Friday, January 11, 2008

BSA Board of Directors Ski Day at Cameron Pass

Last weekend was jammed full of skiing fun. After a solid work week following the New Years holiday, Zac Wiebe and I met up with three members of the Board of Directors for a tour of Cameron Pass. With snow flying sideways, we outlined the backcountry access and issues of the entire CP area to Greg (Board President), Dave (Board Treasurer), and Tom (former Board President) before setting out for a good ski.

With only 4 cars in the lot, 3 of them snowshoeing or cross country skiing, we decided to break a core rule and ski near S. Diamond Peak on the weekend. Perhaps it was the 60 mph winds that kept people away. The Zimmerman Lake lot only had 6 cars, which is less than half of the normal weekend traffic.

We set out after a chilly gear-up at the car. By the time I walked from the front of the car to the back, a layer of snow had already blown in the back window of Zac's 4Runner and covered my gear. It was full conditions. I love it.

We climbed, all five of us, at a relaxed pace through areas of dense forest and open tree shots. I broke trail for a large portion of the approach and found breakable crust on top of our much-loved DEEP layer of depth hoar at the ground. The breaking was arduous. Thankfully, the wind covered our uptracks quickly to conceal our location.

On North facing 25-30 degree slopes at 10,600' (below treeline) we found breakable crust with 5cm of new snow on top. We felt evidence of the wind in even the densest trees on this aspect. We skied one run here before heading south onto NE facing slopes of the same gradient and elevation, where we found consistent, creamy powder on top of a supportable base.


Two runs here held good, low angle turns on the Freeway and adjacent trees.

We hoped to show off the breadth of CP to the board members. Ha! The sun doesn't shine at CP. At one point, they could make out the face of S. Diamond Peak, up to the top of the cliff bands on the main face. Such little perspective on such a large area. Next time.








Greg Mears and Dave Belin enjoying the low angle turns under dumping skies