Brandywine Meadows

Daily Vert: 1200m

Total Vert so far: 68,600m

So unfortunately it seems as thou my target of 100,000 vertical meters will not be reached this season, but it was good fun all the same.  As a secondary objective, Steve and I decided to try and ski at least one day every month throughout the summer, and so far its going well.  For our June trip we ventured to Brandywine, which I suspected would still be holding a decent amount of snow.  Doing the approach for this trip on bikes added a fun extra dimension, and made the exit and the end WAY quicker and more enjoyable.  If you have a 4x4 you can drive all the way to the snowmobile cabin, which would eliminate the need for the bikes (some nice improvements were made to the road about a year ago, it is still steep obviously but a lot smoother and less rocky than it used to be)

Anyway, on to the pictures...

Biking along the flat part of the road between the snowmobile hut and the meadows.  The bikes made a huge different here.

At the bottom of the meadows.  Summit in the top right hand corner.  Still plenty of snow!

Steve skins through the meadows.

Approaching the summit ridge.

On the summit ridge, Mt Fee behind.

Checking out Mt Fee

Skiing back down.  The snow was just about soft enough to be enjoyable.  I've certainly skied worse snow in my time, in-bounds and out.

Back at the meadows.  We skied the line just to lookers right of the tree sticking out from Steve's head.

Heading back down.  10 minutes on the bike way more fun than 2 hours of downhill slogging!

Back at the car around 2pm.... there is even time for a nap before starting work at 4!

GPS track of the route.

People often ask if it was really 'worth it' to try and go skiing at this time of year, or just come straight out and label us sadistic lunatics. Sure we weren't skiing blower pow, but like I said before I've certainly skied worse snow before, in resort and in the back country.  Besides, not every ski trip has to be about the quality of the snow.  Sometimes it's just about exploring a new zone, enjoying the mountain air and checking out some awesome scenery.  And at 6 hours round trip, this was most definitely 'worth it'!