Powder Cowboy - Family Day

 The first annual Powder Cowboy family day weekend extravaganza was a huge success. We used 2 sleds to shuttle our gear and friends up to the hut for the weekend and spent the weekend enjoying the amazing ski terrain around the hut (both sled and tour accessed). It was awesome to have such a big group of friends together in the mountains and we had plenty of space in the well equipped hut. The weekend highlights included giant bonfires, ridiculous games, overcooked pasta, backflips, sunset laps, alien lights in the forest, stargazing and some skiing too!

Powder Cowboy

Cuba wants to go skiing

The faffing began on Friday when we realized we weren't going to be able to fit Jordan's sled in Andrew's truck. A quick adjustment to the plan had Kyle and Andrew driving out with Kyle's dads trailer which ended up working fine. We met in the staging area on Saturday morning after most of the crew spent the night in Fernie. Chaos ensued as we tried to plan shuttles up the road to the hut for all the people and gear with the 2 sleds and one little toboggan. Jordan and Heather rolled in a bit later than anticipated after their new truck went into limp mode on the drive from Castlegar. Nonetheless, we all made it to the hut.

Collecting firewood

Another group was on their way out as we arrived but we had to wait for the owner to roll up in his snow cat to do some cleaning and restocking before we could move in. We spent the afternoon collecting firewood with the sleds and catching up with friends we hadn't seen in ages. We had a massive bonfire to celebrate the start to the weekend.

Sunday morning dawned and we geared up to ski. With 2 sleds, it didn't make sense to do sled laps so we set out on foot up to the ridge above the hut. We dropped down the back side to ski Deep Throat Ridge. The snow was good but touchy and we triggered some small avalanches on the convex slopes. Playing it safe, we stuck to the trees on Sunnyside for the afternoon. After a few laps, the keeners kept skiing with some sled assistance, while others chilled at the hut in the sun. 

At the ridgetop

Looking for lines

The "powder cowboy"

Going up

Magical snow ghosts

The clouds lift

Very cool terrain

The backflip booter

Brap brap

Sled life

Sunset laps

Epic alpine glow

Ready to drop in

For our second night at the hut, we ran out of firewood early so played games and watched the stars, talking late into the night. The next morning we went for a lap on Cabin Side before shuttling our gear back down the road to the trucks.

Touring laps

It was an ambitious weekend with 2 sleds for the 9 of us, especially with Kyle and I being very jet-lagged after returning from Japan only days before. Nonetheless it was great to get out in the backcountry with our friends.