Deep snow skiing at the Fairy Meadows region 51.76333,-117.87666 of the Adamant Adamant, BC mountains #

Suave Lobodzinski, April 2016

All photos shown were taken by the author and come from his extensive picture archive

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We load our skis and gear in Chatter Creek and get ready for a 15 minute ride to the Fairy Meadows hut.

Vast views of the surrounding deep valleys from the helicopter.

The heli flies over the Pioneer pass (visible in the background). It is a "snowy weather" and we are looking forward to making powder turns.

Upon arrival at the Fairy Meadows Helipad, we unload our gear, skis and food for 8 days from the helicopter.

Our mountain hut (The Bill Putnam hut of the Canadian alpine club) is now in a full view with Mt. Damond in the background. The snow conditions are very good.

Our "mountain home" will never get cold. So much chopped wood on the porch!

Powder ski conditions:-) - the dream of all backcountry skiers. It stopped snowing and after the avalanche rescue refresher course we we test it finally. It is awesome skiing!!

On the Granite Glacier. We got here by skiing down from the col visible in the upper right. Skiing powder in steep terrain is really fun!

Backcountry skiing is all about climbing the mountain before skiing it down. We use specialized skis and free heel bindings to climb. It is sometimes lonely up on the glaciers.

The upper parts of the glaciers are like huge fields, broken by the crevasses. As the glacier flows down the mountain, the ice breaks and crevasses are formed. These crevasses are very deep and dangerous, so we proceed with caution.

We now approach the icefall, the place where the glacier breaks down into huge, few stories high chunks of ice called seracs.

Behind us we leave Mt. Clossus partially visible on the right and wonder how we managed to get down from there through the crevassed glacier!

We now have to navigate a highly crevassed area by the seracs. Have to rope-up for safety. We all carry avalanche beacons, avalanche probes and snow shovels in additional to basic climbing gear (harness, rope, carabiners and ice axes).

Can you see us skiing down the glacier? This should give you the idea about the scale of this place!

Navigating snow bridges is always challenging. We are in a good spirit though and use our skills to get down safely.

A breathtaking view from Unicol at the Adamant mountain range in the Silkirks mountains.

At the Unicol Pass. Mt. Sentinel visible in the background.

View down from the diabolically steep Unicol Pass towards Adamant mountain range.

The Alpen Glow after the sunset. An unforgettable visual spectacle before the nightfall.

After a long day of skiing on the glaciers we take it easy . Enjoying the music, irish coffee and rum tea. Our gear will dry out over night and will be ready for another adventure tomorrow.

The following morning we are back on the glaciers. The weather and the snow are perfect - it will be another spectacular day of skiing.

Here you will find more on skiing or touring in the Fairy Meadows area (with average snow fall of about 10 m!) based on the Bill Putnam hut of the Canadian Alpine club. Note the hut is very fully booked, so a lottery system is used to pick the winners! For skitouring in the area or elsewhere see also Selkirks.