Trip Reports from the Okanagan

Zupjok Peak Coquihalla

2012-01-25T18:44:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-18T17:00:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-31T17:53:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-21T22:28:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-14T11:10:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-29T16:41:00.000-08:00

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.

Malakwa

2011-11-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

We were very happy to be invited for a day of early-season skiing at Malakwa with Gerald, Neal, Neil, and Dan. The place was hopping, and it was exciting to run into a number of friends over the course of the day. There's something about running into people you know randomly, and especially in the mountains, that makes us feel generally good about life.

The skiing was still a bit early season, with some rocks and stumps showing through. Although our party did not suffer any damage to bodies or skis, there was much evidence of core shots and edge grinds in the tracks and exposed rocks.

Malakwa is a funny place - sometimes, when you least expect it, you find skiing nirvana. This time we angled for where we thought the lines were, but on balance came out a little short of the best the area has to offer. Still a super day though, with plenty of good turns.

We followed up with some food and beer at the Burner, which has seriously upped its game since we first went there maybe five years ago. Good food, good service - and still great beer.

Asulkan Cabin

2011-11-18T18:37:00.001-08:00

Just another November weekend at the Asulkan Hut...

It's important to keep these traditions alive! No comparison to last year when we carried our skis for much of the journey in. This year we were up to our necks in snow at times...well, the tele skiers were anyway. Great snow, but all of it sitting on top of the buried surface hoar from last weekend. We had three significant skier remotes and also watched the Raven's avalanche path run almost full length.

Nevertheless we had a safe weekend, caught up with Dustin, hung out with yoga John and yoga Jeff, and shared the hut with a great bunch of guys from Vancouver.

Still no Brenda. I told her she didn't miss much. I don't think she reads this blog.

Balu Pass

2011-11-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

While Brenda was at a "conference" on a cruise ship in the Caribbean the rest of us had our very first turns of the season. It was a quick trip up to Balu Pass with a detour up into the lower reaches of 8812 Bowl. There was great coverage and people were skiing everywhere. 8812 was completely tracked out. We must have seen a dozen people come down off the north side of Cheops including a dog. Clanged a few rocks on the luge run out but overall a great start to the season. The one caveat being the surface hoar that developed over the weekend. When that layer gets buried I think we'll be hearing about in the avalanche forecasts for weeks.

Shuswap River

2011-10-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we paddled another section of the Shuswap River. This time we started just below Mabel Lake at a convenient put-in called Brants Hand Launch. From here it was about 25km of paddling down to Trinity Bridge.

The first order of business was to remove all man-eating spiders from Steve's canoe.

Swaddled up in many layers against the cold damp morning, a few strokes got us away from the shore and very quickly we were heading downstream at a ferocious clip.

Perhaps a little too ferocious for my amateur paddling skills as we very nearly dumped crossing an eddy line trying to avoid a mid-stream boulder. The bow of the canoe was quickly swept upstream in the reverse flow of water. Our $200 garage sale craft heaved heavily onto her down stream side and perched there for a few sickening seconds before settling down with us pointed back in the direction we'd just come from. Anyway it gave us a good vantage point to watch Steve, Fred, and Junko slide smoothly past with a few feet to spare.

We had thought that the salmon run was pretty much over but in fact the river was heaving with fish. There were enormous Chinook salmon everywhere, thousands of bright red Sockeye, and also what we guessed to be Kokanee. At times the water would explode with fish, scaring us half to death. We saw dozens of Bald Eagles, occasionally seeing one swoop down to snatch a salmon from the river, and also what we think were several Golden Eagles as well. The Goldens were huge.

Around the mid-point of our journey the river widened, slowed, and began to meander back and forth. We paddled lazily along in the warm fall sun.

It took us about 6 hours to reach Trinity Bridge including a leisurely lunch break. We hand lined the boats around one tricky section but otherwise it was easy paddling. Portions of the river are certainly flowing quickly but it's straight forward and very accessible for the weekend warrior who is comfortable with short sections of almost white water. The lower section of the river from Trinity to Enderby is much calmer.

Matriarch-Macabre-Grimface Traverse

2011-09-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -Albert Einstein

For the third year in succession we were hiking up Wall Creek in Cathedral Park on the Saturday of Labour Day weekend. Our previous two trips had ended in cold, wet, ignominious defeat. Our cunning plan this time: there couldn't be an unforecasted blizzard on the same day for three years in a row. Actually that was our plan last year too...."Couldn't possibly happen twice in a row."

Anyway, late in the day, with the heavy packs beginning to weigh us down, we sure hoped for third time lucky. It was a nice hike with the late after afternoon sun angling sharply through the trees and the many wild flowers standing out brightly against the forest floor.

This time it took us 4 1/2 hours to arrive at the bivy site, a stunning location at the head of the valley.

As in previous years we were visited by some curious deer at dusk. They circled round our campsite closer and closer until within just a few metres of the tent. After we'd gone to bed we could still hear them padding around out there. Their steps sounded oddly human. It was bit spooky to be drifting off to sleep only to be jolted awake at the sound of footsteps just a few feet from our heads.

We got away early the next morning (no snow...yay!) and continued for a short while along the hiking trail before heading more or less straight up towards the gully and notch where the climbing begins. The scree is pretty crappy in the gully. Staying along the edges near solid rock offers the path of least resistance. This rather unimpressive photo gives a rough idea of where the notch is located.

It took us 1.5 hours to get to the notch where the climbing begins. From here "the route features perfect rock, high exposure, incredible views, and a variety of techniques including several rappels" to quote the good book and that pretty much sums it up. The first pitch is probably the best of the entire day; easy 5th class with a piece of gear or two above a tremendous drop down the other side of the ridge.

From then on we switched between scrambling, walking, short pitches of real rock climbing, a 5.8 variation, the odd piece of gear, rappelling into notches, climbing back out of notches...

The challenge was to be efficient with the rope without knowing what was coming up next. Ultimately the best solution was for each of us to take up coils with several meters between us. Then the rope was out of the way for most of the scrambling and we could drop the coils for short pitches or rapping when needed. The best part of the day was definitely the aid ladder which we'd read about. We were unsure if it still existed. Simply awesome.

Matriarch and Macabre passed by (not without snacks of course) and we were looking at Grimface shortly after midday.

Scraping our way under and over the big chockstones provided endless amusement as we scrambled up through the chimneys of the SE notch route. This first photo of Brenda shows most of the route in the background.

After what I'll call the "lower" chimneys we arrived at a gravelly notch just below the summit dome of Grimface. The rough directions we'd gathered online mentioned another chimney leading to the summit. We'd had enough by then, so instead we went to the right and followed an easy crack and corner system for 20 metres or so before cutting back left. We were on top at 2:00, 7 hours after leaving the tent, a bit longer than expected.

We didn't have a really good idea about the descent and made the mistake of relying on some directions we found online rather than following our own instincts. We followed a line of cairns that lead us towards the wrong gully. We sussed it out eventually. For anyone looking for descent info...just continue north along the ridge, bit of walking, bit of down climbing, until you come to the obvious (and I mean really obvious) wide scree gully about 30 minutes (?) from the top of Grimface. From the top of the correct scree gully you can see that it continues all the way down to the valley floor; you can practically see your tent. If you are looking down a gully that doesn't obviously descend unbroken to the valley floor, it's the wrong one.

Notes:
Drive to km 38 on the Ashnola River Road and begin hiking at a large wooden bridge. After approximately 1.5 hours keep right at a fork in the trail. ~800m elevation gain ~12km, 4.5 to 5 hours of hiking.

