Ursus Minor/8812
This trip is a classic! There is some fantastic spring skiing in the Selkirks right now. Its dust on crust on the south aspects and great powder on the north.
Aaron mentioned the idea of skiing of Ursus minor and then touring around to Ursus Major. It seemed like a fantastic idea to me, Doug and Jodi had never summitted Ursus nor had any of them skied the west face. SO we skinned up ursus minor, the weather wasn’t perfect but hinted of better. The clouds would obscure the summits and then moments later they would be lit up in the sun.
We summited the peak by noon and decided on a new line of the summit, skiing down the ridge we rolled in and had a decent chute that opened into a larger bowl and a total descent of 2500 feet.
Wicked line. Jodi claimed it as his best line ever.
We then skied around into Ursus Major bowl and had dreams of summitting it. But the approach is aggressive and there are no easy ways up. So I generally only go there when I know things are perfect.
Things are really good right now but there are some lurking fears deeper in the snow pack. So we listened to our instincts and went up 8812 instead.
The tour up 8812 is a perfect glacial tour, these perfect benchs wind up to the summit. They are a pleasure to skin up and provide a great vantage of our morning turns. SO we summitted and then had some great north facing turns, Jodi learnt a bit about "slough" management…..
We then finished of with bruins bowl and headed home.