French-Haig-Robertson circuit on Sunday. The recent storm brought enough
snow to this area to make the skiing reasonable--about 10 cm overall, but
thinner where the wind had got to it.
You can ski this thing in its entirety now without doing much damage at all
to your skis.
The recent storm snow is deposited on top of an amazingly sturdy temperature
crust -- I couldn't pound my handle of my ski pole through it, so I left it
at that. This is on all aspects and elevations we visited. The slope up to
the Haig-Roberson col is covered with snow and made for reasonable
step-kicking.
En route, we checked out the little bowl that contains a few ice climbs
halfway up French creek on the east side of the drainage (I believe at least
one has been done by Owens & Walsh). The ice is in fine form -- there are
several lines up there right now, including some mixed potential. The ski
back down to the valley needs more snow to be really worthwhile, and
probably wouldn't be all that great even then.
Amazing wildlife viewing -- we say a family of three moose and a family of
three goats (mamas, papas, babies)!
Regards,
Tom Wolfe
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