Queen Basin Skiing (Crested Butte BC) 1/17/2010

Hillary skinning up on a graybird morning, with the resort in the background.

The East River valley.

Frank and Adam hanging out on top.

Adam and Hillary ready to ski.

Our chosen line dropped us into Queen Basin, on the opposite side of the ridge we climbed (ie, away from town). Adam commits to the exposed opening moves.

Well, turn one is out of the way.

Adam into the much wider and easier part of the line. The snow was generally not very good... mostly hard, occasionally hard and chunky, with the rare soft sucker turn thrown in. These photos make the visibility look a whole lot better than it actually was too...

Hillary skiing her first big backcountry line.

Adam and Hillary are psyched, with our descent right above them. Frank, Brittany, and Jarrett chose to descend a slightly different line, and with the poor viz, it wasn't really possible to take photos of them.

Looking back up at part of the cirque.

Beautiful mountains full of possibilities.

Brittany and Hillary slogging back out along the road from the town of Gothic (which, as you can see, receives no winter maintenance.