Kim Kardashian Couloir

November 12th 2014

With limited snow low down, but adequate coverage up high, Steve and I headed out to the Black Tusk area, which looked like it was fairly filled in.  The original plan was to ski the steep north facing bowls on the front to the Tusk, but when we approached another objective caught our eye.

We bungied the skis onto the bikes at the end of the Cheakamus FSR. Reaching the Microwave towers took about 4 hours, which is longer than it has ever taken us before, but we attribute that to biking slower with all the added weight, plus there was a hefty section which was too snowy to bike but too rocky to skin, so that part had to be walked.

After 4 hours we reach the microwave towers and decide to ski this interesting feature here. Kim Kardashian had been all over the news earlier in the week, so we decided to name the couloir after her.

The line was short but pretty steep and cool looking.  There was 400m of skiable terrain below the couloir, but there was not enough snow to ski that at this time.  I doubt the couloir gets skied that often, as it is kind of out of the way, but there was a cairn on top of the lookers left buttcheek, so it has seen a few summer visitors at least.

Steve in front of the Tusk on the way home.  This shot was a real like-bomb on his Facebook….

Tenquille Ovenigther

November 5th/6th 2014

After a little bit more snow after the Sproat trip someone suggested that we try and overnighter to Tenquille, which is easier to access with a low snowpack.  So thats what we did!  We approached from the Birkenhead side, which is a REAAAAAAALLLY long drive from whistler, and requires HC-4x4, but was sweet to scope out some new zones. Coverage was better than in and around whistler and we managed to get a few good runs in, but overall snow quality was not the best due to frigid temps and high winds.

Coverage on the summer approach trail was minimal at best, and it took us about 2 hours to reach the shore or the lake where we started skinning.

The lake is very beautiful, and it took about 30 mins to skin around the edge to the cabin

On the first afternoon we climbed up to the Tenquille Finch col.  The views were sweet, but ski quality on the way down was not too hot.

Cabin at night.

On the second morning we took the 700m climb to the Tenquille-Goat col. We took a quick lap on the North facing Tenquille Glacier, and then skied back the way we came

The 700m south facing fall line shot (with vaguely acceptable snow quality) was the highlight of the trip.

Looking back at the run we just skied.

Sweet view of Sun God across the lake.