Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Magnum Ski - 4.11.2013

Last Thursday Rachel decided to meet us in Anchorage for the weekend; after picking her up in Whittier, where it was darn windy, we headed up Turnagain Pass. With a prolonged stormy period following a prolonged sunny period we weren't exactly sure what we would find, but settled on the west and north facing slopes off Magnum. Lets start with this, shall we?


Looking across at TT43, which we skied recently; I'm looking forward to skiing the north couloir, just visible in the shade, sometime soon.


Dropping west from the top, we found surprisingly deep snow:


Rachel surfing the pow:


Successfully navigating the slightly annoying wind slabs that had formed on some of the micro features of the line, we headed back up the skin-track for a run down the north side. Run 1:


At the top we were greeted by amazing light composed of bluebird skies, sparkling falling snow, and a wonderful sundog:


After enjoying the in-and-out weather up top, we dropped down the north side towards Sunburst. Even better than the first run - less wind slab, deeper snow and better bonding!


With the shadows getting longer (than usual), and both of us quite cold we called it a day, milking the apron towards the car. Back in Anchorage, discovering that the high on Sunburst had been -15 C, I felt a little more justified about the cold sweat sickles I'd been sporting :)

No comments:

Post a Comment