Day 1 - Ice glazed snow, skiing glass

Riding the chairlift into the backcountry, how European is that? I can tell you that really is! From the top of White Pass ski area it's only a 150 yard run and you are able to cross the resort boundary into the wild, and it is okay with the ski patrol. They do have an open boundary policy, everyone is free to leave and come back inbounds, out of bound you are responsible for your own safety, and eventual rescues.

Our day started with some high cloud coverage, snow has not been fallen since about a week. Day temperatures have soften the snow surface and the cold temperatures of last night froze the snow back into a 3/4 inch thick breakable crust as the top layer. Also a period of wettish fog laying over the mountain tops this past night glazed the entire backcountry with a thin looking glass like frosting, shimmering like a mirror against the bright sun light. Cutting the skin track today sounded way different from the usual silent monotone movement towards the peak, it felt like breaking glass into thousand pieces.

This ice layer created surrealistic images of the mountain scenery around us. Depending on the angle of the sun light, there was a variation between a bright silver shimmering reflecting the sun rays, ice blue snow patches and dark almost black shadows contouring the cornices along ridge lines. My camera was in action many times trying to capture all the compositions of light and shadow, enjoy the following images, converted to black & white to enhance the contrast of light.

Skiing the icy mirror was a new experience for all the six members of our group. Cutting the turn broke loose the top ice layer behind the ski tails and crushed it into thousands of little ice cycles, and a little slide started passing the skier in his next turn. By the third or fourth turn the small slide was grown into a decent size of a downhill gliding carpet of crystals, giving the impression to the skier turning on top of an avalanche, at least I had this feeling that the entire slope is moving down with me on top in direct falline.

We have chosen a lunch spot besides a small island of fir trees in our huge bowl, venturing in all directions for short climbs with interesting lines to ski. This afternoon was filled with lot's of turns, beautiful views into the Goat Rocks Wilderness with it's rugged mountain range bearing the same name. Plans were forged to return there in late spring to explore this area and camp in the wide open bowls and snow fields for more backcountry skiing adventures. By mid afternoon it was time to skin back towards the ski resort and a fascinating day of skiing with friends was close to be called a day.

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