We had a lovely day playing in the meadows and slopes close to Sunshine Village ski area.

I resort ski at Sunshine quite a bit (I've bought the very cheap Spring Pass several years) and frequently eye the very inviting terrain outside of the ski area. So I finally called a "slack country" ski day. Slack country is a version of back country but with some assistance from the ski lifts.
After a few diversions we assembled the group at the top of the Standish chair around 11. We surveyed the terrain to the west and spied a lovely looking slope off Twin Cairns. The short ski down to the low point between Standish and Twin Cairns afforded some nice turns but also some wind-hammered snow and some catchy drifts. We skinned up and headed up to where we had seen an uptrack. There was a fellow lapping the slope who was already on his third or fourth run when we headed up his gradual uptrack. But there was a lot of available terrian for many more turns.

Ready for our first full run below Twin Cairns

The slope turned out to be just lovely.


Philip making turns off Twin Cairns

Heading up for another run off Twin Cairns

After a second run, we skied down to the area at the bottom of the green run off Standish chair and had lunch. In the afternoon we took chairs up to the Great Divide.


"Cheating"? by taking the lift up

The ski down Bye-Bye Bowl had plenty of snow, but it was both tracked and wind affected making for somewhat challenging skiing. Near the bottom of that run we went out of bounds to the south into the northernmost fork of Howard Douglas Creek (which itself drains into Brewster Creek)


Heading down into the drainage below Bye-Bye Bowl

The snow in this area wasn't as sweet as our first runs but it was still pretty good.


Jim making turns below Bye-Bye Bowl run

The return back to the ski area was a little steep for a few meters and then a very gradual slope across Sunshine Meadows. We still would have had time for another run but we elected to just return. Some rode the gondola down while some skied the skiout which was still a little icy, I went back the next day to resort ski and our runs were still clearly visible.


Our turns on Twin Cairns. Click on this photo to see better.

Many thanks to participants: Philip, Clifton, Barbara, Ivan, and Jim for joining me on this adventure, Carl (C/S).