Gear:
We debated long and hard about what rope or ropes to use. In the end we used a single 50 metre 9mm. The longest rap was pretty close to 25m. We only did one real pitch of climbing which was the first pitch of the day (plus the 10m 5.8 variation, the alternative being an easy chimney). The rest of the time we were short roping or carrying coils and slinging blocks for short belays. We had considered using two 30m ropes (keeping one in the pack and only braking it out for the long raps). In retrospect I think this would have been a pain the butt. We had a light alpine rack but never placed more than 2 pieces of gear on any pitch. We used a medium 1.5-2" cam (on the 5.8 bit), a medium hex, and a #6 or #7 nut. We wore comfy rock shoes. Crossover climbing/approach shoes would have been a good alternative.

Times:
7:00am depart tent, 8:30 col, 10:08 Matriarch, 11:22 Macabre, 2:10 Grimface, 3:53 Tent

Other trip reports online here and here.

More photos over here on Picasa.

Markhor - Needle Traverse Part Deux

2011-08-28T17:41:00.000-07:00

We tried this traverse two weeks ago with limited success. Okay fine no success. But once we'd finished picking the thorns out of our hands and figured out where we went wrong it was time to have another go. I'm going to write this one up as a true trip report.

Park at the Needle Peak trailhead on the south side of the highway. There is an underpass here and it's accessible from both the east and west bound lanes. Walk east along a gravel track adjacent to a small stream for a few hundred meters. At the height of land (there were two yellow pole-like markers when we were here) turn to your right (south) and hike uphill first through thick brush and then through mature forest. After about 30 minutes you will hopefully arrive at the base of a large open slab capped by a series of overlaps on the upper right. Don't confuse the slabs like we did on our first attempt.

Walk easily on the slab angling up and left.

When the going gets tough at the top of the slab it's time to take a few calming breaths, batten down the hatches, and plunge into the undergrowth on your left (east).

Don't bother trying to gain elevation at this point, it's just too much work. Traverse for a few hundred metres until you come across some slightly less thick brush that will allow you to head straight up with less effort. We found that the little streams afforded slightly better upwards travel. It's heavy going but you should emerge into a lovely meadow and talus field a couple of hours after leaving the car and just in time for second breakfasts.

With your back to the highway you will be looking up at a large cirque. On your left (east) there is ramp of brush and small trees that leads up and out of the talus. Head towards the ramp skipping joyously from block to block in a happy unencumbered brush-free manner. From the top of the ramp follow a series of slanting brushy ledges leading up and right (south-west) until you reach the ridge. Ta-da! Three hours from the car. It's a pleasant walk from here to the top of Markhor.

There are a few options for the descent down the SE ridge of Markhor. Staying right on the ridge crest is the most aesthetically pleasing but verges on low 5th class rock climbing. Staying more to skiers left, following the path of least resistance, is quick and easy but a bit scruffy.

After descending from Markhor you arrive at an obvious saddle on the ridge line. It is possible to bail here to the north side of the ridge; it's not pretty, tremendous bushwacking, but it goes. Stay to skiers left to avoid the steeper bits. Otherwise you're not far from the the top of Needle.

Continue along the ridge. After the next high point there is a 15m descent down a sharp ridge to a gravelly notch (crux #1). Easy low 5th class down climbing. Easy yes but don't fall off. Seriously. A member of our party who hadn't done much rock climbing was a lot happier with a rope above him.

Looking back at crux #1.

Scramble carefully up out of the notch and walk across to the last bump on the ridge before the final ridge walk up Needle. This last bump is imposing and the route doesn't seem obvious at first. We scrambled up on gravel covered ledges to the base of an obvious dead tree. A sketchy move around to the left side of the tree seemed the best option. Ahead is the obvious ridge leading to the top of Needle.

Easy, obvious scrambling except for one 15m stretch about half way up (crux #2). Here you are forced onto the left (south) side of the ridge to scramble up a 15m long slanting crumbly ledge. Again, not difficult, but falling would be bad. We used the rope again for this short section to keep the stress levels down, using a tree above for a quick anchor.

The summit of needle is just ahead. Continue over the summit to find the hiking trail that leads back down to the road.

We took 8 hours car-to-car.

Mount Rogers

2011-08-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

We lead an ACC trip to Mount Rogers in mid August. We had climbed Rogers just a few weeks previously as part of the Swiss Peaks Traverse so were pretty confident that the route was in good shape and didn't hold any surprises in store for us. We were at Hermit Meadows by late afternoon and spent a relaxing evening chatting with friends old and new.

The next morning dawned clear and cold. We were away by 6am and soon the moraines were below us. Out came the ropes and the crampons for the pleasant walk across the glacier.

Once across the bergschrund we removed the ropes and began kicking steps upwards.

The sun was slowly creeping higher into the sky and by the time we reached the Rogers-Grant col by 9:30 or so we were all sweating buckets. One change from 2-weeks ago was a good amount of fresh snow; perhaps 20-30cm of wind deposited snow quickly getting moist in the morning sun. There was some significant trail breaking up the snowy ridge from the col.

There were a couple of relative beginners in the group and I think this was the most memorable part of the day for them. Certainly was for me anyway. What a setting! We were all smiles on the summit.

Leading trips for the ACC can sometimes seem a chore, but this was a fun, and dare I say, even a rewarding trip with really interesting people. If anyone from that day happens to read this...thanks!

Full photo set here on Picasa.

Markhor-Needle Traverse

2011-08-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

I suppose the title of this post is a bit misleading. A traverse of Markor-Needle at the Coquihalla Summit is what we had intended to do. What we actually did was...well, something else. The blue line is our actual GPS track from the day. The red line shows where we should have gone. It all seems so clear in retrospect...

Our day was divided into three more-or-less equal parts. The first part consisted of thrashing around in the undergrowth for many hours and climbing up a diabolical vegetated ridge. (And looking at the map a lot.)

The middle part was a scramble along a high alpine ridge.

Finally, for the third part, worried about the time, we decided to bail off the ridge into no man's land and thrash back down to the valley floor through some of the nastiest, steepest, thickest greenery I've ever encountered. Alder from hell, devils club, brambles, creeks, cliffs, you name it.

At one point Brenda missed a step and turned turtle in a giant patch of devils club. We figured she was done for and just left her there. She was okay though and eventually found her way home a few days later.

Edit (6 September 2011): We went back a couple of weeks later.

Swiss Peaks Traverse

2011-08-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

Returning mid-week from our eastern holiday we made a quick turn-around to meet Ross and Brian in Rogers Pass. There was an early birthday celebration for me on Friday night. Over a few celebratory beers Ross filled us in on his recent adventures in Ecuador, and Brian regaled us with tales of his new (alas temporary) life as a climbing bum. After a long and leisurely breakfast on Saturday morning, and the steep hike up to Hermit Meadows, we were soon relaxing in the sun and contemplating our goal for the next day, a traverse of Mount Rogers and the Swiss Peaks.

Just after sunrise we were ambling across the glacier with crampons crunch-crunching in the hard snow. It was a glorious blue sky day and by the time we reached the steep headwall the snow had softened just enough for easy kick steps up to the Rogers-Grant Col.

From the col we followed some old tracks up a snowy rib.

And soon stood on our first summit of the day four hours after leaving the tents. Just about guidebook time! Unprecedented :)

Back to the col for a snack, we briefly skirted around to the north side and then up to a snowy notch on the ridge. Here we ditched the crampons, stepped from snow onto rock, and began the rock climbing portion of the day.

