On Sunday it was bluebird and E facing was still the place to go. Mineral Basin had only opened a few days previously, so we thought it might be a good idea to try Miller Hill. Starting from below the Mineral Basin lifts, it looked like we would be in for a nice day.
From the pass, the steep N-facing shots looked inviting, but we were concerned about the persistent facets below the storm snow. Instead we tracked around the back towards Miller Hill.
A pit on the ENE facing Pagan showed good stability, so off we went. Unfortunately I messed up the camera so no pictures from the top.
The snow was good and we continued down through the trees to the access road.
We ascended the 1,800ft from the access road back to the top with annoying snowmobilers for company. This time the camera worked.
Half way down, we cut right and skied the low angle Aspens to the access road. The low elevation snow cover was surprisingly good.
Back up again to the pass. We were running a bit short of time, so we skied the steep N shot which we had previously avoided. We had seen a good guinea-pig ski the slope so decided to give it a go. This was the best line of the day and we didn't observe any cracking or collapsing. We took this down to the road and then had to rush back to make the 3:30 lift cutoff.
Another good day: 4,850 logged.
After numerous days with dodgy light, I revised some of these and tried to spruce them up a bit. The combination of surface faceting and the smallest amount of wind crust made for some interesting effects.
