mattier and heartstrings

Had a stellar day in this great ski zone with friend and fellow reptile, Julian Stoddart. We were able to get to the top of matier, took a miss on the face and then a nice tour up to hearstrings. Dreamy.

Bootpacking up Matier.

Waiting for the face to open up...it didnt!

Consolation prize down the glacier towards Joffre lakes.

Some mega dreamy turns down this sun softened glacial tongue.

Back up to Heartstrings, a coastal classic.

A great day! Notice the coastal fashions donned by Robin in the backgound - Keys for success in the foreground.

Cathedral Peak Lemmings

Had a great today skiing the classic route on Cathedral Peak with the N Couloir finish.  Always a great time with Craig and Zach.

french military group traverse

Had a great few days this week with some friends checking out a completely new zone: The peaks, valleys and glaciers that make up the French military group in Kananaskis, namely Elk Lake, the Petain Glacier, Mt. Joffre and others. I have been studying this route for a couple of years and with no prior experience, no beta and nothing but some summer photos of key cruxes and a few espresso charged google earth sessions it was time to stop caffeinating and just head out the god dang door! "Pull out the pickle" and just go for it, you know?!

As you may guess with such an ill advised endevour, based entirely on a few dreams and a map - partners may be slim pickins'..not so!..Enter Ivo "Vigorous" Vigoroux and Zach Cohen, the former being a keen for adventure, female heart throb and international man of intrigue: the latter being the most reliable partner in the northern hemisphere...and maybe the south.
We sushed along the Elk Pass trail on perfectly groomed government trails to eventually branch off and enter the 'wilderness', starting with Elk Lake: the gateway of our mini-traverse and a fabulous spot in its own right, surrounded by mysterious alpine walls, hanging glaciers and electric air.
We elected on the 'mega-mid' approach for this outing, a great choice for treeline and below camping which was our best intentions. In anything but a light wind, it will take off on you but for this it is 'mega'. We very much swanked it out with benches, a full kitchen, storage and an island walkway (islands are HUGE right now)..


The first crux of this trip was the head-wall to access the Petain basin and similarly named glacier. On the map it showed a consistent angle of 40/45 degrees and knowing the local maps penchant for not divulging cliffs 40m in size and below, I was a a bit nerve racked..Zach and I did a quick recon the night before, even establishing an up-track into the lower reaches without even needing ski crampons..it seemed like a 'go' and that night I slept the sleep of a thousand sleeps.

After our initial up track push, the going was not bad..a few 'I wish my parents never met' and 'why aren't we somewhere else' moments came through but sure enough, our persistence paid dividends and we arrived above the clouds after a few rounds with the Mike Tyson of steep bushwack's...seriously though, not bad if you are into this sort of thing.

The headwall of discipline.

Glory above the clouds..

"What! you mean there isn't a starbucks here!"

After gaining the bench below the glacier, a few small cliffs needed to be conquered..the first of which and the biggest, on the left around a steep roll and then asthetic ridge. The second via a snow ramp through a small weakness and the third, pictured above, via a traverse around its furthest and northern toe..

Glacier is gained! D R E A M Y

Magic..

Gaining the Joffre/Petain col - The third "?". This also went swimingly and we enjoyed a 600m descent into the Joffre basin and Aster lake..

Aster lake environs..before the descent to Hidden lake and the road..

All is well that ends well!

Thanks to these great ski fellows. A great trip through some awesome real estate. Well recommended if you want to mix up the bag of usual ski trips.

Observing.

Had a great linkup the other day in the Observation peak zone. Hiking to a minor summit, skiing a 700m run down a north facing and preserved glacier then hiking along a ridge and skiing wonderful corn snow down to the car. Spring days are the best.

Spring Skiing is among us.

Have been having a great time these days enjoying the spring time - my favorite season!

Rob and I snuck in a dawn patrol in the Tryst lake area the other morning. If you are not up on the "DP" strategy, it involves coffee, very early starts, coffee and skiing all before a full day of work. I am a huge fan of this technique, allowing many many days of skiing in one season while still staying in food, socks and other of life's essentials.

Rob, enjoying some sweet powder on Super Slope.

Happy to be out with Rob O! We had a great time in the local peaks. On the way out, we spent quite a bit of time digging out the new KIA, which is without winter rubber. We had no idea that there would be 30cm of fresh on the highway, which made for amazing skiing and trying times with tires slicker than spring break. Cursing ensued but we emerged victoriously, eventually ending up at Mountain Mercato in Canmore for some great bean.
On Saturday, Zach and I ventured to my favorite local haunt for some fresh tracks in the alpine...
We logged about 1800m which felt like a lot on account of basically taking March off of anything aerobic, instead visiting sunny locales, eating copious amounts of rich food and taking it pretty easy with an injured rib region gained from an otherwise pleasant night of tomfoolery at Marc Andre's stag.
I hope you are all well friends!