So this past Thursday once again saw the Floose and I head off to the fabled hallows of Emerald lake. After conversing on the nuances of skiing terminoligy for about an hour, we were at the base of a beutiful 1000 foot chute.
Jay billing and the "powder posse" had "shreded" the slopes of Emerald the day before but there was still a little left over in the form of a great rolling run through the trees knee deep in the good stuff.
Being the shortest day of the year, we made a single run before heading back to the car. Soon after, the truffle pigs in field blew our minds with the pastries and coffee, no surprise.
Ah the holidays. These past few weeks have been filled with good food, christmas parties, working at the shop and trying to squeeze a little climbing and skiing in when possible. This past weekend we dove east towards Edmonton and Viking to see the folks for the holidays where we ate delectables, snowmobiled and hung low. good times
Last week saw Marc and I head up to the convenient slopes of the bow summit area. We were both feeling a bit sick from the cold that seems to have everyone in the gallows so our pace was relaxing and mellow for most of the day. Half way through the day the stoke tank was running on low for me as we have been so used to skiing amazing powder for the last few weeks and the wind blown slopes of the day it seemed, had me in a funk. The floose reminded me that this IS infact the rockies, not the columbias and that it is ALL infact, good. With vigor renued we shot up to a promising sheltered area and found pretty good turns all the way down to the car, complete with a powder eating smile or two.
The forecast on the CAA rated the area as considerable yesterday due to a number of reasons so we decided to take a liesurely path up through the trees and out of harms way, here marc can be seen wearing tan pants and a green jacket, hiking up the rock hard wind crust.
Digging a snow profile is always good fun, especially when the skiing isnt great. Here, the floose can be seen with a 125cm colum of snow which came off with a hard shear right at the ground which still seems to be radiating heat. If I was buried under the snowpack for 2 months I probably would'nt be radiating much heat.
At about this time some nice folks slowed down and asked us if everything was OK, Yes I replied, thank you though for stopping. Even though all of us have been spoiled by the epic early season we have been having, its still a great day to be touring around in the mountains with your friends and enjoying the surroundings. The alpine is good for the soul.
The forecast for the range was bleak. -30 temps and winds were in the future, skiing and climbing cast to the wayside in favour of a good book or libation. When Thursday night rolled around I called Jason who had been out the last few days and who could hopefully erase any question marks. I cant remember exactly what was said on that call but words like "epic runs", "thigh deep", "shredding the gnar" and "bomber stability" may have been spoken. Trepidation turned to glory as we saddled up and drove west towards mecca. For Ian and I it would be the first gnar day of the year but for the other guys it was merely icing on the gnar cake, they were on day 3 in a row....it was just too good to not go skiing. In no time we were up in the alpine and chasing the white smoke from gully to gully, soaking it all in and trying to wipe the large smiles off our shiny faces. On Saturday we went back to Emerald lake with an even bigger posse, this time to the slide path proper where knee deep powder was had by all as we lapped a beautiful alpine bowl realizing once again that the sun always shines in pow country.
J dog billing giv' n r on the rock below "coffee suckin' do nothings" we ended up trying this and another corner system to the right but both were a bit grim without a rock rack.
These two poseurs were found near the Rae glacier in Kananaskis. Skis were carried for 2 hours but not used, they must be insane.
Well, the ice season is off to a slow start this year, but thats okay because its going to be that much sweeter when everything is all formed up. The last three days have been spent hiking around with packs full of useless crap (ice gear) in search of the fabled frozen scapes, not yet to any avail.
So the last couple weeks have been filled with work, eating copius amounts and then working some more. When this weekend rolled around I packed a bag and drove to Lake Louise to do some srambling around lake agnes. I left the car at 7am and didnt see any people till about 10 or so, this was quite nice as Lake Louise and solitude are things that usually dont come up in the same sentence. It was nice to fill the soul back up and get stoked again. Michelle and I are also building a bed out of some whole logs for that "urban-rustica" look. Will show more shots as it actually starts to look like a bed because now it just looks like a bunch of firewood.
On friday evening my good friend from Edmonton Greg and I headed up to guides rock to bolt a variation to the 1st pitch of the popular "Sea of Dreams". We were hoping the pitch would clock in at 10- but in the end its probably 10d or so. Although I have'nt actually clinbed the first pitch of "sea of dreams" Greg has and he assured me the climbing was ALOT nicer than that of the original start. The pitch was done ground up, on lead and took six bolts in 25m, it rejoins the rest of the route at the top of the first pitch anchor. We named it "smear of dreams"
Friday afternoon saw Marc-Andre, Chris Haywood and myself venure up the narrow gulley leading to rats nest cave, this would be a good opportunity to try and go deeper than we ever have on account of this being one of the first times we havent gone in at night, and well, we did just that. We made it up to the "high point" of the cave which is about 80m above the entrance which is about 1 km(?) away. We got the chance to see some cave pearls as well as Marc horsing around with some large boulders. A great day with friends! note: all photos courtesy of Chris
