December in photos

The last month or so has held splendid times in the mountains with friends, a really great Christmas was had too with food, family and pals. Yesterday was spent in the decorated halls of the Alpine where I got the chance to join some good friends on a traverse of Little Sifton in Rogers Pass. I have wanted to do this trip for years but everyone I know has done it already and being the relative "Pass" newcomer that I am I was tickled pink to venture up high on a wonderful spring like day in december to soak up the scenery, smell the warm pine trees and ski stellar powder slopes to the highway for 1200m.

Little Sifton Traverse magic. I must say that I am really excited for spring skiing already, the feeling of warm winter sun in the mountains and endless possibilities for big traverses keep me going day after day.
Chris Haywood in the NRC zone. GNP.
Zach and Chief. Crowfoot frontside.
Hermit Alpine, Jeff Mac putting on a clinic. Always a great day skiing with this guy.
Can't say where this is but its good!
Descending into the clouds, Sifton traverse.
Grizzly shoulder ascent, bring your 4X4.
The one and only Tobi freezing her butt off on the parkway at my request.
We will ski that.

Merry Christmas from Rogers Pass

With Chief around these days its not often I get the chance to head west to Rogers Pass where at the sight of dogs, they issue tickets and bad bad vibes. Jeff, Neil and I saddled up and hit the road in the donut ensuing Subaru and made our way, coffee in hand to ski the fabled slopes of quite possibly, the best ski touring zone around.

We had heard they opened Christiana Ridge between Mt. Fidelity and Mt. McGill again and this was the first days plan.
Neil Contemplating the descent through the trees, Christiana Ridge offers some of the best tree skiing I have seen and we fired a long up track to near the alpine in the 40cm of new snow, which fell atop 60cm from the last few days, this all of course hit us in the face on the way down.
Although we couldn't stay at the best hotel in Revelstoke "the ol frontier", we did head there for breakfast. As usual they treated us very well and scared us for life with the pancake they served Jeff.
Hermit Alpine, Day 2.
Nice, Deep December powder turns.

Schnarbus for the Restofus - Surprise Pass

So when that festive season approaches it is time to celebrate the non-traditional holiday called "The Schnarbus for the Restofus". This holiday can be enjoyed by all in the form of glorious powder shots or just the opposite, gnarly gnarly crust and edge deep slime. Either way it is time to give thanks and be with friends in the mountains, the cornerstone of the Schnarbus holiday. We were gracious to find a such an experience in that classic Lake Louise tour, Surprise Pass. Stable conditions and a chance to get outside after days and days of arctic temperatures made for a happy and content group.

Enjoy the film and Happy Holidays!

Bow Peak Couloir - A Tasty Treat

Yesterday I teamed up with friends Mike, EJ and Rob for a little couloir skiing on the back 40. We were getting a bit hungry during the approach and it was a blessing to discover this tasty treat, the "Mostly Hidden Chute" on Bow Peak to cure our belly aches and deliver a good dose of joy to the group.

Here we see Rob O demonstrating that with enough coffee, even climbers can throw down the buisness.
Again, Mr O demonstrating perfect jump turns in the chute al la Scott Schmidt
Near the bottom and ready to ascend
Uptrack
Approach.

Afterwords we just kept on skiing as we lapped the fan below the couloir until it looked like Mike Weigle was there with a 212 and 10 hungry guests. A really great and hilarious day with the boys.