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Here's a selection of shots that I've taken from some runs down the Delirium Dive during this season - Sunshine's "extreme" free ride area. You have to have avalanche gear to head in here - more to keep out people who might come a cropper on the entry's than any other reason...
Tom heads to the bottom of the steps that lead to the easiest access point. With a thinner snow pack than normal - getting off the bottom step onto solid ground is possibly the trickiest part. |
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A couple of week's ago I headed into the Dive with some of the rental crew - Rebecca, my boss, at the back, Marc the shop supervisor in the centre and Neil in the foreground. Once you've negotiated getting off the steps, this particular route down opens up rapidly. |
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Neil heads into the first real pitch of the descent - there's plenty to go at, but with exposed rocks and some interesting terrain features in the shape of some sizable cliffs, you need to pay attention - although I have a suspicion that there's not many drops that would phase Neil. |
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Rebecca midway down the first pitch - even though we've had a lean snow year and plenty of people had already been through the snow was in reasonable condition. |
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Ah, those crazy Quebecois - earlier this week I headed into the Dive with the manager of the Salomon Test Centre, Erick, and two of his friends. This time we headed for one of the more interesting entry points - some recent snow making the entry a little easier and the skiing excellent. |
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The boys try to work out which route we took... If we'd come down the steps we would have come into the photo from the top left corner. At this point we are about half way down the steeper sections. |
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I actually took this a couple of days before the previous couple of shots. Rebecca and Tony are at a point where you decide whether to traverse under the cliff behind Tony or head off to the left of the photo - there isn't much to choose between the two except for a bit of a trek out if you head left. |
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Oh yes, and a nice drop if you head left. |
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As official photographer I got to avoid committing to it - no fear of that from Tony... |
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...or Rebecca. |
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A Canadian - Kiwi high five. You can see the start of a nice tree section behind the guys - a great end to the run. |
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Pay back. Taking the left hand route rather than the high traverse means a slight plod out - unless you're bright enough to be on skis and skate ahead to get this shot. Hope the mish-mash of photos hasn't confused you and given a decent overview of the Dive ;) |
