Pattison and Decker
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 3:46 am
I am soooooooooo excited to have found a new female adventure buddy as awesome as Maddy. Last week we skied inbounds on both Blackcomb and Whistler with my proposed agenda of skiing only double black diamond runs with as many gnarly couloirs as possible. Maddy was a superstar. Not only is her skiing improving still, but she kept her shit together through all nerve racking situations and even went first to drop into a couloir which I was scared to do. I followed with joy having found someone that can push me as well 
OMG SUPER STOKE!
On Friday I was, needless to say, very excited to go out with her again and this time in the backcountry. We picked a day with great avi stability but were unsure whether the snow would be nice to ski on. Maddy and I decided to assess our plans as we went. Our first plan was to hit Pattison. We were surprised to find skiing pleasant on both S aspects on the way and the N aspect of Pattison with only a few pockets of thin wind slabs.
Maddy skiing down the backside of the Spearhead on our way to Pattison.
Pattison on our approach. We skied the wide couloir on the right.
Being the first one to drop into a steeper face like on Pattison out in the backcountry was a thrilling experience for me.
We had some flat light at times and the clouds rolling in made me nervous. But there was nothing to be worried about. We had plenty of day light left and the clouds were high in the sky with occasional breaks, so we headed to Decker next.
Maddy making turns coming down Pattison in flat light.
The huge cornices along Decker kept us on edge as we were trying to find a way down the N/NW face. We eventually found the Finger Shoots which were easy to drop into and still was steep skiing. Maddy about to drop in with Whistler in the back.
Maddy in the Finger Shoots. The snow was definitely more compact going down here, but nothing worse than the stuff we skied inbounds the previous week.
After this the ski out should've been a tree traverse to the pistes of Blackcomb to Seventh Heaven chair. We ended up too low and encountered bullshit steep tight tree traversing. It took us an hour before we said "fuck this shit", put our skins back on and found ourselves at the cat track after only a short while of going vertical instead of traversing. We realised that we had probably been traversing about 20 m below the cat track for a couple km at this point.
It was a true adventure day; we both had our freakout moments, encountered some bullshit skiing and finished the day in the dark. I had soooooooo much fun on soooooooo many different levels touring with Maddy. The most memorable experience was that this was team work where we made collaborative decisions and took turns leading. I'm used to following Sky who has all the ideas and assesses the situations - which by no means I'm complaining about since I get to ski RAD shit. Again I have to mention how stoked I am to have found a partner exactly at my level with the same attitude for pushing our boundaries.
I AM STOKED! THANKS MADDY!
OMG SUPER STOKE!On Friday I was, needless to say, very excited to go out with her again and this time in the backcountry. We picked a day with great avi stability but were unsure whether the snow would be nice to ski on. Maddy and I decided to assess our plans as we went. Our first plan was to hit Pattison. We were surprised to find skiing pleasant on both S aspects on the way and the N aspect of Pattison with only a few pockets of thin wind slabs.
Maddy skiing down the backside of the Spearhead on our way to Pattison.
Pattison on our approach. We skied the wide couloir on the right.
Being the first one to drop into a steeper face like on Pattison out in the backcountry was a thrilling experience for me.
We had some flat light at times and the clouds rolling in made me nervous. But there was nothing to be worried about. We had plenty of day light left and the clouds were high in the sky with occasional breaks, so we headed to Decker next.
Maddy making turns coming down Pattison in flat light.
The huge cornices along Decker kept us on edge as we were trying to find a way down the N/NW face. We eventually found the Finger Shoots which were easy to drop into and still was steep skiing. Maddy about to drop in with Whistler in the back.
Maddy in the Finger Shoots. The snow was definitely more compact going down here, but nothing worse than the stuff we skied inbounds the previous week.
After this the ski out should've been a tree traverse to the pistes of Blackcomb to Seventh Heaven chair. We ended up too low and encountered bullshit steep tight tree traversing. It took us an hour before we said "fuck this shit", put our skins back on and found ourselves at the cat track after only a short while of going vertical instead of traversing. We realised that we had probably been traversing about 20 m below the cat track for a couple km at this point.
It was a true adventure day; we both had our freakout moments, encountered some bullshit skiing and finished the day in the dark. I had soooooooo much fun on soooooooo many different levels touring with Maddy. The most memorable experience was that this was team work where we made collaborative decisions and took turns leading. I'm used to following Sky who has all the ideas and assesses the situations - which by no means I'm complaining about since I get to ski RAD shit. Again I have to mention how stoked I am to have found a partner exactly at my level with the same attitude for pushing our boundaries.
I AM STOKED! THANKS MADDY!