Up and down we went. The summits of Grant, Fleming, and Swiss all passed by in a blend of sunshine, rock, and magnificent exposure on all sides.

We had the rope out at this one small corniced section between Fleming and Swiss where you can see our tracks.

We also used the rope for a quick rap at a rubbly-snowy-icy section just below the top of Swiss Peak as we descended towards the gendarmes on Truda. It was here after the rappel that we had our only "yeesh" moment of the day. It wasn't entirely clear where we should be heading; staying on the crest of the ridge would mean tackling the most difficult rock climbing we'd seen all day, but dropping down a steep gully on the south side didn't seem like much fun either. Time was slipping by and of course the only clouds of the day chose this moment to obscure the sun and make the whole scene seem more serious that it needed to be. Eventually Ross lead the way down the gully.

We descended a short distance and then picked our way around on snowy ledges until able to work back to the ridge and eventually to the Swiss-Truda col. Not too bad in the end. I suspect these ledges would be snow free most years.

We had a half-hearted debate about whether to continue up Truda for our fifth summit of the day, but I don't think any of us really wanted to try it. Happy enough to save Truda for another day we faced in and started the long process of kicking steps down the Swiss-Truda couloir back to the glacier.

A stellar day in the mountains.

More of my photos on Picasa. Ross' photos on Picasa.

Bon Echo

2011-08-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

During a family visit to southern Ontario we managed to squeeze in a side trip to Bon Echo Provincial Park for some climbing. I did some of my first climbing here in the early 90's and have returned time and again to scare myself senseless at this remarkable crag for almost two decades.

The cliffs rise over 100 meters directly from Mazinaw Lake. Most of the climbs are only accessible by boat. The Toronto Section of the ACC maintains a boat and property here with a small hut and magnificent waterfront sauna.

There's something intangible about Bon Echo that makes the climbing here especially spooky. Everyone feels it. The routes are long and wandering and loose in places; gear is often really sketchy; the water below adds a certain surreal quality; and the grades are "old school" to put it mildly. Yet combined with the swimming between climbs and good friends and hot lakeside saunas in the evening it all adds up to make one of the most enjoyable and memorable climbing experiences I can imagine.

Front of the Pinnacle

Vertigenous

Boris's Route

We miss this place! Can't wait to go back again. Anyone want to plan some kind of get together for 2012? There are some more photos here.

Abbot-Afton Traverse

2011-08-04T16:57:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Brenda organized an ACC outing to Mounts Abbott and Afton. There was plenty of interest in the trip and it was a group of eleven that started from the Illecillewaet campground. Included in the group was our good friend Brian from Montreal who is applying himself diligently towards being a climbing bum this summer.

There was still lots of snow on the trail beginning near Marion Lake but Abbott ridge itself was perfectly dry.

Abbott Ridge

Mount Abbott must have one of the best effort to reward ratios of any hike in the area. The view in every direction is spectacular on a warm sunny day.

Nick with Afton in the background

At the top of Abbott the group split up with some of us heading to Afton and the rest retracing their steps. Afton is a fine little scramble and was a good choice for the wide range of experience levels in the group.

Climbing up from the Abbott-Afton col

Brett on the top of Afton

To complete the traverse we descended by the north ridge and then cut across the bowl to rejoin the Abbott ridge, taking time to refill water bottles and skip stones on the way.

The evening was spent at the campground drinking cold beer and Macallan. There was some idle talk about trying something more ambitious the next morning but in the end thoughts of a sleep in and a lazy breakfast won the day. I'm never going to get into shape this summer...

Avalanche Crest

2011-07-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

"I don't see the point really" said Nick, gazing upwards into the swirling mist.

It was a convincing argument. And a difficult one to counter. How to respond? Waxing lyrical about the great views was no help since we couldn't see a darn thing. Playing the 'it's good to simply be outside today' card would never work either; it was cold, wet, and miserable. I was just debating the merits of using the old 'good for training' ploy when Nick provided reason enough on his own.

"Ah well. I supposed I've got nothing better to do today," and put his head back down to resume plodding upwards along the ridge.

The hoped for weather window didn't materialize on Saturday morning and any hopes of traversing Mount Avalanche were quickly dashed. Instead we hiked up the Avalanche Crest trail and then along the ridge. Calls for a hot soup at the Nomad finally halted our progress at around 2400 meters. There was knee deep snow in places and more coming down by the time we turned around.

At least the snow made the descent somewhat easier on the knees and very quickly we were into the lush forest on the lower part of the trail.

We checked out the log bridge crossing to the Herdman Couloir for another day. I wonder how steep that final snow slope is up to the ridge?

Mount English

2011-06-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Mount English in mid June is typically a hike and scramble with a bit of snow. This year we brought the skis expecting to ski from the car.

We guessed correctly for once. This is the normal camping spot about 200m up the road from where we parked the cars.

I can't exactly say that we were rewarded for our efforts with fantastic spring turns. The mist was right down and it rained consistently throughout the day, and climbing up through the trees was a little grim.

We booted up to the col and called it a day.

And ski we did.

And now, officially, absolutely, we are done skiing for this season. Unless there's still a bit of snow below Hermit Meadows over Canada Day...

Dome Glacier and Wheeler Hut

2011-04-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

John and Jeff are two fellow inmates of the yoga class I attend. Oh how we suffer! They're also backcountry skiers and we joined them this weekend at the Wheeler Hut for some some end of season skiing. Not that we could actually keep up with these guys or anything since they could probably give Greg Hill a run for his money. So perhaps "followed their up track" is more accurate than "we went skiing together".

Steve and Nick joined us on Saturday morning and we headed up to the Dome Glacier. The weather was in-and-out for much of the day making for some great photos as we climbed up along The Cleaver with Sir Donald as a dramatic backdrop.

When we reached the Dome Col the sun came out for good giving us great views all around.

Nick at Dome Col. Sapphire Col in the distance.

Dome from Rampart

Andrew on the Rampart

Mt Fox seen through Asulkan Pass

We found light wintry snow all the way down from the Dome Col, behind the Cleaver, and out onto the Dome Glacier. Below that it was every man for himself in sloppy, nearly isothermal snow.

Brenda with Youngs Peak in the distance

With me starting a new job our plans to head to the Columbia Icefields this month have fallen through. So unless I can convince everyone to go to the Glacier Circle Hut (nudge-nudge wink-wink) that may be the end of the season. There's still plenty of snow, but it's the motivation that is beginning to wane...

Three Pass Traverse

2011-04-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

We skied the Three Pass Traverse over two days during the Easter weekend. It was a wonderful trip through some spectacular alpine terrain under warm spring conditions and blue skies.

Here's the full photo set.

The route begins in the familiar Connaught drainage behind the hotel in Rogers Pass. On the first day we climbed up to Balu Pass, descended into the Cougar Valley, and re-ascended to Catamount Pass. From here we made a short side trip to climb Mt. Catamount before dropping 1300m down to Ursus Creek to spend the night. After a 1900m day with overnight packs we were happy to call it a day. We had a pleasant evening re-hydrating with tea and Scotch.

#1 Balu Pass

Next objective Catamount Pass as seen from Balu Pass

Brenda just below Catamount Pass

#2 Catamount Pass

Nearing Catamount summit

Not quite the true summit but good enough

Nick skiing off Catamount

Campsite

We packed up the next morning and hit the trail just as the sun starting peaking into the valley. It was a gentle climb up Ursus Creek and soon we came out of the trees and had our first views of Bagheera and McGill; huge peaks that tower over the narrow valley.

