Blog: January 2012

Fissile, the Grand Poobah, the Impaler and the Alien

Posted: January 24, 2012

Fissile Mountain and the Banana Chute

Had a few good splitboard missions lately.
the snowpack has finally gotten stable enough to go ride some big lines, so I took my wife Kimmie out to Fissile mountain to ride the banana chute. She'd never been out there and it makes for a really good long day trip. The sky was blue when we started, then turned to super milky clouds and the day finished off with me leading the way back to Whistler Mountain in the dark, in a snowstorm. Touring via headlamp when it's snowing really challenges how well you can navigate around the mountains.

I love being in the mountains

Kimmie climbing up the notoriously loose south face of fissile

I love every minute of being in the mountains with my wife. So rad.

Kimmie getting her first look down the Banana chute

darkness and freshies

watch for snowcats and don't miss the cat track

We also got a chance to tour into what was once a snowmobile access zone. It's pretty far for a day trip but there's a secret pillow zone that my friend Dave Basterechea and I found many years ago that I thought would be good. It's called the grand poobah. also in the area is the little poobah, the perfect four and the Impaler. how can you not want to go back? only problems was, I hadn't been there in 5 or 6 years, and it was hard to find when I'd been there frequently. It's buried in the woods, hiding behind gullies and ravines. But after many hours of splitting, I was able to crack the forest code and find the Poobah. and it was deep. beyond deep. almost so deep we couldn't ride! I basically had to swim my way up the mountain to get on top of the pillows but it was well worth the effort. and as seems to be the case, toured back out via headlamp in a storm.

through the trees.