Thursday, April 5, 2007

Ski Conditions: Tryst Lake (Apr 2)

The promise of an upslope spring storm had Jeff Relph and myself scurrying for Tryst Lake in Kananaskis Country. This area is very popular so you need to get there early which is what we did. We met up with other Canmore friends, John, John and Ross for a morning of steep and deep. With no one else there, we were granted our "shred passes" and took full advantage by skiing 5 different chutes (200m vert each) to the lake. Once the uptrack was set, we were going from skins on at the lake to skins off at the top in 20 minutes. We ski cut the top of each gully before dropping in resulting in size .5 to1 avalanches in each. Slabs were releasing 30cm down (the storm snow) on stellars and running 1/2 to 3/4 path. Later in the day, we witnessed a skier accidental of size 2 on the steep rocky face in the middle. No one got buried or hurt.

Ski quality was amazing, complete with faces shots. After we destroyed every chute, Ross and the two John's had to get back to town but Jeff and I were hungry for more. We headed over to the twin paths before Super Slope. 20cm of cold powder on a strong melt-freeze crust provided fast skiing. It was so good we headed back up for a second lap.

This was my first time skiing at Tryst and I have always heard that it is usually skied out. We felt lucky to have fresh tracks all day. In total, we managed 1750m of vertical.

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