Zupjok Peak Coquihalla

Was it a day for exploring? Or a day to just go somewhere familiar and do laps? There were about 25 cars at Falls Lake so Steve and I chose the explore option. We continued down the road to the Needle Peak pull off, slapped on the skis, and headed west along a logging road towards Zupjok Peak.

The road loses quite a bit of elevation before beginning to climb upwards but this sad fact is more than made up for by the beautiful old growth forest it passes through. There were at least 2 to 3 metres of snow on the ground topped with several inches of nice light powder. We hoped for great things.

After a few map and GPS checks we got ourselves onto the thickly treed south ridge of Zupjok and began climbing in earnest. Our rough idea was to climb up the south ridge of Zupjok and then descend the east ridge to a col and then find our uptrack on the way down.

It started to snow heavily and as we got higher and the wind really picked up. By the time we neared the summit the snow was blowing horizontally; it stung our faces and reduced the visibility to just about zero.





Our mini traverse wasn't going to happen in these conditions. With regrets we turned around and headed back the way we had come. The snow was amazing but the trees were too tight for us to make the most of the great conditions.

At some point I broke a heel lift on one of my 7tm bindings. Freakin' tele bindings, there's always something. Half the reliability of an AT binding at twice the weight. Another step on the dark and inevitable descent to Dynafit.

Oh well. Some days you win and and some days you lose. Always nice to be out. As consolation on the drive home we saw one of these amazing double-width snow plows.

Illecillewaet and the Practise Slopes

Last weekend Brenda lead a trip for the ACC based out of the Wheeler Hut in Rogers Pass. The trip was for beginners who hadn't done much backcountry skiing before. It made for a very diverse group and some challenging group management throughout the two days of skiing. Brenda did a commendable job of making sure everyone had a safe and enjoyable couple of days, not to mention an awesome group meal on Saturday night. I think this photo sums up the evening pretty well.



About 25cm of light fluffy snow overnight made for a picturesque setting. We made forays up towards the Illecillewaet, near Lookout Col, and onto the Practise Slopes slightly down valley. It's simple terrain in terms of avalanche hazard but was a little bit intimidating for a few of the beginner skiers, especially with the so-so visibility, but I think everyone enjoyed their weekend.

Thar and Nak Peak Coquihalla

We made an exploratory trip to the Coquihalla last weekend and did some skiing between Thar and Nak Peaks in the wide basin that faces the highway. The plan was to get to the col and check out the slope on the other side with the idea of doing a traverse down to Falls Lake one day. Unfortunately the visibility got really bad some 150 meters below the col and we gave it up, not too keen on wandering around blind in the unfamiliar terrain.

There's quite an expanse of open terrain up here just above tree line. We did a couple of laps on the road side and found some nice turns. There was a hard crust down about 20 to 30cm with fresh storm snow on top which made for some effortless skiing.

Conditions along the Coquihalla have been pretty hit or miss for us over the years but this was a good day.

Later on this week we learned that Loic was up in that area on the weekend too. He mentioned that he has skied off the other side towards Falls Lake before so we'll have to go back and give that a go one day.

Lake O'Hara

A last minute hut booking, an overnight in Golden, and by 8:30am on Christmas Eve we were happily skiing along the road to the Elizabeth Parker hut in Yoho National Park. Happily, since this seemed wonderfully carefree compared with a similar trip we made at this time last year. It wasn't a thousand degrees below zero, it was daylight, we knew exactly where we were going, and it was only going to take a few hours.



Arriving by midday we chatted with a couple from Lake Louise before they departed and left us alone at the hut. Since we were expecting company (there were only a few spots available when we booked) we set up in the tiny Wiwaxy Cabin next door and went for a ski up to McArthur Pass. Returning at dusk to a still empty hut we stoked the fire, drank gallons of tea, put a serious dent in the wine, cheese, and cracker supply ("Skiing for cheesus!"), and just enjoyed a quiet Christmas Eve to ourselves.



On Christmas morning ours were still the only skis outside the hut. It was kinda weird.



A few small gifts exchanged, we skied over Mary Lake up to Opabin Plateau and Hungabee Lake. It snowed heavily for much of the day but there was surprisingly little snow on the ground in most places; it felt like Rogers Pass in early November. The potential for turns around here seems pretty limited.

