From the lack of posts around here, you can tell winter is drawing to a close. Peter and I had gone out for Castle's closing weekend in early April and took the opportunity to waste a day trying to get a look at KC's from the bottom. A long traverse across the shoots and a death slide which resulted in a large gash to my ass, followed by some boot packing brought us to this secret couloir. 58 degrees and narrow, but it's a small list of people who've ridden it.

Riding partners didn't work out for the rest of April - I'd wanted to get out a few times, but it never panned out. Almost went solo last weekend after a freak storm blew through, but I ended in the river valley behind my house in the city. 150 foot laps via bootpack yielded 5 to 10 turns in boot top blower. I stuck it out and got 1,000 feet of vertical.

Today, I decided I was going to go make a push for 10K since I hadn't really tried for it. Got on the road and saw that the forecast high pressure had showed up. Wavered on the 10K and decided to do some exploring instead up on Haig. Found a good cliff for next year along with some amazing powder snow on the north aspect. Kept touring up to Chimo's. Took some pics from all the angles - snow was probably good enough to use the proper entrance, but I kept on climbing as I wanted to check out KC's from up top. I had to down climb through some icy scree - memories of the death slide flashed through my head and I managed to break a pole.

I finally arrived at the top of KC's. There were some sledders high marking in the bowl below. I briefly entertained the thought of doing it, but there was no way to know how soft the snow was. It's very shaded due to the location. It'll require a perfect day and a riding partner or two, but I will bag it.

KC's is located right at the base of the east face of Mt. Haig. From the parking lot it looks imposing. The Secret Castle movie from a few years ago hyped the first descents in a very mickey mouse fashion. I stood and looked up at the 800 to 1,000 feet I'd have to boot pack to add my name to the list. The ridge is pretty clean save for the cliff bands - you'd need to traverse over to get through them, but it looked very doable. The weenies from the movie got dropped off in a chopper. I started up and made it a couple hundred feet when the snow went icy. Visions of the death slide still in my mind, I decided to strap in. With an ice axe and crampons, the climb would have been easy, but if you need that stuff going up..... coming down is going to be interesting. Maybe on a day when you're not riding solo. I will ride this line someday.

I can't remember the last time I've enjoyed spring riding, but with the shades on I made the best of some corny snow. Paid the price on a long flattish ride out down a creek bed. Pushed some bush, but eventually made it back to the vehicle. 3,000 vertical and just over 7 miles.