06th of November 2010 - Club Lake Chutes
On Saturday Tony and I finally made it out onto the Main Range this Spring. We arrived at the Charlotte Pass turn around to find only small drifts left. We couldn’t decide on Blue or Club Lake so we walked to the Blue Lake lookout to make our decision. Stag Gully looked very thin and the only clean line down the Amphitheatre was on the far lookers left. Club Lake seemed like a better bet. We also ran into Craig (K10) and Ross who were also planning on skiing Club Lake. We were too keen to wait so we headed off expecting them to catch up later in the day.
After and Hour and a half we were on the Eastern Shoulder of Mt Carruthers and ready to ski. The Elevator and Dogleg Chute both looked to be out of condition so we headed down skiers left of the main buttress on snow which had just corned up enough to be enjoyable. From the bottom both Elevator and Dogleg look to be in condition so we decided to kick steps up the lookers right of Elevator. The snow was still firm and after an hour of taking turns kicking steps we were at the Summit of Mt Carruthers. This time we skied down Elevator which had perfect Corn the whole way.
After our second lap up our steps Craig and Ross appeared and joined us for a run down Dogleg. The cover was thinner with unusual lumps in the crux of the chute, but the snow was perfectly ripe. Ross and Craig joined us for another lap up our staircase and we skied the lookers left chute, the snow was now starting to get a bit sticky and we called it a day after skiing the four best lines available to us that day. Heartbreak hill was as painful as ever, but the days skiing had been more than worth it.
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Video Report
If you make it up in the next few days look for the steps on the lookers right side of The Elevator