McGill

Bagheera

First view of McGill Pass

Approaching McGill Pass

Nick just below McGill Pass

#3 McGill Pass

The slope from McGill Pass down to Bostock faces just about due south and it had been cooking in the hot sun all day. The heavy wet snow was diabolical. We thrashed around a bit after skiing below the usual exit route but eventually got our bearings after booting back up to the summer hiking trail.

A wry smile from Brenda

It was a super trip and well worth the effort. Bugs to Rogers next year?

Bonney Glacier

2011-04-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

We had only gone up Loop Brook on days with poor visibility, the treeline skiing being one of the better options when things are clagged in at Rogers Pass. On my last visit I resolved to come back on a sunny day to do a bit of exploring. Inspired by recent photos from fellow Kelowna blogger Loïc we ventured up there on a glorious day over the weekend before Easter. With the warm temperatures we were looking for that mythical high, north, and sheltered terrain that would still be holding cold snow.

Climbing up above the moraines we then made a high traverse across the glacier towards the Bonney-Green col. Following an old skin track for a while we noticed that a mouse had also been using the track; the prints looked so sharp in the fine snow, we joked that the mouse must be running along just ahead of us. This went on for a few hundred meters until we came across the very mouse itself. Well, ex-mouse anyway. Poor thing looked like he'd just keeled over a few minutes ago. Still warm (yes I checked).

As we climbed higher the snow started to dry out. We hadn't figured out exactly how we were going to ski back down, so just as the sun began to disappear behind some high clouds we sneaked through a rock band at around 2400m and started to look for an exit. A rocky rib looked to offer the shaded run that we were after.

Not entirely sure that it would go, we nevertheless ripped off the skins and headed down. Wowee! 500 meters of cold light snow all the way down to the head of the valley.

Where we came across "interesting mouse incident" number two. Not sure if this is clear in the photo (click to enlarge) but mouse tracks come in from the left, wing and tail impression, no mouse tracks leaving the scene.

The rodents are taking a beating in Loop Brook.

Hermit Meadows

2011-04-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

Steve has developed a penchant for the Tupper Traverse this spring, trying to get us up there several times lately. The weather on Saturday wasn't overly sympathetic to the idea, but we're aways happy to oblige Steve with his eccentric notions so we shuttled a car to Stone Arch and began tromping up towards Hermit Meadows.

Saw a white rabbit, and *this* time had my camera.

We quickly realized that on this day we weren't going to get over Tupper; the trail breaking was diabolical and we were getting 60-70cm of ski penetration in storm snow over moist snow over sun crust. The weather completely crapped out too and we couldn't see a darn thing.

We pulled the plug at around 2100m and did a couple of laps below the Hermit Meadows campsite.

The skiing was pretty tough though, as evidenced by Henry's looping double-eject swan dive face plant.

To top the day off I had an awkward tumble when a snowy ledge collapsed underneath my skis with a loud whoomph! I dropped several feet and landed sideways on a hard wind roll. At first everything seemed okay but by the time we reached the car I knew something was definitely wrong.

To make a long story short, the doctor says I've cracked a couple of ribs. What a drag. Hurts like stink.

Valhalla Mountain Lodge

2011-03-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

For this year's annual ski trip we made the big mistake of scrambling to find a cook at the last minute. Oh how we suffered.

Conrad, a pastry chef by training, had us shaking our heads in disbelief almost daily. Crêpe Suzette, Black Forest Cake, cheese fondue, eggs benedict, heavenly steaks for the omnivores, brilliant veggie creations for the herbivores. In a tiny backcountry hut? You've got to be kidding.

In between magnificent meals we skied some terrific terrain.

The area around Valhalla Lodge feels big, and looks big, but is ultimately very accessible. We needed hardly any time at all to settle in and get a good feel for the place.

I don't know how many years we've been doing this trip for, perhaps dozen? A lot of years together anyway. So just when I thought nothing could top the hilarity of previous trips out came the Sambuca and viking helmets.

Yargh! See you next year guys.

A few days in Rogers Pass

2011-03-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

Brian and Damon came out a week before the annual hut trip for some skiing in Rogers Pass. We set up camp at the hotel and had four fun days of skiing. I had hoped for some clear weather so that we could get up high and show the guys around a bit, but sadly the visibility was poor most of the time and we were restricted mainly to below treeline skiing. We spent two days in Ursus Trees, another on the Bonney Moraines, and one day skiing a slide path on the west side of the Asulkan drainage.

Brian

Damon

Evenings were spent drinking fine beer and stuffing nachos in our faces.

Chris

The last time we had all skied together was in the mid-nineties on Lyon Mountain in the Adirondacks. Seems like yesterday.

Also on this trip I finally used the Voile Drifters bought for a song last summer. They're the widest skis I've ever owned at 145-121-133. They looked farcical at first and I never really got used to just how much ski there was underneath each boot. They're also heavy when the skins are attached so I can't imagine ever using them on a long tour. But they sure were fun to ski; fast, stable, and completely effortless.

Asulkan to Lily by Dome Col

2011-03-10T17:55:00.000-08:00

Sunny skies and good stability. What to do? First option; go somewhere that we've been before but that we know will be an excellent trip. Something like the Tupper Traverse for example. Second option; do something a little different and risk having a mediocre trip on a day with possibly the best conditions of the season.

Let's hear it for novelty!

We left Fred's car at Loop Brook and made our way up the Asulkan with designs on the Dome Col.

This route is basically a variation on the Sapphire Col traverse which we had done a couple of times previously, but rather than skiing south from the upper part of the Cleaver to Sapphire Col we would instead climb up on top of the Cleaver, ascend to the Dome-Rampart Col, and then (hopefully) drop down onto the Lily glacier.

Nice day. Spring-like, but not too hot, with great views over the Asulkan Glacier.

We were at the col by 2:00ish and had our first tentative look over the other side.

No worries, that'll go. A little rocky but nothing a little p-tex couldn't fix.

We scratched our way down from the col and over a little wind scoop to have a look at the Lily far down below us.

We were a little tentative on the way down from here; the terrain was constantly rolling off making it difficult to see what exactly we we're getting into. But we sussed it out and enjoyed several long runs until finally dropping down onto the glacier. I like this photo of Fred, even though he's barely visible, with Swanzy and the upper Lily in the background.

Huge country up here.

Plenty of places left to explore when novelty next wins the day.

Fortitude

2011-02-20T21:05:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago we went up Flat Creek on a day with good stability and skied the right slide path in this photo from about two thirds of the way up.

Directly across on the other side of the valley that day we saw this line on Mt. Fortitude.

It's been in the back of our mind as a potential destination ever since. This weekend with the stable conditions we went in to have a look with Nick, Neil, and Gerald.

This is the upper part of the route as seen from the Bostock parking lot.

The first order of business was to negotiate the trestle bridge.

Under, not over. You must follow ze rules! It's a beautiful climb up the northeast ridge of Fortitude through old growth forest that somehow survived the age of railway building in the pass.

Once on the ridge there are great views north to the avalanche paths which run across the highway.

And onto the snow sheds which protect the highway (scene of that whopper size 4.5 which came down in January).

(Photo: Nick)

At our high point we basked in the warm sun and enjoyed a unique perspective on the peaks in the area.

The first half of the descent was obvious. We pointed the skis downhill and enjoyed the effortless turns.

There were a couple of points on the lower third where we needed to scope things out to avoid some cliffs but this just added to the sense of adventure. If you come this way yourself, basically stay left to avoid any difficulties, and there are many variations. A great day out.

