In the afternoon, we eventually found our way slightly out of bounds off the skier's left of the Silver King Chair (see the bright box on the right side of the map).  The trees started out thick, and gradually thinned until everything opened up into a treeless bowl area.  Due to our unfamiliarity with the area and our uncertainty about avalanches, we stuck mostly to the thin trees along the edge of the bowl.  Unfortunately, this terrain is just outside the scope of the map I have here, but the bright box will give you the general idea of our location.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Did I mention we liked to ski in the trees?  We found lots of untracked snow just outside the boundary area in the zone of disperse trees.  Here, J.Spin decides to split the difference on a couple of conifers.  We liked this area very much :)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

James finds a nice gap and heads for daylight.  Always keep your eyes on the spaces BETWEEN the trees :)
 
 

In the first picture, Dave is caught on film just as he breaks out of the trees.  A fraction of a second later, he's out in the open blazing away through the powder.  The second shot is one of my favorites from the entire trip, as I recall it was once again the masterful work of Chris behind the camcorder.  As you can imagine, Dave was really starting to get the hang of his Salomon midfat skis.  They're the new ones with the binding that attach at the side.  I think Dave should approach the North Face and Salomon for some sponsorship money, look at what a good job he does of showing off their labels for them! ;)
 

Here's a nice shot from the disperse trees into the open bowl below.  For once, this shot makes things look steep (actually even a little steeper then they really are).  In the center of the picture you can see E as she heads to the left out to the edge the open bowl, the pitch here is solid black, but nothing too hairy.  We were cautious about getting too far out of the tree zone and into the center of the bowl, since this was technically out of bounds, and we were unsure of their out of bounds avalanche control policy.  It was possible to take a high traverse and head high into the bowl if desired, but since the snow was still excellent in the trees at the edge, we didn't push our luck without a local guide.  Across the bowl (upper right hand corner of image) you can see some of the slide paths that are present in this large treeless area.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Greg works his way down through the nice powder we found along the edge of the bowl.  As I recall, we skied this area at least twice since the snow was so nice.  At times people said the snow had a strange consistency here, not exactly heaviness, but something was different.  I think perhaps it was a texture thing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dave and James attempted to synchronize some turns through the trees.  As E tells it, they vocalized their intended turns with "left.. right... left... right..." but didn't actually pay full attention to what they said.  At least that's the way I heard it ;)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Chris gets out from behind the camera for some well-earned turns on film.  It looks as though he is just outside the trees on the edge of the open terrain.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Join us as we finish off our ski day at Whitewater with some steeps as we return to the Summit chair...