| THE VIEW FROM MT FAIRVIEW |
02 March 2005 |
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The trek up to the saddle winds gently through the
trees up a reasonably well-used trail. There were a fair number
of freshly downed trees across the trail that required some messing
about to get round. We stopped for a break and for Mel to eat -
you know you should have had breakfast when you get the shakes!
From here on up required breaking trail, not following a path. Starting out was ok but then things got wind affected and a little strange. The snow was affected in waves, but was flat on the surface! I would start by ploughing in about a foot and slowly rise out on crust, ending up slipping on dust on crust before plunging back into soft snow. After a few hundred feet of this I opted to follow a rocky bootpack route until the angle eased and the snow became more uniform. The upper mountain was far more pleasant a hike, slowly varying wind affected, changing every few hundred meters instead or every 2 or 3. After lots of false summits we arrived at the peak, quite a dramatic one, dropping off very steeply on all sides except the one we'd climbed.
Skiing down was fantastic for the first 7 or 8 turns, then things got variable. Windpack, slab or powder, you turn and you take your chances. I dropped into Dog Leg Chute on the front of Mt Fairview instead of heading down to the saddle and I got cliffed out. About the same time the snow pack got suspect and slabby, it kept trying to grag me douwn the chute; a 40m climb got me out of that one. Down at tree level the snow got consistently good again. We got a little over enthusiastic and dropped below our return path. Not wanting to ski back up we went bushwhacking... a little tiring to say the least. To avoid lots of narrow switchbacks we cut the corners off the trail, the snow deep in the forest was surprisingly good! A great but tiring day out, which we should have started earlier - we drove home in the dark. Report
from Tom Greenall - Natives Senior
Resort Reporter. Mail
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