Jan 8th 2011 after arriving back from a trip from Saudi Arabia on the 6th the bags were packed in a hurry as my helicopter ride was leaving Golden, BC the next morning. Destination was near Mistaya lodge on the other side of Mount Baker from the bow hut glacier fields. We were going ski touring for 9 days in order to get some great skiing in and to concentrate a lot on snow science.
This is our landing spot up in the mountains
The first 3 days of our trip we were experiencing temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius which is on the verge of uncomfortable skiing. As the helicopter had weight restrictions i took only a small camera which froze at every great photo opportunity.
This is one of many full snow profiles we had done through out the week due to the persistent weak layers that have formed early this season.
We spent an afternoon burying transverse and practiced our avalanche rescue procedures.
As this was early season the snow pack was low at only about 70 cm but by day 4 a huge storm came in snowing 110 cm in 3 days which was record snow fall for the Rockies. This caused high avalanche danger in alpine, tree line and below tree line forcing us to ski low angled slopes.
Most afternoon mid week we had whiteout navigation so decided to stay out of the alpine.
This was our home, we built a number of snow caves and shelters. This one housed 3 friends and I and was quite warm.
Departure day, this is one of three helicopter pickups to get us out of the back country.
