Once again I found myself spending New Years in the Cadwallder range with Ron Andrews and some great freinds. There's a true sense of remoteness in that place you don't get just anywhere. Every December I start counting the days in anticipation of the light deep pow that will be had. This year we had some significant goals that had to accomplished. On New years eve Colin and Mike joined me on our early flight in from Pemberton.

jj

After a quick gear unload we found ourselves back in the A-star and scoping out a landing spot on Prospector peak.

Due to high winds and weight we couldnt make a landing on the summit so we touched down at around 1950m. With so much going on in the snowpack this season we took a detailed look at the snowpack before making the summit approach. After a perfect ridge approach and some bootpack sections we found ourselves standing on the summit at 2:00pm.

The anticipation of this 4000 ft line was unbelievable. We couldn't have asked for better conditions. -20 deg C and blubird.

Upon reaching McGillivary Creek I started to realize my underestimation of the skin back to the Lodge. However I truly believe that most great friends are made in serious bushwacking missions where you have to get knee deep in ski and snowboard boot river crossings. That's all that has to be said. We pulled up to the cabin just after 9:00pm with Ron eagerly awaiting our details of the days mission. Serious amounts of beer and food were consumed along with a bottle of Champaigne to bring in the new year. I couldnt have imagined a better way spend the last day of 2007. Once in bed I couldnt get this line out of my head that we spotted last year from Ronnies Col. It was the fabled Star Mountain Couloir and it had to be done!

After a semi early wake up we set out to try and beat the inevidible storm on route. The approach was straight forward and the ridge line gave us great views of most of the line. Right on the edge of the North rock wall there was a small entrance with almost no cornice! Mike jumped in with style and all I saw was his head for the next couple thousand feet.

Not a bad first day of 2008! The next three days it puked day and night! We spent the mornings breaking serious trail and hitting the steep tree lines all over the valley.

A big thanks to Ron and Lars Andrews for another great year! We'll be back soon! http://www.whitecapalpine.ca/

More pics from the trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/patmulrooney/sets/72157603673423923/