Houghton Tour - 4-11-09

We got some good rain down in Reno, so Eric Martin and I decided to check out the north bowls off of Houghton. Since we only expected a few inches of new snow on a firm base, I decided to take Yuki. There was just some "dust on crust" at the trailhead, but once we got to Broken Glass, we were surprised to find five or more inches on a soft base.
Top of Galena Peak:

Rather than ski down Broken Glass as usual, we headed out to the end of the ridge allowing us to ski the steep north facing couloir. To my surprise, Eric had never skied it before! (I didn't think there was any line in the Rose BC that Eric hasn't skied.) While I climbed up to the top Eric cut in from the side so that he could take some pictures:

Standing up top:

Taking some turns:

Looking back at the Chute:


Then we climbed up to the top of Houghton and were again pleasantly surprised to find some sweet boot top powder. We did two runs down the north bowls/chutes before splitting up. Eric couldn't pull himself away and had to do another run, but Yuki (and I) were getting tired.

Eric making turns:
A set of tracks and the uptrack:


From the top of Houghton we skied a steep line between the rocks and had a little excitement. It was just steep enough and had gotten just enough sun that it started a slow slide which knocked me off my feet. I was slowly going down the chute and found it quite difficult to get back on my feet. Then I saw a little tree off to my left and I was able to angle over to it and use it to stop.

Looking back at the sluff:

Lesson learned, my next line was much more mellow. I came off Houghton down some nice soft snow and then had a 30 minute mellow ski (kick skins) to the ridge above the road and a few minute ski out. Yuki was really beat by the time we got to the Truck and I have to admit that I was pretty tired too.