Copper Mountain

Bob and I drove up to Banner Summit Friday evening. When I checked the Idaho Highways website that day, the road to Stanley was closed due to avalanches, so we drove around the long way through Sun Valley.

Driving through Stanley, the road sign said the road was open. Oh well, it was really pretty in the Wood River valley.

We spent the night in the van on Banner Summit, then got right to work Saturday morning. Here it's about 8am, and I'm already on my skis.

Note the depth of the snow embankment- although we sometimes call him "Little Bob," he's really not that far off normal size.

It was a lot of hard work busting trail up Copper, and it was snowing hard and blowing the whole way. But Bob the Guide found us a protected area without much wind. It was *way* steep, so we first dug a pit.

Satisfied that we weren't going to be buried, we dove right in. Somewhere in the powder cloud is Bob, choking on it because he was laughing so hard.

Here's a side shot, giving a better idea of how steep this hillside really was.

Although it seemed pretty steep on the way down, the trip back up confirmed it.

We looked at this adjacent slope, but the cornices just looked a little too much like whipped cream for me to jump in. We *have* skied this before. But not today.