Alpine Horeshoe - Gentian/Helm Ridge Traverse

Last week we had the pleasure of having a few friends stay with us in our new home in Squamish. Chris Haywood stayed over the weekend and we had the opportunity and weather to head into the high country in Garibaldi Park. No dogs, hunting or off roading allowed in this park. Luck would have it that we left our pups, six guns and Dakar-Paris bikes safe at home so we were all set for a great adventure - perfect weather forecast tucked into our back pockets!

A right had turn up Helm Creek leaves the Chekamus Lake Trail and brings you Helm Meadows and later, the volcanic smorgasbord that is Black Tusk meadows..

After Helm Campground at KM 9, we took a NE turn, off trail to gain the tow of Gentian Ridge where we gained the alpine, a place we would stay for the next two days as we walked around the ridges that connect Gentian with panorama ridge.

Its all just walking, not even 'fancy' walking. You can have your hands in your pockets the whole time, which would be hard for taking pictures. But you could do it.

The views were amazing along the way, very beautiful country and not a single person on the ridge, which is not a traditional route although signs of passage are everywhere.

Campsite at the head of the Helm Glacier with a tiny tarn for water and a cool view of the mighty glacier spilling from the Castle Towers.

Sunset we wont soon forget.

The next day we left our tarn under an approaching storm front, we quickly moved and make our way to Panorama Ridge, scrambling a few summits along the way.

Including Helm Peak..

Garibaldi Lake comes into view...

A couple of buddies, a great reunion and a stellar trip into the high country.

Thanks Chris!

Chilcotin Riding

Had an amazing time with some friends riding from Lorna Lake to Tyax lodge over two days last weekend...

Loading up the beaver. 5 bikes, dudes and packs.

Unloading at Lorna Lake.

Hike a Bike over Lorna Pass.

Martin cresting Lorna Pass.

Camping at the junction of Deer Pass Trail

A little yoga goes a long way.

Ultralight, not so comfy sleeping pad set up demonstrated by Scott.

I brought a 20L pack and carried a stove, sleeping pad, bivi sack, liner, lots of food and 3 L of water.

Cresting the 550m climb up Deer Pass.

Horseflies are not your best friend.

Sweet rewards. hours and hours of single track riding from Deer Pass to Tyax Lodge where I had the best burger Ive ever had.

A great trip with Scott, Martin, Rob and Jamie - Thanks guys!

Shudder and Tremor Glaciers

I've been wanting to check out these glaciers for a couple of years, if you consider the Spearhead remote, then these would probably be the 'remotest' in the range. If not, well its just a really cool place to check out and guess what; you get to ski some of the longest runs in the area if you so choose..

The route leaves E Col, over the N shoulder of Mt. Decker, down and across the Trorey Glacier and a quick bootpack pops you onto the Tremor, with the Shudder a short ski away as well.

On the Pattison bootpack.

Gaining the mini summit over looking the Shudder Glacier.

Dreamy turns down the Shudder

Happy powder skiers!

Post powder smile!

The Shudder keeps on going!

Back up to the 'home run" on the Tremor Glacier. We followed that out to Decker creek where a 500m climb takes you to Decker Col, 7th heaven and later, your car.

Down the Tremor

Linda

I ran an app this day to show elevation gain, etc. The calorie consumption is off because the app thought we were cross country skiing, there is no field for 'Ski Touring"

Espresso Sessions vol 1

"The soul often knows what the body needs, the trick is to convince the mind"

I saw this quote recently while on a rather laborious duration of ski touring, not a 'typical' day out, this was a 24 hour ski a thon including 8800m of elevation and required one to 'dig a little deeper' then normal. I knew it would not be type 'A' fun at the get go but given the company, the cause and a strange idiosyncratic curiosity I had to see if i could 'get through it', I was in.

The above quote met every contestant as they slogged uphil, at about the 3/4 mark of a 450 M climb. If you did the thing solo(which I was coerced into), that would mean 18 views of the quote, a team of three meant 6, 2 meant 9; you get it. The wonderful simplicity and meaning of these words have hit a chord and since then I think I have made a few decisions differently...

You see, dear reader, I am guilty of advanced FOMO (fear of missing out) when it comes to skiing and I do not like it, not one bit. Every other 'sport' I do does not involve this interesting F word at all, climbing, biking, running, dog walking, hiking...nope, just skiing. The other day, while considering a ski outing I have been wanting to do since I first heard of it and my mind was a blaze with the thought, I looked at the +21 temps and trying very very very hard to think of a reason to go it hit me like a tonne of bricks, why force something when it doesn't make sense (to you) to do it?

Instead, I enjoyed the wonderful weather, grabbed rock shoes, bikes, hung with Erin and poured espresso. Its bound to get colder again and if not, what can you do?

This may be a small step in eradicating the FOMO bug.

 "The soul often knows what the body needs, the trick is to convince the mind"

Spearhead Country

Was able to enjoy a couple of great days lately in the company of good people, touring around and skiing nice lines in the Spearhead zone. These outings were exclusive to the Whirlwind/Overlord and Fissile area.

Whirlwind Peak, Overlord Glacier.

Gaining altitude on the shoulder of Whirlwind peak.

Our goal was to ski this line just E of the overlord glacier, handrailing the right cliff and skirting right beyond that,

Enjoying some tasty N Facing preserved turns on said run.

Our goal realized!

On the way back the light changed again and again, from back-lit to direct, ambient to austere. Magic.

John looking up at Fissile.

Fissile Peak, Bananarama

On this day I met with Jim for a lap on Fissile Peak, it was very warm and the skiing could best be described as doable. Fun was had though, skiing this classic Whistler slackcountry run.

Jim on approach

Fissile bootpack.

Marginal yet fun.

Mt. Cassiope

A pleasant and civilized day out in the Duffy Lake today with Jim Sandford. Conditions were fantastic and a great time was had save for about 1 hr in the beginning on a steep icy bushwhack where I am pretty sure Jim and I both were wishing to be somewhere different and slightly more pleasant, like maybe N Korea as Denis Rodman. But seriously, this is a great tour up into some big and interesting alpine terrain. We actually did not get to the top of Cassiope itself but settled on a minor summit SSE of it; this was due to routefinding error on our part and given our time constraints (dinner partys, cocktails) we pointed them down slope and got some great skiing in on preserved NW shots. 

Jim surveying the task at hand

We stopped here for a moment and took a look at...

This. A very widespread natural cycle took place likely last weekend out on the Duffy. Hard to say if it was preserved surface hoar pockets or solar crusts but things had popped out on almost every S, SE aspect up to size 3 with crowns anywhere from 40 to100 (est) cm, maybe more. One slide, appearing to have been initiated by warming rocks propagated close to a km.

Upper glacier.

Jim topping out on our highpoint.

The pine'

Reps go skiing!

On the way down we got to negotiate a war zone of wet slide trenches, fridge sized debris and more - luckily, we had grown to enjoy suffering early on in the day with the 5th class bushwhacking and the jokes kept flowing all the way to the car.

Cheers!

Ross