Black Prince to Sawmill Ski Traverse

Another good day out today enjoying the solidifying conditions in the Rockies. Next week I am off to "Lost Wages" for some climbing so it was a fitting last day of skiing for a while. Aaron had the idea to traverse across some excellent country in Kananaskis starting at Black Prince and Ending at Sawmill. Approx 9km with about 1200m total elevation. Along the way we skied excellent NE facing shots and skinned up in the wonderful spring like temperatures. A great and highly recommended outing if the conditions allow.



Zach and Amitai on the approach above Black Prince. I've never skied the Prince and it was great to finally check it out. This place gets hammered by skiers probably every day of the winter.
Ascending towards an unnamed col leading up and into the "James Walker Creek" basin. Critical decision making time.
Excellent run down with 20cm of powder atop a hard crust.

Aaron contemplating the surroundings.

Big thanks to Zach, Amitai, Aaron and Megan for a great day. Nothing beats just looking at a map, figuring out a line and going skiing.

Whats In Your Bag?- Ski Touring

After a great trip with Marc yesterday to Mt. Nibloc, the coffee is flowing this morning and the gear is drying on the floor beside me. For some reason I want to tell you what goes into the pack for an average tour in the backcountry without glacier travel:

1) Pack: Deuter Guidelite 32- One of the best packs I have ever used because it can haul loads and is super light.

2) Big Jacket: Patagonia Das Parka- The best

3) 3 Pair Gloves: Light, medium, Damn Cold!

4) Goggles: I prefer one with a low light lens

5) Skins: G3 Alpinist- Still gathering an opinion on these..

6) Insulated Water bottle carrier: Keeps tea warm all day, is much lighter than a thermos

7) Sunglasses, headlamp, TP, Sunscreen, lighter, thermometer

8) Emergency Bivi Bag, First Aid Kit

9) Snow/Wood Saw: Allows not only snow work but emergency fire building

10) Probe: I like one that you can clip to your harness to drag behind on a glacier

11) Shovel: G3- I love this shovel

12) Beacon: D3- Its good at most things

13) Licorice: Never leave without it

Mt. Nibloc

Today with Marc- Andre a classic ski trip was had. Mt. Nibloc is a true Rockies ski classic. 1100m of ascent to a wonderful high col and a quick scramble to an easy summit where the great divide opens before you. Pointing the skis downhill sometimes means an outstanding descent almost right to the car door, today was like that. All photos taken with my new Canon G11.

Approach.
Alpine glory.
Mussels?
Wonderful alpine turns
Black and White in the alpine halls.

A great day with M.A.

Waptacise- Mini Wapta in a day

After a good 10 days or so of focused work, travelling to the mighty city of Abbotsford for a regional trade show and Patagonia line viewings, I was really itching to get outside for an aerobic day in the mountains. Mike Trehearne has been in New Zealand for the past couple of months doing some guiding work and seeing how he is enrolled in the ski guide training program, he was quite keen for a similar "huck a lung" adventure. Well I must say that this is not the FULL wapta traverse but only the "mini" as advertised in Chic's book, Peyto glacier to Bow Lake and out, a fairly straightforward trip when compared to the full wapta traverse- more than double this length. I could share tales of the "bow summit" approach to the peyto glacier whuch shaves an hour off the traditional approach, canyon side hill gouging, dusk hitchhiking and mid winter accosting by warm hut and coffee but instead I will leave you with a few photos of the day, enjoy.

ACMG and Patagonia
Rip em and grip em.
What its all about.
Hut art, I forgot this was up here but it needs to be preserved.
North Wapta glory.

At one point during the day we stopped at a small rise on the otherwise flat icefield and started talking about something, (worlds worst chuckwagon crashes or best family guy quotes-Cant remember) after a few minutes I stopped and said, "dude, there is NO wind right now". Alone as we were up there that day, with the low sun outlining the peaks with crisp backlighting- there was also no wind. Something that is not common in these high places and something to stop talking about family guy for and let slowly digest.

Thanks Mike!

