Our party of three skied the Zipper and Fly on this day. Here is what I know.
As we approached the fan there was a party of 4 preparing to head up Lover's Lane. There were two climbers ahead of us in the fan proper and four other climbers approaching the base of the Fly. All totaled there were 13 people between the party climbing Lover's Lane, the two climbers just ahead of us in the fan, the party of 4 at the base of the Fly, and our party of three. A brief conversation with the two climbers as we passed them revealed that they were with the party of 4 heading up the Fly. We spent considerable time discussing conditions, but also discussing the other parties and how their ascent might affect ours.
The climb up the Zipper, while a wallow fest, was uneventful except for some minor spindrift. As we skied down, we heard the climbing party of 4 topping out on Lover's Lane. They shouted down that they would wait for us to clear the chute before rappelling down. The ski down was great. At the bottom of the Zipper we agreed to head up the Fly if it was clear of the climbing party of 6. We did not see anyone in the line as we approached so we headed up. There was a steady flow of spindrift pouring off the climbers left hand wall the entire climb. It was another wallowfest. One in our party topped out with the other two making it about half way up before descending. Both the ascent and the ski down were uneventful except for one mini loose slide that came down off the wall on the climbers left on the ascent. This partially covered our party's boot track.
My guess is the party of 6, maybe down to 5, got caught in a loose dry slide coming off that climbers left wall while we were in the Zipper.
It's a good reminder of how much of what we do is chance and luck. We went home with an all time great day all because we skied the Zipper before the Fly. Sounds like the climbing party may have gone home with a much different experience.
