Monday, April 28, 2008

Columbia Icefields

So this past weekend Michelle and I teamed up with our friends G and Jon for a fantastic few days on the wind swept expanses of the Columbia Icefields. It was Michelle and myselfs first time up on the neve and we could not have asked for better people to be up there with.


On our first day we navigated to the "trench" where people usually camp for an attempt of Mt.Columbia. We could see the monolith outlines of the peaks around us but visiblitiy was pretty limited to a few hundred metres mostly. A cold night ensued and a new stove barely worked to sputter up just enough water for dinner and soup-barely! Really nice. Above is coming up the Athabasca Icefall-Better eat pasta the night before to mach through there!


We awoke to bluebird weather and my cold that I have had for a few days escaped my mind as the thought of being out in the sunshine was overwhelming. Here is Jonny and G-Force checking GPS facts "13km from the car to the trench" I think is what they were saying.
Michelle in the tent. It was great to be up there with her, She brought smiles to the group often.
Our camp from the west side of the trench coming back from Columbia. The hot weather and new snow turned us around and back to camp. We made it out the same day at 2300 or so. Pretty dreamy skiing down the glacier in the Twilight.
Yup, thats a sledder on the Columbia Icefield and yes that Mt. Bryce in the backgroud. I dont know what to say about this other than we were all stunned. Both because of how they got up there as well as the fact that what they were doing was legal. The Icefields are on the Ab/Bc border and they were on the BC side, Barely. They shoud probably make it a UNESCO site to stop this kind of thing. Water form this area goes to every place on the continent.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Spring Tour Time-French, Haig, Robertson




Today was great. Probably the first time this spring that it has actually felt like spring touring, go figure! I loaded up the Kia, drank a whole pot of coffee and shot down the road towards the Burstall Pass parking lot, breakfast bagel and more coffee in hand and stoke in the mind. A nice tour takes you through forests and canyons before entering the toe of the french glacier which leads up to the Haig glacier and the sunshine. A good lunch of cheese, bread, chocolate and yet more coffee ensued before heading up and over the Haig to Robertson col. A stellar run takes you to the valley bottom and the plus temperatures. Big thanks to Ally, Bill, Tom and Marg for letting me tag along during the bootpack up the the col as well as the descent-good company!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Yoho Yo!

The Bootpackers, Vice President
Johnny Five is Alive! Tea candles work fine for wax


Luc is happy
The skier, the rep, the mazda 323 and their crampon
The run off the President Glacier
Lars Bachman, Skier
A Jubilant crowd
Wow! April!
So I just got back from a great trip with some good folks up at the Stanley Mitchell Hut. Our original intentions had been to open throttle over the Wapta from the Bow hut but that was thwarted by a gloomy weather forecast that was set to drop some snow down (more on that later!). Wow! The area around the hut is awsome to say the least. We enjoyed some pretty good wintery weather back there as we made our way from nice tree runs to a stellar morning/afternoon skiing up and down from the President Pass as well as the token skis off bootpack to the summit of the vice pres. Upon returning from the vice pres we found ourselves surrounded by the sign of winter goodness, huge flakes of light snow fell in mass all around us. We relaxed in the hut before we just couldnt take it anymore, out into the falling spectres we went to soak up more good turns in the treed slopes under the vice president which is a place best described as a private bow summit. Large grins entered our faces as we went up the second time to absorb the fading daylight and take in all of our surroundings. A great trip!