It hadn't snowed in three or four days, so we all slept in anticipating icy crap on the mountain, and eventually set off on what we assumed would be a short and average day some time after 11am.

Little did we know, it would turn out to be one of the most freakin radical days in the history of the universe.

Bluebird skies, waist deep powder, a pre-made kicker and a seriously awesome nutella sandwich all contributed to some insane fun.

Click read more to see the pics from the day, and apologies about the length (I'm splitting this post in two, check back for pt. 2), but it was really fun!



Since Dec arrived on New Year's Eve, he's been hanging to hike the sub-peak and traverse out, then drop into South Bowl. Being lazy and not liking the prospect of a 30-45 min walk, we all put it off for as long as possible, but eventually caved into Dec and made the trek.

Basically, it's a 15 minute slog from The Stoke chair up towards the ridge that splits the two sides of the mountain - North Bowl and the Jalapeno area, all the way out to the cat skiing zone - but it's a beautiful walk if you have the energy to look up.

Looking down from halfway up the walk:


Stu at the same place:


At the top, the views are incredible, there's a 360 degree panoramic view to all the mountains in the distance, the photos don't do it justice.

From the top looking down towards Revelstoke:


From the top we hiked the ridge, watching a skier drop an insane chute into North Bowl, and drooling over the tracks on the South side.

Looking into North Bowl:


Across the ridge line towards the cat-skiing area:


And our eventual lines down - we ended up dropping at that last stash of trees, about halfway up the summit peak:


Paz and Dec got stoked to try a drop over a pillow line to start the run, it was... interesting (they took ages and ate shit).
Paz:


Dec:


Dec whipped out his camera to capture Croz and Stu heading down, enjoying the ridiculous waist-deep freshies. It's a shame photos don't come with sound, the cries of joy were unforgettable.

Croz:


Stu:


From there the run went into an open bowl with scattered trees, but as it was a funnel for most of the lines, it was more tracked out. Still, rad fun.

Croz getting some turns in:




A quick hike had us back in-bounds and riding down to mid-mountain, where nutella sandwiches, choccy bars and frozen museli bars provided some refuelling before round two.

I had to split this post in two because we found a kicker someone had built out past Jalepeno on the second run, and we went a bit camera-crazy, to the point that it requires its own post. Keep an eye out over the next few days to see the rest of the shots that came from the day!