Ryan Stuart, explore's gear editor
Ryan Stuart's tell all blog spot on his gear addiction and life and times as explore magazine's gear editor
May 1st Powder
May 1st powder. That’s what we found when two friends, my dog Silva and I headed up to Mount Cain last week for a day of skiing. We were expecting spring conditions but arrived to find snow on the trees and chilly temps – it started snowing shortly after we arrived. Anything south facing was sun affected, but as soon as we moved around to the north the crust turned to dry powder.
The original plan was to scout some winter camping and avalanche education terrain for my friend Tobin’s business, Section 8 Ski and Snowboard Institute, a leadership and instructor certification program, www.section8ski.com. We were able to do this on the way up, which left us time to ski the plumb line gem of Mount Cain’s backcountry – Dream Chute. Nicely sheltered from the spring sun, it promised to be loaded with powder.
We were not disappointed. After a long climb, traverse and more steep snow climbing we stood on top of the chute and then ripped it to shreds. The snow was more mid-winter quality than May 1st and we were not complaining. See some pics from the trip in the gallery in the sidebar.
Along the way we spotted several other tempting chutes, which we will be back to attempt sometime soon.
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