Mt. Bourqueposito

 The new year gave us blue skies and stable boot deep snow.  I have been eyeballing this face for a long time... It was time to hit it.  I headed out with Johnny "foon" Chilton and Mie Yamashita. The lower portion of this post is a full on poach from Foon Skis blog.
Johnny calls this type of face a "Esposito", with a 77 percent chance its never been skied...Felt like a Raymond Bourque to me. Likely this thing has been tagged,  I just don't know anyone who has.

Mie Yamashita leads the way, as Johnny foon instagrams more mountains into his brain.. As this face really has no name, I explained it to mie as, "y know that face we never like skinning under"

Mie..

Some other stuff

Topping out...Nice wall in behind, but maybe don't go to the edge for a better look

Foon Skiing.. 

Yamashita inspiring MEC enthusiasts

13TH JAN 2013POSTED IN: FOON BLOG0

After starting the year with an amazing descent of one of North Americas biggest standing waves (Mt. Curries North Face 7500 vertical ft.) with the Pehota boys, I got a call from Joe Lax.

“My friend Mia and I are gonna try to hit this face between Mt. Cayoosh and 7 Mile Creek. You know it?”

“Oh yea, everybody’s been eyeing that face, what a great idea, thanks for the call.” I replied

The “Esposito”

A face like this is a classic example of what we call an “Esposito”. In the world of Coast Range Ski Mountaineering a really big, really steep, really remote face is often referred to as a “Gretzky”. This when your 99% sure it has not been skied before. (For the non hockey fans out there, Wayne Gretzky was the greatest player of all time and his # was 99). The face Joe and Mia had invited me to shred with them was fairly steep, pretty big (just shy of 2000 vert.) and while not remote, not right in the front country either.

Mia mid face on the Esposito

Although drooled over by many we could find no one who could confirm shredding it and the reality is that once the film crews show up later in the year this face is baked out from the sun. So we call it an “Esposito”. After another great canadian hockey player, Phil Esposito, who’s # was 77.

Joe leading up the face

Access was un-problematic, the day was beautiful and conditions stellar. This face receives a lot of sun and by February will probably lose it’s ability to produce pow. Super stoked to have been along, a perfect mission for the Foonlight.

Joe shredding “The Esposito”

“Snowboarder Joe”

100 percent chance of Sun or cloud.

It is often hard to get a sunny day in march, around here.  If the forecast says sun and cloud,  you will more than likely be window shopping.  If you get a couple windows, then it is worth your time.

Sun, cloud and snow!.. It was deep out there, and for a well beaten zone, I was surprised to be trail-breaking.

The main face has some nice lines on it , but gets exhausted quick after a few shreds  hit it. The lookers left section of the face, rarely gets hit, as it is protected by a good sized cornice. I am always drawn to this side of the face, but the cornice makes it really difficult to access.  I could see from a distance there was what looked like a access point with a reference rock on the ridge.  I tiptoed out there, and there was a tiny (about one foot) slot that accessed the face along the rock,  with a sneaky entrance under the barrel of the cornice.  I got my shovel out, and dug my way in for about a hour or so, filling in the deep hole along the rock edge. I carved a wide entrance, so i could slither under the cornice with ease.  I hung out up there for a while, waiting for the light to unflatten.  It finally got to the point where it was good enough, so i had to man up and ride under the wave.

It was a short, steep bubbly spine world, that was worth the wait and effort.  I  quickly went back for another lap after this one. Jon, Mie and Delaney  decided to join me on the next one, as the door was now opened.

This is shot from a couple years ago on the same ridge lookers right , it took me some time to get into this line as well.       Delaney Zayac photo.

It started to brighten up before sunset, as some gems  started to catch some sweet light.