seriously can't say how grateful I am for this guy.  It makes me so happy we can go and hang together on our outdoor adventures.  There is no one I'd rather have these memories with.  I'm constantly amazed with how happy, positive and patient he is with me when I am sometimes lacking in knowledge and confidence.  I know it's because of him that I get to ski,  in random places and see parts of the world many won't ever venture.   So excited for a big change in our lives as we make out way into a life-changing move up ahead!