Little Sifton Traverse

2011-02-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

Brenda lead a group from the Alpine Club to Little Sifton this weekend, which is one of the reasons we did this route just a few weeks ago.

We've participated in lots of ACC trips over the years and many of the folks we've met through the club have become our closest friends,so occasionally we try to repay the favour by leading a trip ourselves to a location that we're familiar with.

Leading trips is a funny business. As "leader" you inform people about the difficulty and the length of the day, about how you would like things to proceed, where to regroup, where the areas of concern are, and so on. You also try to learn about those coming on the trip; skill level appropriate for the day, physical fitness, etc. But despite these efforts, and maybe as a result of being amateur trip leaders, we can never quite be sure how the day will play out. Sometimes people drastically overrate their own abilities and they end up suffering all day, or they travel so slowly that they couldn't possibly reach the day's objective before nightfall. Conversely we sometimes get highly experienced people with very strong personalities who basically have come on the trip with their own agenda.

On Saturday it was the first scenario. In fact there were warning signs right at the trailhead, but we had to let things play out. Two hours into the trip it was clear that we would need to break the group up. Brenda formed a sub-group at a place where there were plenty of descent options available. It actually worked out really well. They made a detour to Puff Daddy, found the route without any shenanigans for a change, skied untracked powder back down to the road, and pronounced themselves to have had a fine day.

I continued with the rest of the group up and over Sifton under amazing blue skies and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

South face of Sifton anyone?

Asulkan Cabin

2011-02-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

But, skier, thou art no thy lane
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.

Closed highways wreaked havoc with the arrangements. 80cm of high density snow in 24 hours severely limited the skiing.

Worth the trip? When the outhouse looks like this?

Yeah. Life is short. It's always worth getting out. Even when it gets a little weird.

Asulkan Hut February 11/12/13 2011 from Andrew Parker on Vimeo.

Teddy Bear Trees

2011-02-14T17:22:00.000-08:00

The plan was to explore the Christiana Ridge area across from Bostock but the van wouldn't start at the Visitors Center on Sunday morning. Bollocks! Non of us being mechanics we quickly exhausted our list of amateur obvious solutions. It seemed like a starter or solenoid type problem; the battery was fine but at each turn of the key the only noise heard was a single disappointing 'click' from under the hood.

Nick suggested we try to bump start it. Now I consider myself a bit of a bump start aficionado, a true connoisseur of the art, but this looked pretty dubious. The van weighs well over 2 tonnes, the parking lot was almost level and covered in compact snow, and there was hardly any space to get a good run at it. The only thing worse than a dead VW van in the middle of nowhere is a dead VW van in the middle of nowhere in a really inconvenient place. But Nick was confident so he and and Brenda (all 100lbs of her) got behind and gave it everything they had.

The van hesitated for a moment, then began to slowly, ponderously, painfully roll across the lot. After 20 meters we were moving at no more than a leisurely walking pace with no signs of an imminent increase in speed. From my place in the driver's seat I watched the snowbank at the opposide end of the lot get bigger and bigger through the windshield. I jumped out and added my own weight for 10 steps or so and then quickly hopped back in again as we ran out space. It looked hopeless. I got 'er in 2nd, popped the clutch and....

Vrooom!

No bother at all. I was amazed.

Confident in our ability to do it all again we lined the van up for a repeat performance at the end of the day and went for a couple of runs in Teddy Bear Trees.

That's the best photo I can come up with, taken from across the valley on Grizzly Shoulder. We'd been up there a couple of times before but always in poor light and we'd stayed completely in the trees. This time we were able to climb further along the ridge and drop in on the cleaner lines that begin higher up.

We had a couple of really good long runs that left the tele skiers in our group gasping for air. No photos of the skiing; it's one of those runs that doesn't really have a safe place to stop on the way down. Teddy Bear Trees must have one of the best effort-to-reward ratios in the pass.

We bump started the van again and got her home without incident, which is when I realized that Kelowna is actually a really, really flat place.

Ursus Trees and Little Sifton Traverse

2011-02-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

The season to date in a single image. Very little snow in November and December followed by near continuous snowfall through much of January that pushed the avalanche hazard into the extreme zone. Things settled down last week and we were lured back to Rogers Pass.

We met Ross, Marni, and Deanna on Saturday morning. Most permit areas were closed (again) so we headed up behind the hotel to Ursus Trees and found some of the best skiing of the season. Marni and Deanna are long time Canmore residents and kept running into people they knew; especially Marni who has history of climbing and skiing that spans decades. Brenda and I recognized Heather from our Selkirk Lodge trip several years ago and had a good laugh over The Great Sandwich Bag Incident. Crikey we learned some colorful language that day courtesy of the hideous Grania.

Sunday dawned clear and cold. We again skied behind the hotel and ground our way up Grizzly Shoulder towards the Little Sifton Col.

No matter how many times we come this way it always takes our breath away to pop out onto Grizzly Ridge after toiling in the trees and take in the magnificent 360 degree views.

Grizzly

Tupper

Rogers, Swiss Peaks, Hermit

At the col we decided to climb the extra hundred meters or so to the top of Little Sifton. Oh man this sucked! The tiny bit of extra elevation put us right into the teeth of the wind (just listen to it in the video) and we were frozen to the core in moments. Both Nick and Ross got minor frostbite patches on their faces. Sorry guys, bad idea. We skied off the summit as quickly as possible with our skins tied into knots from the howling wind and quickly dropped behind the col into the Hermit side.

This took us out of the wind and into the late afternoon sun which made all the difference. Thankful to be warm again we whooped our way down through the fluffy snow.

Needle Peak

2011-01-27T18:08:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we had two reasons to go west to the Coquihalla rather than east to Rogers Pass. The first was that the avalanche conditions were still kinda wonky in Glacier Park. Most permit areas would probably be closed anyway. The second was that our friend Dave had moved from Montreal to Vancouver making Needle Peak a good in-between meeting place.

Brenda and I usually make one trip a year to the Coquihalla area. It's a nice change and an easy day trip but we usually come away feeling a bit underwhelmed. The terrain seems limited. However I must admit that we haven't really explored much and perhaps it's our own imagination that limits us.

We had a few turns, got some sun on our faces, and chatted endlessly with Dave.

McGill Shoulder (Bostock)

2011-01-13T17:55:00.000-08:00

Avalanche hazard peaked over the weekend. We headed for the trees at McGill Shoulder, although calling it "tree skiing" would be a bit of a misnomer. The main features here are the two main avalanche paths which drop down from the summit and several smaller paths on either side. We spent the day skirting along the edge of these paths, staying in the mature trees where we could. Good skiing. Things are finally beginning to fill in.

Stanley Mitchell Hut

2011-01-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

The appeal of the Stanley Mitchell hut was just to be there; a place we'd never been to before, a remote and quiet location to welcome in the New Year. But the real story of this trip was about simply getting there rather than being there.

The hut is 24km from the highway. The first 13km follows an unplowed road to a picnic shelter at Takakkaw Falls. Many parties break up the trip by overnighting at the shelter and then continuing on the next day. It's only a 700m elevation gain from highway to hut but nevertheless 24km is a long way to go in midwinter with a three day pack on one's back. Another concern was the temperature which was forecast to be somewhere in the mid minus 20s.

We couldn't coax any of our regular ski buddies to join us on this trip. Wusses! Nevertheless Brenda and I felt that getting to the hut in one day was within our powers...but only just.

The alarm went off in our hotel room in Golden at 3:30am mountain time. That, dear friends, is a brutal 2:30am Kelowna time. My severe distaste of alpine starts outweighs an even greater distaste of searching for unfamiliar huts in the dark at -20C at the end of a long day. At 5:00am we were skiing away from the car.

