TR: Needle Peak, Dec 28, 2006
Cold clear day in Vancouver. A bit of a welcome relief after all the snow we've been getting to actually be able to see so off we went to revisit Needle Peak - a 2090m peak in the Coquihalla.
I thought fondly of all my friends from flatlands of Ontario languishing in shopping malls visiting family as I skinned up and prepped.
Thoughts of friends bereft and forlorn in flat uninteresting places turned to thoughts of plodding uphill as we gained the ridge that accesses Needle Peak and marvelled at the power of wind-transport.
Panorama looks from west to north east and shows Zupjok Peak to picture right.
We gain the saddle heading to Needle Peak. The ridgeline itself is wind-scoured (to put it mildly) and there's no real point to bagging a peak that's an easy scramble that we've done before anyway so we drop in to find all the snow that's been scoured off the ridge. Here's Sharon finding that snow and heading south to the US border.
There goes Jesse - hey did you bring your passport?
That Jesse can rip on his custom CAPITAL SKIS.
Sharon keeps finding pow. In the background is the Flatiron where we head for our second run.
Here's Needle Peak itself from the Flatiron as we prep for run number two. Our tracks are just above the saddle. You can see that the wind ripped the snow off the steeper slopes so unfortunately the longer runs wouldn't have had great skiing.
Gorgeous light; us Canucks aren't used to seeing sun in December so we're all looking pretty happy.
Run number two down from the Flatiron to the lower bowls is no nice we decide to head up again for run number three.
This time we head to the Flatiron cornice ridge to see what ramp will give us the most air.
and to take in the views of the sun rapidly heading for the south/western horizon. Somewhere over there is Mt Baker.
By now, the snowpack is stiffening up more making for fast skiing
Then its time to head out and back down to the highway. The skiout is in tremendous shape and we've got time to mess around on pillows as we're heading down.
Elevation profile for the trip - but missing some data as I started it late
