A Day in the Dive

When I woke up on Friday morning, after a bit of laptop fiddling (it has a chronic bent power socket), I found I had a very strong desire to go in the dive again. Apart from the fact that it's high and north-facing, meaning that the snow in there would still be good, I just fancied a thrash in something difficult. However, even though I borrowed some avalaanche gear, I couldn't persuade anyone to come in with me. Some people didn't even realise it had been re-opened! (It had been shut for avalanche control for a while after our 80cm dump, then again when there was an avalanche nearby).

So at about 12:00 after a couple of warm-up runs, I went to stand at the top of Divide chair to see if anyone else would come along looking for a partner. And I waited. At 12:30 I rushed down to the village to see if any instructors who hadn't been sold, would be interested. STILL no takers! So I went back to the top of Divide and waited some more.

It wasn't long before 3 people turned up, 2 who were together (who'd done the Dive before) and 1 other (who hadn't). Because I'd done the Dive before, I went in with the gentleman on his own, Greg from Calgary. He'd skied a lot of similar terrain before but not the Dive, so I showed him the route I took last time. We went down the steps to ski the easiest route, and found the snow soft and in pretty good shapes, there wasn't much in the way of bumpy bits either. 2cm had fallen a couple of times over the last few days, and with a fresh breeze this was blown straight off Lookout Mountain, over the back into the Dive, so there was about 10cm of fresh in there. Nothing like powder, but a nice change from the ice and rubble from the South Side Chutes which I'd done the day before.

About half way down, when it's less steep and wider, there was some evidence of freeze-thaw underneath the fresh snow. Mindful that this was where one of my friends broke her leg a week earlier, I took it steady but there wasn't anything unexpected. We skied to the bottom, then skied out to Goat's Eye. With Goat's Eye Mountain closed (funny noises coming from the lift), we decided to do the Dive again. And again...

The entrance for the 1st and 3rd trip in the Dive



The more difficult entrance we took on the 2nd trip



Greg at the entrance after the steps. You can see the route we took the 2nd time, someone is skiing it above and to the left of Greg's head.

The second lap, we entered the dive by skiing (well, it was more sliding) the steep entrance to the side of the cornice. I'd not done that one before, and it was certainly exhilerating... There was a few rocks in the way, so we climbed down them (in skis!). Note to self- skis need a re-sharpen...



But we finished each trip unscathed and exhilerated, and I asked Greg to take a piccie of me at the bottom. Steve may notice that it's exactly the same as his own...

It was a beautiful day and we were always high enough not to feel the slush. Thanks Greg for coming along at the right time!