Jutland spring ski

March 23, 2014

Access to good backcountry skiing on Vancouver Island tends to be time consuming, it's challenging to find a good skiing objective as a day trip.  There are plenty of options out there but be prepared to work for it.

DS_140321_5269DS_140321_5269 Mount Jutland (rounded peak on the right) has some super fun lines.  An early start (sunrise for us) to cover lots of ground (roughly 28kms round trip) worked out well for us.  It's a beautiful rolling tour to get to the base of the mountain as long as the trail breaking goes smoothly.

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Fresh hard fast groomers gave us a great jumpstart on the day.

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This is one of the few areas on the Island that does not include a bushwack, you do get to traverse a small lake.

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5 cm's of fresh snow and cold overnight temps made the walking quite nice.

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Castlecraig and Frink another option from this point.

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It's always nice to skin right to the summit. It's a thin snowpack for march on the island.

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Albert Edward and Mount Regan tower over Gem Lake.

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Looking back at Mount Washington.

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Summit party!

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Surprisingly nice turns on the dust on crust.

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Hero Snow.

The sun warmed up the snow for the ski out and made travel a bit slower for tired legs, still a worthy day objective in the right conditions.


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