The blowing snow flashed through the light of our headlamps and our breath froze instantly onto our faces and clothes. It was absolutely freezing. Maybe we've grown soft living in the Okanagan for a few years, but this seemed seriously, intensely cold.

We plodded along in the darkness without speaking much, the only sound being the scritch-scritch-scritch of pole tips in the packed snow. We had our skins on at this point. In retrospect it would have been much better to use kick wax but at the time we couldn't see far enough into the darkness to know if the road stayed flat ahead of us. Although I don't think we could have stopped anyway, it was far too cold to start futzing with wax.

After a couple of hours a silvery moon rose over Mount Stephen to the south and gave a bit of light to see by, and soon the sun began to inch it's way over the peaks and into the valley. It raised our spirits a bit but didn't provide much in the way of warmth. We paused briefly to take off skins and jam them quickly inside our coats. The snow was cold enough that we didn't need wax but even this brief stop left me with frozen fingers and a creeping feeling of desperation; I was getting colder and colder and nothing seemed to help. I think part of the problem was that we weren't climbing upwards and the slow shuffling along the level road wasn't allowing me to generate any heat.

By 9 o'clock I was beginning to have serious doubts about making it to the hut that night when we finally saw the first road signs indicating that we were close to the picnic shelter. Our pace quickened and soon the shelter was in sight. Was that a wisp of smoke coming out of the chimney?

Yes it was! We kicked off the skis and waddled stiffly into the shelter. Warmth! Don't get me wrong it was still well below freezing but it was infinitely warmer than outside. Someone had spent the night and the stove was still warm. In a rather rash maneuver I threw off my pack, grabbed the fuel bottle, tossed a few small logs into the stove and doused the whole lot in fuel. Whoosh! Instant heat. Heaven.

We spent over an hour huddled next to the stove, warming up and melting snow for hot drinks. As warmth slowly returned to fingers and toes so did our confidence in getting to the Stanley Mitchell. When a group of three arrived at the shelter on their way out from the hut, thus ensuring that there was a track all the way in, we knew we could get there ourselves. It took another five cold hours (we aren't the fastest thing on four legs) but we did get there with reasonable time to spare.

We had the fire roaring away and it was just beginning to get dark when three ice-encrusted apparitions appeared outside the hut. Jon, Jamie, and Tim (whose names we learned later) had made much better time than we did despite the 8 liters of wine and 1.5 liters of booze they packed in! They took pity on our paltry hip flask of Scotch and shared generously. We really enjoyed our three nights with them.

Cold, however, was the constant theme. The hut never really warmed up despite the blazing fire that was burning the entire time. The stainless steel kitchen counter was a particular challenge; anything slightly moist that came into contact would freeze instantly to the counter top. Food scraps, tea, pot drips, and damp cutlery added daily to the morass. The only really warm spot in the entire hut was right in front of the stove door where we all spent a considerable amount of time. Afterwards we learned that the temperature at valley bottom had dipped down to -33C during our stay. Being 700m higher I'd be willing to bet that it was considerably colder at the hut.

We explored the area but didn't stray too far afield. In exposed areas the wind had been howling resulting in a classic shallow Rockies snowpack of styrofoam over sugar. Down lower in the trees there was better snow and we had some fun with Jon and Tim skiing the gentle slopes south of the cabin. I didn't remove a single layer of clothing the entire time.

New Years Eve was celebrated in fine style as Brenda and I did our Good Christian Duty by helping the others work through their stash of booze. We slept in very late the next morning.

The trip out was still cold and the slog along the road was still tedious but it only took just over 5 hours to get to the car.

Somewhere near the end I asked Brenda which modern convenience she was thinking about most. Her reply of "Car batteries" put a bit of worry into the final few kilometers. Thankfully when we got to the car the engine did spark to life but it was touch and go for a moment.

Often the measure of success for a trip like this is whether or not you'd do it all again, and sometimes a day or two of reflection is required before deciding one way or the other. In this case we had already decided on the way out that this was a trip we'd do again.

A couple of things worth noting, for ourselves as much as for anyone reading this blog who is considering making the trip. As mentioned we aren't particularly fast but we did manage to get to the hut in one push and on one of the shortest days of the year. However we didn't have to break any trail. That could easily have added a couple of hours to the journey. Another point which struck us was how challenging it would be to follow the final six or seven kilometers of trail after a snowfall, especially if one wasn't familiar with the route. A GPS would be a massive help. Finally, for those considering an overnight stay at the picnic shelter, I don't think it would be as dire as some sources have made it out to be. It didn't appear to be overrun with pack rats and there was a small supply of wood available inside the shelter -- but I can't say if there was more available nearby. Even the outhouse was operational. Nevertheless we would still go from car to hut in one day.

Happy new year.

8812 and Video Peak

2011-01-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

Falling behind on the blog! Here's a quick recap of a trip to Rogers Pass a few weeks ago.

On Saturday we joined an ACC group for a trip up to 8812 bowl. It was clear and cold with lots of other skiers up in the Connaught drainage; we certainly weren't going to get first tracks. This is Gerald contemplating a scratchy drop from Bruins Ridge into 8812.

We took a line more to skiers right than usual, found some good snow, and enjoyed the long mellow decent.

Not without incident of course; I found some crust and provided a crowd pleasing face plant for the peanut gallery above us on the ridge. Thankfully not on film.

The highlight of the weekend was running into Val and James. I know James from a trip to the Bugs several years ago. And Val from...I have no idea, through Brian somehow. It was Val's 50th and she was celebrating in style with friends from all over.

On Sunday a diminished group headed back up the valley again. Here's Val enjoying her first day of life at 50.

The day before we had a good view of this line on Video Peak shining in the sun and couldn't resist.

The day had begun clear and sunny but by the time we scrambled to the top of Video the clouds had come in and the visibility wasn't great.

We skied down the front face on Video instead of the one we had originally been interested in. It's a good ski right off the summit but...meh...after the tromp up the valley and the roly-poly decent back down it seems like a long way to go for a few hundred meters of good steep skiing.

Aren't we getting spoiled?

Bow Hut

2010-12-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

It was a very dark and very stormy night. Had it been any darker or any stormier, we would have stopped driving. But we pushed on slowly over Rogers Pass, because we had an invitation from Ross to spend the weekend with him, D'Arcy and Deanna at the Bow Hut. We weren't about to miss the guaranteed spontaneous fun.
On Friday morning we met up in the parking lot for the trip up to the hut. It was a perfect day in the Rockies - still, mostly clear, and a little bit cold. The Bow Hut it stunning from below - a palace perched high on the rock:

In the next few days we had good turns on the glacier above the hut in the fairly flat light. We had the whole hut, yes the whole hut, to ourselves, for wine and cheese followed by gin-fueled dice games.
D'Arcy getting powder turns:
Apres-ski at the lodge - perhaps the carbon monoxide is getting to me?

The superb weekend was made more memorable by a spectacular crash on the ski out, in which Ross and then Andrew met the same rock, landing in a pile and leaving the trail strewn with gear. Thanks to Andrew's control on one ski, the worst damage was done to the ski that met the rock:

Then we got lost - or rather, off the main trail - thanks to some sneaky navigation by Ross and myself. The shortcut turned into a bushwhack, bringing back fond memories of eastern glade skiing.

The drive home was even more epic than the drive there - nine more hours of dark and stormy night driving. But worth every minute - thanks for a great weekend all!

Balu Pass

2010-12-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

"Minus 17! But it's our first night out this season!?"

