Windy Ridge March 7 2009
words
and photos by Sharon Bader and Lee Lau unless otherwise noted.
|
Windy Ridge March 7 2009 words
and photos by Sharon Bader and Lee Lau unless otherwise noted. |
Hudson
Bay - Feb 28th || Mt.
Harvey - March 1st || Hudson
Bay Inbounds - March 2nd || Boulder
Mt. - March 3rd ||
The Galleon
- March 5th || BC
Scenes and Windy Ridge - March 6th || Windy
Ridge - March 7th || Bear
Glacier - March 8th || Shames
Slackcountry - March 10th || Shames
- Happy Valley Tour - March 11th || Shames
Inbounds and Slackcountry- March 12-14th
A bluebird day brought us back to Windy Ridge. This time we were hoping to enjoy the 15cms new that had fallen last night while getting in a tour up the ridge above Windy Point and over to the Johnson Glacier into some beautiful looking NE facing glaciers. Unfortunately, as we got to the Strohn Creek parking lot we could see that we were up Strohn Creek without a paddle; as fierce NE winds blew plumes off snow off ridgetops and raked anything in the alpine (in Stewart, alpine starts at about 600m)
We headed over the swamp/lake
hoping that we could at least get some good views in the alpine
The point at the top
of the picture is where a MOTH emergency shelter is located. This is where
howitzers blast to keep the road safe!
Heading up the same route
as yesterday we quickly found that the wind had indeed taken care
of pow as soon as we left the friendly trees. We pressed on though
as views were getting more and more spectacular.
Getting into alpine.
Some hardy trees here grew past 800m!
Linda with Meziadin
Ridge ins the background
Not much trail-breaking
- the snow has been transported
Sharon in
her coccoon of warmth with Meziadin Lake stretching away to
the east behind and below her
Finally we crest the ridge and make our way to the MOTH repeater close to a Last Frontier Heli pad. We're at 2000m. In the coast most of this tour would have been spent fighting through brush and chokes of slash. Here we were in alpine a good part of the way. Glaciers, summits and icefields stretch as far as the eye can see. Truly a magical place - and shaded from the evil N cold wind.
XX.
More views
West end
of Meziadin Ridge buts up against Entrance Peak (no Lee - you
can't ski that!) and Couloir Mountain
Lee takes a moment to bless the Last Frontier Heli stakes with a view to Pattullo in the left side of the picture.
The slopes are wind-hammered but we can still pose for pictures
Sharon,
Lee then Brian
The wind scoured the slopes so thoroughly that tracks from animals are left exposed. Just what lives up here in winter anyway?
The windslab and sastrugi
made for sketchy skiing till we got to treeline
Linda
When we got to tree-line
we farmed the slopes. In a tight band leeward there was still
quite a bit of nice pow!
Sharon
Lee
Route
info