December Pow at McMurdo Cabin

Starting at sunrise

Our 3rd annual December pilgrimage to the McMurdo Cabin was our first weekend of skiing for the 2022/2023 season. After horrible snow conditions the previous year and a rough start to the season, we had very low expectations for the skiing and we couldn't find anyone with a sled who wanted to come with us. Despite that, Kyle and I managed to find some decent snow and had a surprisingly fun weekend at the hut.

Third time back at the cabin 

The road wasn't groomed yet this year but it was pretty smooth getting in and all the creek crossings were fully frozen over. We are getting way more efficient at packing and sledding into huts. There were no hummus or beer explosions either so I call that a win! Arriving at the hut we were shocked with how low the snowpack was. There was less than 1 metre of snow.

Breaking trail up the ridge was horrible, 20cm of fresh snow on facets to ground. I was plowing through about 50cm all the way up and it was exhausting. We only made it 2/3rd up the ridge on the first day and dropped back down to the hut trying not to hit logs.

Ready for our first turns of the season - fake smiles after struggling our way up the skin track

Pillow playground - not quite deep enough yet

Luckily we had planned for bad skiing and had board games, music and enough cheese to last a week. I also love being totally off the grid for a few days and spending time with Kyle in the backcountry. Even when the skiing sucks, hut trips are still fun.

Hut gourmet

Shockingly, we woke feeling well rested to find fresh snow. We hit the trail with renewed enthusiasm. Having dusted off the skiing cobwebs the day before and with a nice skin track to follow, we were able to get up above treeline and find some excellent skiing about 300-500m above the hut. We lapped the open slopes getting early season face shots and only the occasional rock shark attack.

Overnight freshies!

Its snowing!

Awesome laps above the hut

Probably skiing along the ground but it looks sick

Steep and deep

Winter wonderland

Just dumping

Endless pow

It was too much of a whiteout to get up into the alpine, but we were stoked to enjoy the treeline skiing all day. On the ski out back down to the hut, we remote triggered all the micro-terrain around the creek which was pretty spooky. This was the first evidence we had seen of instability but was in line with the layer of facets from November that avalanche forecasters had been warning about.

Touchy slab

For our third and final day at McMurdo, we got up before the sun (which isn't hard when the sun doesn't rise until after 8am) to sneak in another lap before packing up to head home. It was a beautiful morning and another successful early season trip to the McMurdo Hut.

Dawn patrol - skinning by moonlight

So fluffy

Welcome back to winter

Morning skin track