Sunday morning in the van. In general car camping is comfortable enough at these temperatures. Warm sleeping bags and a down duvet keep the chill off at night. A hot cup of tea and our small heater do the job when we're not actually in bed. It's the transition between these two states which can test one's resolve to keep doing this.

We've thought about installing a propane heater for a while. Thermostat. Timer. Mmmmm...just imagine the toasty mornings. But they're expensive, and drilling holes in the van and messing around with propane fittings seems like a recipe for a DIY disaster. Maybe next year.

(I say that every year.)

Joined by Nick and Steve we got our winter permit paperwork sorted out with minimal fuss and headed up the Connaught. An icy wind blew down the valley and it felt shockingly cold.

Rather than thrashing through the alder to get up high we simply went straight to Balu Pass to yo-yo up and down the variety of short runs there.

Greg Hill passed us. As usual.

Our first run was a little rough on the skis. The unconsolidated snow hid the lurking rocks but didn't support our weight and there were a few base gouging clangers that I still haven't had the nerve to investigate. We eventually figured out where the snow was better. At the end of each run we took turns pointing back up and saying "Okay let's ski that one next".

A fine day out with a good skiing and minimal effort to get there.

All the pics.

Asulkan Cabin

2010-11-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

Last year the ski season started with a real bang. This year? More like a scraaape!

It was a little rough getting to the cabin, but getting back out was full combat skiing (to steal a phrase from Nick). Nevertheless we did get to the hut, and I think for possibly the first time ever in November, we spent two days skiing above the hut, rather than down below in the tree triangle.

Our first order of business had been to make a quick repair. The ACC had let us know that there was a problem with the propane line and that there might not be any heat. Thankfully Sylvain at the ACC recognized Fred's name on the list of people going to the hut (they had skied together years ago) and he suggested a possible fix. Upon arrival we jury rigged a propane line de-gunker and soon had the heater humming along at full blast. It would have been a cold night otherwise.

We had the hut to ourselves on the first night. On the second night we were joined by John, Jeff 1, Jeff 2, and Dustin (who we already knew) and Shane and Ben (who we didn't know). It's a long story as to how we know these guys. John, Jeff 2, and I all suffer together through a yoga class in quiet dignity. Fred also knows them through mountain biking.

Then there's Dustin. When went to the Asulkan Cabin in November 2005 Fred had asked Dustin to join us. At the hut Dustin met Jeff 1. They hit it off immediately and they now live together in Nelson. So this trip was an anniversary of sorts for them.

We had a ton of fun with them in cabin and I hope we can do this again some time. As for skiing with them? I dunno, not sure I could keep up!

Tying the Knot

2010-11-16T16:32:00.001-08:00

We got married in October! A tiny wedding, we spent a week on Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick at my parent's B&B with just our families. The ceremony itself took place at an idyllic rocky cove within walking distance of the inn. The sun was shining, seals played in the water, folks waved hello...it was great! And in the tradition of this blog here's an arm's length "summit" shot:

There are a bunch of photos here if you can stomach other people's wedding photos :)

Of course weddings are about family and friends. After leaving the island we made our way first to Montreal for a quick visit with Brian (and lots of bagels) and then to Keene Farm in the Adirondacks.

The Adirondacks hold a special place in both our hearts. I've spent more days and nights in the Dacks than I care to count, along the way learning to climb and ski in these hills. And it was on the Wright Peak ski trail that Brenda and I first met, although admittedly that day was more memorable for the horrendous skiing than for the meeting of my future wife. I think only 3 of 7 people skied out under their own power that day!

And then everyone came to us!

Ross made the trip from Edmonton; Martin and family from Dundas; Bruno and Sheri from Connecticut; everyone else from Montreal and Ottawa. It was brilliant to see everyone, especially in this place where we all have such good memories of days gone by.

In many ways it was if nothing had changed; just another weekend in the Dacks. But then I'd realize that a teenage son (or daughter) was sitting at the picnic table with us, someone who wasn't even born when we first came to the Dacks and began drinking Scotch under the very tree that we were now sitting under.

Climbs were climbed...

Songs were sung...

And the old traditions were kept alive...

What else can be said? Thanks to everyone who made the effort to be there with us. It wouldn't have been the same without you. Have a look at the rest of the photos.

Cathedral Park

2010-09-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

Just like last year we went to Cathedral Park for the Labour Day weekend to try the Matriarch-Macabre-Grimface Traverse.

And, just like last year, it snowed.

Saturday evening:

Sunday morning:

Oh well. We were visited by a friendly deer.

And tried to take artsy photos of snow covered wild flowers. Me with a new camera that Brenda got for my birthday.

We'll try again next year, before Labour Day. More photos here.

Mount Rogers SE Ridge

2010-08-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

Brenda and I are slowly working our way through the "low hanging fruit" in Rogers Pass. Mount Rogers seemed to be the next peak within our grasp. We hiked up to Hermit Meadows on Saturday afternoon with designs on a half traverse that would take us up the southeast ridge and then down the large south facing snow slope between Rogers and Grant.

We found the Selkirks North guidebook to be a little confusing in its description of the route; you can approach on the east side or the west side of the SE ridge, begin at the middle or at the end, avoid difficulties on the left, or possibly on the right, or even travel right over the ridge and join it again at a later point, all with varying degrees of difficulty. So we weren't exactly sure what we would be getting into.

Coincidentally, on the hike up we ran into a fellow, who shall remain nameless, that we kind of knew but mainly by reputation, who would also be trying Rogers the next day. He was leading a small group that would be going up by the way that we planned to come down, so after dinner we strolled over looking for some advice.

It was a really weird conversation. I dunno, some folks you click with and some you don't. Everyone has different reasons for being in the mountains. We decided to ignore the "advice" we were given and stuck with our original plan. It was the right choice, and in retrospect we were reminded of a quote: “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts” (Bertrand Russell).

The route was a fine, typical Selkirks ridge route. We went up the ramp to the notch on the ridge, and from here followed the SE ridge, sometimes on the crest (low 5th class), sometimes on climbers right (4th class). We had the rope out at a couple of points, but mainly this was to allow us stay on the ridge crest proper and avoid the less aesthetic 4th class rock on the east side.

Eventually the SE ridge joined the summit ridge above the Rogers-Grant col and from here it was mainly snow to the top.

This is the north side of the Swiss peaks (Grant, Fleming, and Swiss) a view that we have never seen before. The classic Swiss Peaks traverse goes from right to left.

As always it took longer than expected. 5 1/2 hours up. We hung out on the summit for a while trying to identify various peaks in the distance. Pretty sure we could see Mount Columbia and South Twin on the Columbia Icefields. The snow was getting sloppy on the way down but everything was pretty well bridged and we made good time down from the col and back across the glacier.

We met this fella just below the toe of the glacier and made a minor detour so as to not disturb him. I assume "fella". Do female mountain goats have horns?

A good day out and a good reconnaissance trip for doing the Swiss Peaks traverse on another day.

Brewer Buttress on Castle Mountain

2010-07-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

A rest day was sorely needed after Victoria but we had booked the Castle Mountain Hut for the following night and now faced the rather daunting prospect of a steep 4 hour hike with overnight packs on the very next day.

So we had a lazy morning, basked in the sun on Ross's deck, and watched the insanely cute Canmore rabbits hop about the yard. But soon, far too soon, we reluctantly packed up our stuff and made the short drive north to Castle Mountain to begin the evening hike. Some day we'll take a real vacation :)

Hiking up to the Hut

Brewer Buttress is a 380m 5.6 rock climb that begins on the large ledge that girdles the mountain. There's a tiny ACC hut here where we would spend the night.

