Words and photos by Lee Lau unless otherwise noted.
With 22,000 + sheeple converging on Whistler & a load of storm snow uncharacteristically snowing all the way to lower elevations, it was time to practise trail-breaking knee to waist deep snow and find some tree-skiing.
April 3rd found Paul, Tyler and I taking turns burning out putting a skin track up 1,000 m to a zone of pillows and 80+ cms of snow down NNW facing slopes through mature timber. We took some time from trail-breaking to do 4 laps of pow and drop to flat pillows.
It was so good and our skin track was so efficient, the next day I talked Shawn into finding more untouched pow.
Shawn with the sporty approach at lower elevations
It’s a bit tight through the trees at 1000m
40cms ski pen at 1300 m elevation – this magnificent run was our ski out!
Paul took the lions share of the work through some tricky side-hills
Beautiful – its in the video
When skiing deep snow after a big wind-event its wise to consider all safety precautions and take appropriate measures including compression tests
Stability testing
I might have mentioned that the snow was uncharacteristically light for April snow
Lee on the Dynafit Stoke skis
Shawn
Views were magnificent both days. We kept looking over distractedly to another ridgeline that had a LOT of potential but it was already getting a bit sun-affected.
Lee – you can see all the little wee ants scurrying down the runs in the background in the original of the picture
Shawn focusing on dorping pillows and trying to ignore the magnificence behind him
Hugeeeeeeeeeeee pano
We kept our eyes on the prize. The magnificent neck-deep pillow flat land zones awaited.
Bombholes for everyone
Shawn almost pulled this one off from a dead start
I told Shawn this was only 10 feet – he performed like a champ and sent it anyway
For our last run we skinned up to the summit ridgeline and, what a surprise, sent more pillows
Snow quality all day was superb. This was our ski – out
Neck deep pillows dorp zone from Lee Lau on Vimeo.