Off the Grid

Another great day in the local backcountry ski-touring with my friend Craig. Craig is a local skier from way back and its always great to hear the many stories of big traverses, epic lines and blue bird days that he has up in his noggan. We enjoyed a truly great morning ourselves as we fired up a great ridge and dropped into a run that brings grimaces to all involved. All before a stellar coffee and an afternoon in the office.

Craig and Chief, savouring the wonder.
Craig pushing the snow to the left.
Wonderful up-track.

Burns on the approach. There is always somewhere to go in these Rockies of ours.

Emerald Peak Slidepath

Well today Zach, Amitae and I ventured up into one of my favourite spots in the Rockies, Emerald Peak for some deep deep powder skiing. We were fortunate enough to hear about the amazing conditions from my friend Martin "The Real Beal" Beal and so it was this in mind that we awoke at an early hour and sped up towards the alpine for our little chance at glory.


I must say that after re-breaking trail over the previous days up-track and noticing that we were in fact breaking trail in 30 cm of new storm snow over the last 40 cm that fell the day before it was rather tempting to just point em down and ski all the way down with large grimaces. We eventually went up to a rock face near the top of a side gully and got ready to enjoy a snow sandwich. The first turns where all-time as the snow piled up against our stomachs and flew over our shoulders until we landed at our up track, indeed with grimace intact. After 3 good laps, the crews of skiers started to show up en masse and it was time to head to The Trailhead cafe in Lake Louise for a bean and donair fix.

Thanks guys for a stellar stellar day.

Thanks to Martin for the inside scoop!

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.

Haunted By Ice

So today was a great day indeed in that great ice climbing mecca the ghost river valley, Alberta. Drew and I got the early start and drove in via the very new and improved "I can take my Vespa in" road, excited at the prospect of swinging the old hatchets around. The day dawned great for said climbing and soon enough we were ascending the frozen scapes.

Drew on top of "Anorexia Nervosa", a bad name for a good climb.
At this point, after doing the last pitch and belaying in the glorious sunshine, the wind picked up and flew me vertically for a few seconds, it was not enjoyable for either mind or body.
The route, a good one indeed.
Drew getting the final sticks, thanks buddy for a great day. Looking forward to some climbing and skiing after my next trip to the coast leaving Sunday.

Oh wow..Its deja Vu

Well today was a great day in the local backcountry visiting the winter simulator. Neil, Jeff and I were thankful for the winter tires as we broke trail in the 40cm on the highway with the Korean car, KIA. As we left Canmore, rains fell down and sprinkled our ambitions and made us think about our future. We thought we would "take a drive to check it out" and at the very worst have tea in a parking lot somewhere. Well the drive paid off and we enjoyed excellent early season powder conditions that were reminiscent of the, dare I say it 06/07 year. This is the year that climbers became skiers, people quit there jobs and the rockies turned into a mini version of the Selkirks where things were skied and mentioned after that they may never be skied again......Its on...sorta...maybe...hopefully!

Here we see Neil entering the white room for a little R and R.
Here we see Jeff and Neil digging in the snow trying to find reactive layers. Besides the storm snow instabilities we found the October rain crust at the very bottom. Note that there is over 100cm here and it is Nov 17! I will look more into this very interesting situation later this week.

Alpine Sliding in Real Time

So on Sunday I saddled up with Marc-Andre and Chris for a day of early season ski exploring. What a good thing to feel the stick of the skins on the snow and the familiar movement of the up-track again. Winter is my favorite season and It is upon us. We enjoyed some pretty decent snow conditions on a south aspect which was missing the Oct crust that is reeking havoc on north facing terrain. The biggest threat today was a hitting rocks which we avoided at all costs by tapping into the chi of the mountain. Chi is not like chai which is a pleasant spiced drink but is the energy of the universe emitted by all things....

Marc is an excellent skier in this photo, moments before he went "down periscope" and had a very good look at the early season snowpack.
A nice lunch break in the sun. There is almost nothing better than being in the hills with friends? Chris is in fact playing the air-ski here.
Once again, Marc enjoying the early season conditions in the Rockies. After putting in a few runs on this slope we ventured back to the car as the temperatures hiked and the hazard went up. Its nice to ski south facing areas so early in the winter without fearing for your life and ski bases. I must say at this point that it is Nov 16th and I feel like we got away with robbery!