WE’RE OPTIMISTIC for a reset, but the sun continues to shine bright day after day. This has turned into one of the longest high-pressure systems any of us has ever seen in Haines this time of year. Snow quality deteriorates with the passing days. It gets hard-er to find quality conditions on the steeper faces, but that doesn’t stop us from looking. We scour the surrounding area, crossing nu-merous bergschrunds to access lines with varying degrees of sun and wind effect. Many times, we deem the bergies unpassable and turn back. It never feels like a failure, since the snow quality on the lower angle, glaciated snow fields is still holding, making for wide open party cruisers that we ride all the way back to camp, from any direction we go, without ever having to walk. Our focus shifts from powder hunting to corn harvesting. There’s a south-facing peak a few hours walk from camp that stands at nearly 2,000 vertical feet and offers four distinct cou-loirs—one for each of us. That afternoon, we all get to feast on something other than dry food. With no significant snowfall in the forecast and an empty tub of peanut M&M’s, we decide to pull out. Inyo, Worm and I are all content and lean into a mellow final day. Carver, however, isn’t on the same page. The whole trip he’d been staring at a large, complex face of spines that extend beyond lines he and I rode earlier in the trip. In this snow, it doesn’t look like you can flow down them. We’re all shocked and equally concerned when Carver tells us that he still wants a go at it. We certainly aren’t going to tell him not to, but secretly hope that somewhere along the climb he’ll realize how firm the snow is and back off. That doesn’t happen. The top and bottom halves of the line are both straightforward enough. But the crux, a very exposed, nearly vertical spine that connects those halves, looks unrideable. Carver demonstrates that, although it could still be described as unrideable, the line is technically doable. We watch from the drone’s point of view as it films Carver working his way through the crux. He’s stuck there for minutes, ice and rock all around him, as we all hold our breath. We can see that he has both ice axes spiked into the steep, firm spine. Both arms are fully extending and he’s hanging there, attempting to kick his toe edge into the snow. It’s tense watching as he essentially downclimbs, with no rope, using the axes and his toe edge. Finally, he’s in the clear and casually rides toeside across a wall of big spines. We’re all over the moon as he slides back into camp unscathed. All there is left to do now is break down camp in anticipation of Drake’s 9 a.m. arrival. 070 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 22.1: Page 70