Returning by Lake O'Hara I pointed out the peaks I had climbed here over the years, mainly with Ross, but also with Martin, Tim, and others. Brenda was very patient as I re-told the same stories that she has already heard a hundred times before. Like the time on Grassi Ridge when Ross lead a pitch that went way, way left from the belay. I watched him disappear from sight diligently clipping the left rope. Some time later he reappeared, directly overhead surprisingly, and much closer than expected considering all the rope he had out. Now he was forging a line way, way to the right and equally diligently clipping the right rope. By the time a shout of "on belay" came down from above and the ropes came taught I had two almost horizontal ropes leading away from my harness in opposite directions. Couldn't move an inch.

Grassi Ridge at center left behind the Elizabeth Parker hut


That evening we were joined by Yves, Katja, and Genevieve from Canmore, and Lauren and Rob from Calgary. We were glad for the company and they were such interesting people. Yves and Katja had recently finished a cycling trip from Mexico to Peru. Rob and Lauren are urban beekeepers among other things and had brought a bottle of fine mead with them. This helped ease the pain for poor Lauren who had begun the ski in rented AT boots. She was in so much pain by kilometre five that she had abandoned the boots and walked the remaining seven kilometres in her hut booties, towing a sled! We felt pretty boring compared to these guys.

An uneventful trip overall. It took us 4 hours to ski in from the road with full-on backcountry ski gear using wax rather than skins. Others on lighter cross country gear easily made the trip in 3 hours or less. Perhaps I'm too quick to judge but it doesn't really seem worth the trouble of hauling in heavy ski gear with the idea of getting some turns in this area. At the risk of stating the obvious Lake O'Hara is simply a stunning place to visit and well worth the short journey in winter.

Ursus Trees

A very snowy drive up to Rogers Pass on Friday night. It became especially interesting when the creaky old van decided that when switching from high to low beam it would just kill the headlights completely. Thank goodness we discovered this latest quirk along a relatively well lit section of the Trans Canada. Also for good measure the heater fan now only works when the head lights are turned on. Bad ignition switch? I dunno. Add it to the list.

We headed up to Ursus Trees with Gerald on Saturday morning.



It was cloudy and snowing quite hard throughout most of the day. Temperatures were just around freezing making the snow almost but not quite wet and getting pretty slabby where the wind was blowing.



Good skiing but we've spent so much in this area that we're getting a bit jaded. First world problems! We need to start venturing further afield but it's so tough this time of year when it's practically dark at 3:30. Oh well next time we're out the days will be just a few minutes longer.

Malakwa

Malakwa again on Sunday with Neal, Dan, Gerald, and John. The road was still in good shape but it's not clear if this is because it is still being plowed or simply because we haven't had much snow for a couple of weeks. The grader is still parked below 15k if that means anything.

We went up at 15k and over the top again. There was a nasty sun crust on the south side so we bailed half way down and spent the rest of the day on the road side. We explored some of the steeper lines off the ridge on skier's right of the main area. Good fun but it's starting to feel like we need more snow. No photos because...meh, same old.

Malakwa

We made another trip to Malakwa back on November 29th. Pretty late blog post and mainly just for my own records at this point.

There were only a few other vehicles at 15k and this might have had something to do with the rain crust that was lurking about 10cm below the surface, so we weren't expecting much as we reached the main summit. It was snowing hard and really windy. We had a pretty good run down the opposite (south-west) side and the crust wasn't too bad. By the time we had climbed back up it was a virtual white out. I'll admit that we got a little turned around on the top, wandering around in the howling wind trying to figure out where the heck our original uptrack was. In our defense we hadn't been up here for a few years. Anyway Nick pulled out his GPS in a manly "I'll save you!" manner and rescued us from further wanderings.





By now it had been snowing for a few hours and was beginning to pile up nicely. We had a couple of runs back on the north side before the short day caught up with us. Back at the car we finally crossed paths with Loic and Tess and friends. We've followed their blog for so long that it almost felt like we knew them even though we had never met before. Good to meet you guys!

A quick stop at the Burner for a Backhand and off for home.

This week (December 8th) we heard that the road would only be plowed to 6km beginning in December. I guess we'll find out soon enough.