The never ending tour: Silver chute!

Finally, or should I say almost, I'm free from my cold. I'm still coughing and have clogged up nose. But today I was tired of not having been doing anything for days and days. So already yesterday I asked Babsi if she would join me for a little ski today. She is the only "Skibum" like me in town that always has time to go and do fun things which we both find great.
So I been looking at Silver Chute for a long time, already last year I wanted to do it but never got the chance. After the last storm we had here in Telluride a couple of days ago that brought 40 new and fresh centimeters (16 inches) I once again starting to glance over towards that direction. And after I talked to Pie up at High Camp (before the snow storm and you can read more about our time at High Camp in last inlay) Pie told me that he skied Silver Chute from Alta Lakes skinning up through Hour Glass. From there he and his friends had boot packed up the "backside" of Silver Mountain to enter the chute/couloir (Chute/couloir is a narrow gully with a steep gradient in a mountainous terrain) from there. I had never heard about that and decided to learn more and something new. This morning at 10.00 am we lined up at the base of the lift, 45 min later I started to break trail in the basin of Alta Lakes. Skinning up Hour Glass was easy and fast. After a short break and attaching our skis to our back packs we set off boot packing up the ridge through scree and snow. Like two Duracell rabbits we were flying up the first 2/3.
When breaking trail boot packing, one step is like three, because you want to create good steps for everyone who follows so I kept banging my feet hard into the snow to shape nice steps. That can be hard sometimes when you have snow up to your waist. The last part was tough but once at the top we both were excited. The snow wasn't waist deep unfortunately when we got our skis on but safe. For this time of the year we had great conditions and loads of fun. Here are some pictures that show todays adventure. Like Doug Coombs once said, there is no bad snow, just bad skiers.

Tomorrow Babsi, Mike and I are heading out to the desert for three days of climbing and camping. Expect a fun and great inlay on sunday when we are back from summer, T-shirts, shorts and climbing!