Yosemite Bound

So close, Yosemte is a real Mecca and it is a dreamy place to climb
Our first route in the valley, the classic Sunny Side Jam Crack

Had a great couple of weeks in California with my good friend Mike Pollard. We had one day at Cirty of Rocks, 4 at Lovers Leap, 1 in the high sierra and 5 in Yosemite. A really great and memorable trip. We also brought along our friend Hibachi who helped us grill everything everything from steaks to vegis...I will add more photos soon...



The Matthes Crest traverse
Where is the coin slot for this ride??? Midway on the traverse,

very very fun.

Mike at Lovers Leap, CA. A 4 day stop-over at one of the best climbing areas I have ever seen, sooo nice. Racking up for a route called "pop bottle".
Climbing on Corrugation Corner.
Lovers Leap
Lovers Leap
Bishop, CA. Home of the best bakery this side of the Netherands and quite possibly the best place to live if you enjoy climbing.

The Sporting Life

                                           Jay and the Lamb

So the last week or so anything outside has been put on hold. We have been hanging out with our friends, BBQ'n and basically living out our dreams. On Friday it finished snowing and we were left with 60 cm outside our place. A few days later while bouldering at the climbing gym Michelle fell from about 8 feet up and sprained both her ankles, in fact she dislocated her right one and a loud "pop" was sent through the gym. Zoiks!-She is doing well catching up on her reading and movie watching. 

White Pyramid

White Pyramid sits among Mt.Chephren and Howse Peak in what is probably on of the greatest places I have been to in the rockies. On skis it has always been one of the most attractive peaks to try in my mind and it was great times to saddle up with the posse and head up the Parkway on Friday to try our luck.



Up towards the start of the ascent
High on the flanks of White Pyramid, solid snow and cool ambient temperatures made our minds relax.
Towards the top it opens up to amzing views of Columbia, the Freshfields and so many more- We could spend a lot of time pointing them out. Truly stellar.
Oh yeah. The descent was amzing. A hairy section on the ridge turned us around just shy of the summit and we anticipated gnarly conditions to bring us down to the car. Nope, just some of the best spring skiing imaginable. Hero snow from 10-30 cm deep all the way to the flats Outstanding. 1500M down.
Cold beers awaited in the car after an amzing day. Thanks to Sean, Ryan and Mike for a really great time.

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.

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!

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!

Masseys Waterfall

It was great to pick up the phone the other day and hear my good friend Jonsonite say that he is coming down for a bit of ice climbing. Well, thats exactly what we did. After skiing so much this year it was nice to do some classic tool swingin'. A super day out ending at the truffle pigs in Field home of the 14 inch strudle and Kicking Horse Espresso roast...mmmm

Alpine Magic

Its a great thing when you can head into the alpine with your friends and have a good day at it.


We blasted up the parkway today and arrived at the Athabasca climbers parking lot just before first light. We made our way up to the route "Shooting Gallery" in short order from the car, Drew leading us out across the glacier. A nice 200m snow cone leads you up to the interesting looking stuff, higher up in the chute towards the NE ridge of Mt. Andromeda. I set off from about halfway and just had a strange feeling about the snow in the chute, 10cm windcrust atop 20cm of low density forms. Hand sheers revealed almost no results but being up there with the snowpack bonging and breaking off in crusts under my feet was enough to turn me back to the belay and the promise of a return. Hard call for us as the climbing above the cone looked fun and asthetic to the eye and mind. We made our way down to the car doing the odd bumslide here and a posthole there where good times where had soloing around on Tangle Hill with Drew while Mike lounged in the parking lot enjoying our antics. Big thanks to the boys for another great day.

Waptacise

So on Saturday we were all excited to try the Wapta from Bow hut to Sherbrooke lake in a day. We got up to the Hut in under 2 hours and continued to the Olive/St.Nick col where we could see all the joys you could expect from being inside a golf ball. Yup, total whiteout. We walked to the top of Mt. Olive and then skied all the way back to the car for a 26km round trip. Well, another good one out there with the fellas.

Moose Mountain Climbing!

On Friday the posse assembled at the Bagel Company for a pilgrimage up to the hallows of Moose Mountain. Last week, the local french connection checked it out to discover good climbing amidst loose rock. Hearing that last part about the rock got us all fired up and in no time at all we were chasing each other up the steep trail to the cliffs where we lounged in T Shirts all day, took photos, ate and of course, pulled down on some unsuspecting classic rock routes. Thanks to Joel, Jeff, Chad and Blake for a great day!

The Happenings Random

Well the last couple of weeks have been really good. We had 2 good days in Rogers Pass with our good friend J mac. Then we teamed up with Heather, Jeff,Tobi and Chris for a great day skiing up to rockbound lake on Saturday for a good time out with friends and of course, Merlin the dog. Jason, Mike, MA and I let loose on the Pass once again this past few days to find kinda scary snow conditions and minimal visibility.....Its ok though because we found large objects to fling our bodys off of landing in perfect powder every time-Still good I must say!

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.

Musings a la MA

Some things/thoughts from the last few days in a MA style...

-Marinade can take many forms. Dont stress, meat can sit in anything and taste great.

-Health is a blessing, dont take it for granted.

-When there is one day to ski-It might be time to go west, even if it takes 11 hours in the car.

-House plants need to be moved around sometimes, they get tired of neighbors, just like humanoids.

-I dont need the new pack or jacket, old friends are like wine.