Gone Diving...

Yet another dump. OK, 5cm isn't that great, but for the second day in a row I've not got work and there is fresh snow. Hurrah! As an added bonus, the sun is shining (at least, some of the time) and Stu has lent me his avalanche gear. Finally, the wind has been blowing from the south, depositing more fresh snow to the north of Lookout Mountain than actually fell, and so I treated this as an ideal opportunity to ski in Delirium Dive.

The Dive is the large bowl to the North of Lookout, which can be reached by a hike from the top of Continental Divide Express. It's 'extreme terrain', with cliffs and steeps rendering every run a double-black and requiring everyone who enters to be equipped with avalanche gear (probe, shovel, transceiver and partner) and trained in their use (especially the transceiver and partner). It's been open since early March but I've not had the chance to get in there, on my day off, with all the equipment and a willing guide. Besides, the conditions have been 'marginal' until recently with many Divers mentioning a dodgy upper half and more than a couple of core-shots.

But first of all, I had to work out how to use the equipment. I headed out to the OSL with my gear and borrowed one of the instructors before his line-up, to give me some tuition on how to rescue someone if there was an avalanche. I successfully located a nearby transceiver (someone had left one on in the Ski School office), and we had a chat and demonstration about how to locate and rescue someone in real life. Of course, Delirium Dive is so heavily patrolled and bombed that the chance of a real avalanche in there is very slim- however, they are precautions that need to be taken and at the very least are essential if I plan to ski even more remote terrain.

Next, after line-up, I went out with some other instructors to practice on an area similar in pitch and condition to the Dive, which is the Shoulder in between the Dive bowl and Tee Pee Town Chair. The snow was still fresh and great fun to ski in, although the run wasn't very long and had start to develop very small and soft moguls. But it gave me a taste of what the Dive was about, and also the walk-out at the end... I wanted more! Next we headed to Goat's Eye for some more practice in the steeps, but ended up simply enjoying a mogul run covered in 5cm of fresh powder. Then, back to the village for another line-up...

After second line-up I went with one of the instructors, Vicky, and our Daycare supervisor Jess, for our run in the Dive. Jess had borrowed some gear and swapped her skis for a board, then we headed up Standish for the traverse to the bottom of the Continental Divide Express (down Headwall). However, as soon as we had reached the top of Standish, cloud had rolled in and there was a whiteout! But by the time we had picked our way to the bottom of Divide, it had cleared up and was sunny again.

Of course, by the time we were at the top of Divide we were in cloud again... But carried on regardless, transferring skis (and boards) onto shoulders for the hike to the top of the mountain and the view of the Dive... Which wasn't visible yet because the cloud was still in the way. We waited for 10 minutes or so to see if it would clear up or not, but unfortunately by that time it was getting marginal for Vicky to make her third line-up, and we'd already made her late for the second... So, we hiked (I skied) back down to the slopes and Vicky went back to the Village.

However, at the bottom of the Hike was a gentlemen looking for partners to go in the Dive with. He'd been before- numerous times- but you still can't go in alone. So he agreed to take Jess and myself in the Dive with him, so back up the hike we trudged... By the time we'd reached the top, the cloud had cleared- and we were treated to the amazing view of the Dive stretching out beneath us. It's not like any other run, and you can see all the way from the Shoulder to the base of Goat's Eye Express as well as everything in between.

Dave lead us down the steps (the cliff jump looked a bit much!) to the top of the best chute, and showed the best way down. He headed off first to meet us underneath the rock line. I followed him, and got into a rhythm of turn after turn, trying not to get too fast and loose control or get too slow and loose the rhythm. Every turn was a 'sluff' of fresh snow and the feeling was fantasic. I couldn't even feel others' tracks underneath my own!



Dave explaining the best way to get down the steep, powdery chutes.

After Dave gave us more advice on how to tackle the second half of the Dive, we thanked him and headed our own way down the shallower and wider second part (after of course taking some photos to mark the occasion). The rest of the run was powder a little shallower but even less tracked than the first half, and seeing everyone else's tracks it looked like at most 20 others had gone down before us (and this was midday on a Saturday!).

Jess



Me

It's best to keep separate while in the Dive, otherwise the spoil from the turns can turn into a mini-avalanche and be a real pain to the person below you. So we met at the bottom again, very hot and thrilled from our first run in the Dive. A quick run down a creek very similar to Eagle Creek, then a long-ish hike lead us back to the route we took after skiing the Shoulder, then onto Forget-me-not which lea us back to Goat's Eye Express and the gondola mid-station. Since it was nearly 1:00 it was certainly time for lunch, so after a quick shirt-change we met again in Staff Cafe (strawberries on salad bar and prime rib main course!). It was suggested that we should do the Dive again, but after eating and feeling a little knackered it was definately off the cards! So we headed up Angel to go back to Divide and do a couple of laps of the terrain park, after which I realised it was time to do laundry and get ready for work at Chimney Corner.

Thanks Stu (transciever borrowing) and Paul (transceiver training), Danny and Vicky (instructors), Dave (random guide from Calgary) and of course Jess (photographer, potential avalanche rescuer, good company).

Absolutely wicked. Now, when's the next time I can go in? And do I want to risk my now freshly-serviced skis on the rocks of the Wild West, the new freeride zone opened up a week ago and that has already claimed at least 3 lifties' skis?



Delirium Dive. We came down through the saddle near the right then traversed to the wide chute just right of centre. Next, I traversed left again to the long glade you can see. Jess is on the small ridge on the centre right of the picture.