Burnie Glacier Jan 6 to 13 '23

[garyfromterrace]

After a number of years (7 or 8) away from this amazing hut, I got a message suggesting a couple of old buddies were heading in there and another old friend would be the cook for a week in January. I had little choice. I had made a bit of cash over the last year coming temporarily out of retirement for a project and the lure of skiing with old friends in a magical and enormous remote area proved too strong to resist. So off I went.

I should add that my two old buddies were also BC (standing for both backcountry; and our province) studs who I've always feared trying to keep up with (both up and down) so I actually did try to get my daily vertical and horizontal footage up to somewhat respectable levels in the couple of months pre-trip. This meant taking Maisie my dog on lots of walks and ski tours, so super fun training.

The snow conditions were excellent the whole trip, however the same could not be said for the vis. Having said that we were treated to at least one day of incredible visibility and that did lead to some pretty good photo ops in some dramatic terrain. The cooking by my buddy Molly was amazing as usual and hanging with my buddies Al and Lothar in the recently reno-ed hut was great fun. A few US lads rounded out the trip and BamaJohn (the first Alabama powder hound I have had the pleasure to meet) kept me howling basically the whole trip with his drawwwwl. Shit, the dude only had to say the most normal things and I'd break up, when he said anything remotely funny it would literally slay me. The dude was solid on the up and the down. The other 2 yanks rounding out the trip were a bit on the less skilled side on the "down" but certainly Doc Doug was there on the "up" on the days that we skied together (I think 3 days of the 8 we skied).

Skiing with my old pals Al and Lothar was a joy. It had been way too long since we shared laps in the BC together and much hilarity ensued, as well as a respectable (IMHO for old farts) amount of vert.

OK enough fucking drivel. Here's a bunch of shots from the trip.



BamaJohn getting a mini faceshot



Me, photo credit Al



Al

[garyfromterrace]

[garyfromterrace]

BamaJohn and I were confused and entranced by the light beam on the lower portion of the photo. For like 20 minutes.



The closeup confirmed our suspicions. Aliens.

























Al on his Instinct skis. Yep his.

[LeeLau]

Damn - Ive never had pow at Burnie. Well done

[Norseman]

Top notch, Gary

[XXX-er]

Lothar said the snow was really good and he wasnt the slowest on the up, them Beta blockers will slow your down

I havent been there in 5 yrs sound like they did some updates to the lodge

[garyfromterrace]

Thanks Lee and Norse!
Yep Al, the boot dryer and kitchen/main floor reno is mint. Big improvements.

[XXX-er]

yeah that would be good having somewhere to chill besides the communal table

I'm trying to picture it all so if the back wall in the basement is also kicked into the snow machine shed what did he do with the snow machine ?

I did work up there for skiing back in the day

[LHutz Esq]

We found a bit last year around this time Lee.

You should probably try again.

Great shots Gary!

What an amazing place.

Right in both of our backyards!

[zion zig zag]

Awesome, looks fun!


Sent from my iPad using TGR Forums

[406]

Looks awesome

[Norseman]

the mind wanders...

[bennymac]

when the photos make it look big you just know it's so much bigger in real life

nice stoke

[carlh]

That line looks full nuts in real life. I went to burnie last winter and had great vis and shit snow. Would love to explore some of it in better conditions.

[whipski]

Congrats FTW!

[Buster Highmen]

++++
Feller. Stucking. Pix.

[Angle Parking]

Great pics Gary. Thx for the share.

[garyfromterrace]

Thanks Hutz, ZZZ, 406, bennymac, carlh, whipski, buster and AP! Appreciate that guys.

Norse, can attest to the fact that that would be a 1st D. The Polemic has been skied a few times (one of my trip bros Lothar has skied it), but it has shed quite a bit of ice since then. Having said that, looking at it for a couple of hours on the up suggested that if avi conditions were right it could still go. For someone, perhaps not me, and perhaps not "your" line (freak). haha.

the mind wanders...