In September 2010 I visited Craigieburn for a couple of days. This legendary place is one of the favourite areas of Glen Plake to ski on the planet. They even have a triple diamond run called “Plake’s mistake”…The day I arrived I met Geoff Peace in the daylodge. He was there together with his girlfriend who wasn’t a skier at all. She was there to read so Geoff and I made plans to ski together. Drinking a beer and discussing plans we looked out the window and agreed it would be amazing to ski down from the peak at the far right at the picture below.
We were actually just fantasizing and had no clew we would ski exactly this line two days later…
The first day we hiked up Hamilton peak. Craigieburn has three annoying ropetows (the infamous nutcracker-lifts…) that take you to the top of the resort. From there you can either hike skier’s right to Hamilton peak or skiers left all the way to North peak. 
We had no idea North peak was accessible at that time so we hiked up Hamilton peak after a nice 20 cm dump of snow overnight. Geoff is a great skier who spent a couple of seasons in Chamonix or Cham as he referred to the mountaineering capital of the world. To me he was a real inspiration. He skied fluently in great style down any line. He showed a lot of confidence in complex terrain. We enjoyed the run from Hamilton peak and at the bottom we traversed skier’s left to have a look at the gullies that lead back to the lift. We skied a steep gully, a nice technical line before having lunch. We explored the terrain on the other side of the lift in the afternoon before calling it a day. We had noticed the terrain further out of bounds though and kept it in our minds for the next day.
The next day we had one line in mind, North peak. From the cafeteria we were discussing snow stability with the locals and after a good chat we decided to go for it. As usual I struggled with the upper nutcracker but eventually I made it to the top. Geoff was waiting patiently but once our skis were attached to the backpacks the hike could begin. An easy hike of about 45 minutes along the ridge takes you to North peak. Arrived at the top, we were impressed by the views and the run to be skied. Soft snow would lead you into a steep couloir before the run opened up to the valley. From there you had to walk back to the daylodge. I had the honour to go first and enjoyed every single turn I made. Inside the couloir I was yelling of happiness. The couloir was around 40 degrees I guess, a nice gradient. Nothing scary but a lot of fun. Once out of the couloir I made some nice GS turns before I stopped and waited for Geoff to see his smile after skiing the line we talked about the days before.
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