BEYOND BALL PASS JUNCTION

Trip date: Tuesday Jan 25, 2022

Submitted by DEMOCRATIZE AB

Particpants:

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Discussion:

Redearth Creek is trackset. The trail has been "needlefied" for the first few hundred meters and then afterwards there is primarily low amounts of needles on the trail. The trackset is also faint or warn for the first few hundred meters of trail as well. The further one skis up the trail the better the trackset becomes. Snow speed was fairly fast on Swix V30 -3 to -8c old snow blue wax and grip was generally excellent on the hills. Skiing out at night I likely hit speeds of 70 kph soaring down hills on my 210 2/3 metal edge skis.

I widened the trail to Shadow Lake Lodge by side stepping on the way up and knocking down "vertical bobsled" walls. Once I passed the hills there was a shallow somewhat warn trackset.

From Shadow Lake Lodge to Shadow Lake the trail is well fat skier tracked and a little sun crusted.

From the bridge at the Lake to about 1 km up Haiduk Creek, I broke trail most of the way. After the 1 km mark there was a fat skier track that I followed to near Ball Pass Junction. In the meadow below Ball Pass Junction campground there were a bunch of snow devil twisters obscuring the view with snow. The wind was intense and there were an incredible amount of twisters in the meadow. I got hit by a smaller snow devil twister and the wind chill must have dropped to -30c instantly.

The skier track went up into the bush which I thought was crazy. I continued to the Haiduk Lake Trail by Ball Pass Junction campground and skied up for about 1/2 km where I came across the fat skier tracks again. Trail breaking on the Haiduk Lake trail is generally easy with about ankle deep ski penetration. Snow speed was moderate speed.The wind was intense with tree tops swaying up to 15 feet. As I was climbing towards Haiduk Lake, I thought I heard a huge avalanche, but the wind was howling so hard I was not quite sure. When I skied up further and the wind gusts mellowed temporarily, I heard a pretty good size chunk of glacier avalanche which is always really cool to hear. With the intense wind gusting again I decided not to proceed to Haiduk Lake. I skied back as it was beginning to get a little dark.

I made it to Shadow Lake Lodge just as the first stars began to twinkle in the heavens and I viewed the last of the twilight which was nice to see. The temperature was -3c when I left at about 7:45 pm. I did a little more side stepping on some of the gnarly hills and corners on the trail below the lodge to pound down more "bobsled vertical walls". The trail is wider now. I rocketed out and back to the car in well under an hour to a very nice star show.