Day One:
Upon arriving at approximately 8:30 in the morning at the parking lot Saturday morning, we counted 20 cars with an estimated average of 2.5 people per car and got a tad nervous that one of the groups may have been planning to also head back in to the Snow Spider hut. The hut, as far as we knew, only had space for 6, and we already had a tentative total of 7 that were coming in. We were a group of three, with two friends in tow for a mellower version of the trip, and of course the Traslin brothers were most likely coming, but starting three hours after us to maintain the traditional Traslin style. Despite the slight hesitation, we put our packs on and started along the bobsled track that was Cerise Creek.
After about 30 minutes, we got our first view of Joffre. Even though we were not skiing it this weekend, it is such a beautiful mountain, I could not help but take a few photos.
After a short 2 hours, we found ourselves sitting at the Vantage-Matier col with the desire to ski something before the second half of the tour in towards Snow Spider.
We decided on the Twin One couloir:
We stashed our overnight gear near a wind-form next to some rocks and made our way over to the base of the line. Cam, Rich and I took turns leading the bootpack up near the top and decided to stop just short of the choke under that nice looking cornice that was sitting in the sunshine. The line was a tad steeper than I had expected, but I was excited.
Me watching Cam ski down as I await my turn:
Cam lower down as the couloir starts to open up:
At this point we ran into Andy who was on his way up the first half of our track with the hopes of being able to ski a bit too. We gave him the go ahead and said that if he ran up the boot pack quickly, we would wait for him at the bottom. In true Traslin style, he made it just as high as us and skied the Twin One as we re-packed our bags to finish the trek in towards Snow Spider. Luckily no one else was at the hut and Mike T and the other group of two had laid in a nice skin track leading us straight there as the sun was setting over our shoulders.
Day Two:
We awoke to another blue bird sky and quickly ate breakfast as Snow Spider awaited us on this beautiful Sunday morning
Cam, Rich, the Traslins and I all departed for the summit of Snow Spider as the other party of two skied a lap on the lower shoulder and then headed back to civilization. The skin up the NE ridge did not take long and after about 3 hours and a couple of route finding difficulties, we found ourselves taking a long break on the summit and taking in the full panorama of endless mountains that the Pacific Northwest has to offer.
Cam, the Traslins and I on the summit with a cool looking cornice:
Mike skiing down from the summit col:
We were all too excited to ski on a sunny day, so it didn't take us long to get back to the hut. The Traslin brothers packed up and headed out just before sunset since they had other commitments and couldn't take Monday off like Cam, Rich and I. The three of us settled in for an afternoon of eating all the food we hauled in, an amazing sunset, and many embarrassing matches of Cribbage where Rich skunked us multiple times.
The view from "the throne" in the Snow Spider outhouse at sunset:
Day Three:
After 10 hours of sleep, a quick cleaning of the hut and chopping some firewood to replace what we used, we packed up our bags and headed back towards the Vantage-Matier col. (FYI: if anyone ever finds themselves at this hut, there is a propane stove with three burners, a collection of pots and pans including a wok, and a wood burning stove that gets the hut up to 15 C).
From the col, it was too early for the hour long bobsled track out, so we decided to head up towards Vantage and see what the NE face looked like.
Upon arriving at the summit, Rich decided he liked the looks of it:
A few other people of the estimated 50 in the area had skied the face, but the snow looked to nice for us to care.
Cam dropping in from the summit:
Rich cranking a tele turn lower down on the face:
This was a great end to our long weekend. We got the steep, we got the unforgettable summit, and we got the pow. Thank you to everyone who participated in the adventure!
More pictures found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/1005690533 ... SnowSpider
and here: https://picasaweb.google.com/CBJCoatta/ ... directlink
