Feb 06, 2010; Union-Jove powder, Setevens BC

Just a quick report on behalf of Eileen, who lead a great ski tour deep into Stevens BC.  We started Smith Brook road 8:30 with the overcast sky, still finding some soft snow in the open.  At the hairpin, we skinned up to the main Union ridge following a small rib.  The cold air from the East side kept the low cloud all the way as you see in a pic.  Not much view from the ridge, but the frosted trees welcomed us.  Nice soft snow made descending down to the Union-Jove saddle on a very narrow ridge pretty straight forward.  Got to the Jove summit in a whiteout.  Eileen's original plan was to ski the main south basin.  However, skiing sun-crust in a whiteout didn't appeal to anyone. 

Since the snow was soft where it hasn't got much sun, we decided to ski the NW slope down to Lake Janus.  Not much sign of wind in the past week, the snow was dense settled powder, 4" new layer and another 6" layer, then much denser old snow.  All this soft snow made fantastic skiing.  The upper 1000' is mostly open, then another 1000' through old growth down to the lake.  It was tempting to repeat the run but we knew it was a long way back to the car.  We followed an old track back to the Union Gap, down to the road.  Over 9 hours for a great 2000' powder run, an interesting tour, we were all happily tired.

Thanks Eileen leading a wonderful trip and Tab, Ann, Bruce being great company!

Posting Tab's and mine.