Steed Hut

Our annual winter trip to the Kootenays came and went with a successful trip to the Steed Hut area about 16km W of Nelson..

The sleepy town of Nelson at 7am.

We took helicopter pass into the hut...

Some of the terrain around the hut, the S face of Siwash Peak...

Our first run, a 45 degree shot off the ridge for about 400m..

Ridges..

Some of the terrain..

Ryan

Ryan

G, Cooking.

Ryan

Steed Hut.

Some the of S facing tree terrain.

N Facing trees.

 

 

 

We had 2 days of amazing stability where one could ski anything one wanted, it was sensational. Followed by two days of storm skiing which was nice and deep, we stuck to the trees the latter two days which was great. The last day we followed the straight lines of the GPS track we had guessed on taking us back to the car after 22KM, freezing rain and a good long day. We found a broken into and cleaned out car...bummer! Well, the trip was stellar all in all.

K3 Catskiing

Had a great few days doing some good'ol fashioned cat skiing in the interior mountains of BC. Company and snow were outstanding, I'll let the pixtures 'splain it all..

The rides..

The crew, patagonia employees and friends from all over N America.

Gregor

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Gunna git me some powder!

Bobby bones in good form.

Anne with the new skis of joy.

We had to walk for 5 minutes on day 3...

Monica of Wearabouts joined us for a day, was great to have her along!

L Larry.

Walt.

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Jason

All is well that ends well!

Rogers Pass

I had the opportunity to ski at Rogers Pass with my friend Craig lately. The hazard went up the day we arrived so we blasted a few hour ascent of Bruins and enjoyed a nice whiteout run to the valley bottom before the conditions deteriorated, as we were leaving the alpine we knew we wouldn't be back that way anytime soon as the snow was coming in warm and we had to tip toe a bit to get out of there. Oh well, we will just ski powder in the tree's we thought, and we did just that..

Breaking trail up Connaught Creek, we did this every day as we were the first ones out.
At the top of Grizzly shoulder with a few hundred meters of pillows, tree lines and small cliffs below us..and of course the 60 cm of fresh snow..
Since we just parked the Rav for a couple of days, we had to dig her out of the snow at the end. She enjoyed her thermal suit while it lasted.
The one skiing shot I got all trip.
The glory and the mystery of winter is all around.
Craig on top of 8812 bowl on the one alpine day we had.

Rogers Pass: Bruins and Video Peak

With Joy in the brain I set off with some of my good friends to the hallowed halls of Rogers Pass, BC. With below average snowfall, the pass still presents about 80% more snow then we have here in the Rockies at this point- we will take it. Craig, Zach, Drew and I were looking for a couple of big days to solidify the base for the upcoming touring season, barring bad visibility we were stoked to get up high and ski off some summits and with the stability at good/good/good, we were ecstatic.

Bruins Ridge
Craig Langford- Summit of Video Peak.

Day 1 we toured up into the alpine and over Bruins Pass to shred some sweet turns down the North Bruins glacier. A couple laps here sealed the deal and we punched back over and schralped up the remaining snow in the main bruins gully and down to the Hotel. About 5500 feet total elevation gain. Burgers and enormous talk prevailed soon after.

Sweet Bruins glacier powder turns
Our last day, we toured up the familiar Connaught valley with intentions on bagging a peak, Drew had to opt out on account of blistered feet- we could tell the last thing he wanted to do was be a bench warmer and we missed him on day 2. Too bad because we schralped up some pretty sweet December powder that day...
We punched it up to the Vid and skied from the summit. We were really stoked and energy was abounding all around so we just kept on going, up over Bruins Ridge and a much needed fresh powder session down some un-tracked lines on the ridge and back into the 8812 basin. Back up we went and over to Bruins Col for a run down into Connaught and back to the hotel for some chow. About 6500 feet elevation gain.

A really great trip with a couple of decent days in the mountains with great folks. Of note the Rogers Pass Hotel is really worth going to again if you are skiing there, the food is good, the service is good and the new owners are really physched. Its good that its back on track.

Happy Holidays!

Visibility Unlimited- A snorkel-less Rogers Pass Viewpoint

People are asking us if we are sick of driving to Rogers Pass each week to go ski touring. The truth is that the more you go to Rogers pass, the shorter the drive seems and with a Coffee from Jitas cafe you are soon taking that final right turn from the long ascent from Golden where the peaks strike upwards into the early morning sky and the promise of something outstanding to do wiht skis is in the air. I am always stoked to get back....





On thursday and friday last week I joined up with Jeff MacPherson and Michelle for a great trip up the Tupper traverse and over to Lookout mountain the next day, high on the Illicilewat glacier. We really did have a great time in the warm t-shirt temperatures on Thursday as well as the beauty views both days as we could look out in all directions visibilty un hindered and excitement boiling up for the descent back down to valley bottom and of course, Timmy Hortens....

Rogers Pass Jackpot

What do you do when you arrive at Rogers Pass only to find that the roads going east and west will be closed till 4pm? Well, you've hit the Rogers Pass Jackpot and its time to ski! Thats right! Nick, Jason, Tys and I were overjoyed to discover that it was time to cash in on our jackpot and enjoy some good tidings. We started on the Hourglass, made our way over to teddy bear trees and finally the best for last, mind blowing powder runs down Grizzly shoulder to our cars and Jays Ice cold brews in the trunk. I really must thank the boys for such a great day out in the mountians as usual and Tys who is always up for a long day trip with only a Timmy Ho's to go and some Philosophy Podcasts.



Here we can see Nick trying to figure out where his snorkel went.



Here we can see a snow yeti. Copyright Nicholas Rapaich.