Mt-Copeland

Mt-Copeland is a town shot that I have waited years to ski. What was I waiting for? Who knows the perfect conditions I guess. Somehow I guess we waited long enough because today was purely ridiculous.
We had to wait till 9 am for the helicopter but we were not complaining as it was saving us thousands of feet of climbing and countless kilometers of road slogging. By 9.15 we were a few hundred feet from the summit and ready to get after it.

The first run is a CMH Heli ski run and it is gorgeous. We were happy to have beat them up here and had no problems shredding first tracks down the guts of the NE face, deep cold smoke let us cruise at high speeds with minimal effort. really the type of snow that dreams are made of.

After a 4000 foot descent it was time to earn our turns and we skinned right up a serious 2400 foot chute. It was a little scary but the new snow had fallen lightly and no luring slabs were found. So I set a skin track up and soon Dave was leading the final pitch to a small peak. From there South facing turns led us into the south bowl. This is the town side, the face I have stared at for years and wondered what it would be like up there. The terrain in this bowl led us up safe ramps to the summit ridge where we skinned right to the top.

Doug had birthday rights so he skied the line first and the rest of us had great turns on either side of him. By now it was two o’clock and we had to start heading home. I lapped a quick 1100 feet to get some vertical and then caught up to the boys as they were touring up the last peak. This one is not a distinct summit but a turtle like dome that I have stared at for years. By 4,20 we were on the top and pointing our skis down a heavenly run right to valley bottom. The whole descent was filled with whoops and exhilarated yells. The end to a great day….

Well almost 10 km of road was left between us and our homes. I guess it had been too easy and we had to pay in some way. SO 2.5 hours of road slogging led us out.

10200 feet of ascent 17 000 feet of amazing descent. definitely worth the heli-drop….