I had been to the hut once before in the mid-nineties and actually climbed Brewer Buttress, but I have few memories of the trip, other than we got caught in a thunderstorm somewhere around pitch 9 and it turned into an epic. And of course I remembered the shitter. Quality! Perched just back from a drop of several hundred meters, it's semi-composting, open to the elements, and offers an unparalleled view up and down the Bow Valley.

Brian relaxing with a cuppa (not on the shitter)

And I had forgotten about the pack rats; the little buggers were everywhere. And fearless. Especially when Ramen is on the menu.

Dinner is served

Up early the next day and climbing by 7:00. Being a party of three our biggest concern was time; Brian and I swung leads in 3 pitch blocks to minimize changeovers, but the biggest time saver was a Petzl Reverso/ATC Guide belay device that allowed the leader to belay two seconds at once. In the end we averaged something like 40 minutes a pitch so we did all right.

It was great to be up high climbing real rock with Brian again. And what an excellent climb this is.

The rock is solid (at least by Rockies standards); the route finding is easy especially with the fixed anchors; and the positions get more spectacular the higher you go. The last 3 pitches are just spectacular. We took the variation ending on the last pitch and I recommend it.

Brian on the variation final pitch

Topping out

What a relief to get the rock shoes off after 8 hours. I haven't done much rock climbing this year and my fingers were red and swollen after 12 pitches of prickly limestone.

To descend Castle you need to walk back north over the summit and scramble down an ugly gully with a few short rappels. It's a bit of a nasty place and I wouldn't want to be in there below another party sending rocks down. With the fixed anchors I wonder if rapping the route might actually be the better option these days? Here's a picture of the descent gully just in case you're reading this blog for beta.

And a link to Brian's excellent photos.

Mount Victoria - North Summit

2010-07-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

After our successful trip up Uto, Brian, Andrew and I (Brenda) went east to Canmore to join Ross on a trip to the North summit of Mt. Victoria. Victoria is the large glaciated peak immediately behind Lake Louise, so it features prominently in many postcards. The guidebook said it was appropriate for novice mountaineers. Perfect!

Our day began with consulting the tourist maps, at 5am, to ensure that we were headed to the right tea-house. Yes, the route starts at a tea-house, and yes, we were off-route immediately, headed for the wrong tea-house. Good thing Andrew was thinking straight.

Brian and Ross consult the Tourist Information. Which mountain are we going to?

Past the tea-house, up the trail, and around the lower slopes brought us to the glacier by breakfast time. On with the rope, up the glacier, and up the loose rock bands to the snow below the summit ridge.

So far, so good... we had climbed to 10,000'. Now for that last thousand feet. You would think that an 11k peak would only be 10% more difficult than a 10k peak, but somehow that last thousand feet seems to punch above its weight; I speak from my vast experience of now two eleven-thousanders.

The snow was sloppy and steep; it hadn't frozen well overnight. We hummed for a while trying to figure out which way to go. Finally Andrew found the best way up, skirting under the looming cornice that had an unmistakably bemused expression, and up to the ridge.

The cornice chuckles at us. Fortunately, it did no worse than chuckle.

When we got to the ridge, I realized with some disappointment that supper was still a long way away. The ridge was a bit icy, and after that there was a long-ish but surprisingly enjoyable section of rock to the summit.

Looking back at the long path to the summit.

The trip down was a little hair-raising for this novice mountaineer, over ice, soggy snow and loose rock bands. Andrew lent me a hand here and there, I managed to keep my sanity past the telling 12-hour mark, and soon we were past the difficult bits and on the way home.

Ross, with Lake Louise far below.

Uto Peak Traverse

2010-07-25T14:51:00.000-07:00

Accompanied by our good friend Brian from Montreal (and Trinidad) this was the first stop on a week long climbing trip. Rather than subjecting Brian to the vagaries of figuring out an unfamiliar route we opted for an oldie but a goodie in the form of Uto.

I don't know how we do it but in one way or another we always manage to climb Uto differently each time. This was my third time up the SW ridge and I was still scratching my head and asking things like "Do you remember this part?" or "How did we get around this bit?". We seem to find a slightly different way up on each occasion.

Maybe that's why it always takes much longer to get up than we think it should. At 8 hours from car to summit we didn't set any speed records. But the weather was fantastic so we didn't care.

I must admit that we had a good laugh at some poor fellas entry in the summit register.

To Kiersten,

So you told me to go without you today as you needed some time apart from me. I left you in camp. I was pretty damn sad.

Poor Scott from Seattle!

Fortunately the movement over the rock let me think more clearly and I'm happy now....I'm happy because I'm sitting on top of this mountain and I may be alone but at least I know you're still down in camp...I care deeply about you ->next

He actually writes "next" at the end of the page.

...in fact I may love you but I can't say that yet.

Okay enough! It went on for a couple of pages. Sorry Scott. Let's just say that subsequent entries in the register weren't exactly sympathetic to poor Scott's plight. Check the photos for more on this gripping drama.

We rapped off the summit and made our way down the NW ridge to complete the traverse. Two bird sitings today; an unidentified LBJ (little brown job) twittering away on the ridge:

And a ptarmigan with chicks:

On our way through the bivy site we were informed that someone had been charged by a grizzly on the hiking trail earlier in the day. With this in mind we sang "Ride the Bear" and other bad songs all through the long hike back down through the valley. Beer, dinner, bed, and off to Canmore the next morning to find Ross.

Sifton SE Ridge

2010-07-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

Motivation to climb a snow-capped mountain is hard to come by when contemplating the refracted sunlight and rose-blooms through a tall gin & tonic under the shade of a walnut tree.

The solution for this weekend was to set a small goal that would still leave us with such a Sunday afternoon. Mount Sifton on Saturday would be a non-threatening day out, and get us in shape for the summer that is already underway for the more highly motivated. So on Friday night we took the van up to Rogers Pass, and met Nick at the Hermit Meadows trailhead at 7am.

Nick put our low motivation into cold perspective. "In the battle of the blogs, Greg Hill has one million vertical feet and you two got lost on the way to Eva Lake." We can always trust Nick for pithy observation.

So up the steeply winding Hermit Meadows trail we climbed, past the meadows to the foot of the indistinct and rubble-strewn south-ish ridge-cum-buttress route. Not 50-Classic-Climbs material, but within our reach. Our routefinding skills being a bit rusty, we ended up on the side of the ridge amid loose rocks and dirt. We quickly tired of that, so we gained the crest of the ridge and followed it to the base of the south-ish face.

Nick takes a break on a more-solid rock

The rock to the upper snowfield was surprisingly pleasant and solid, with the odd interesting bit that had me going back and forth wondering what to do. We three picked our way up to a large flat lunch-rock at the beginning of the short final pitch of snow to the summit. I thought I was too tired, and would just rest in the sun while Andrew and Nick ran to the summit and back down. Andrew, however, encouraged, cajoled and finally dropped a rope for me, and I joined them at the top.

Andrew on the upper snowfield. Follow me! the view is better up here!

I follow

The view was better

The trip down was uneventful, and descending from Hermit Meadows without an overnight pack was markedly less punishing than previous trips.

Our Route

On Sunday, we fell further behind in the battle of the blogs as we treated our sore muscles with G&T in the shade of the walnut tree.

Eva Lake

2010-07-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

We wanted to go up to Hermit Meadows over the long weekend to have a look at the Swiss Peaks or something. In the end the so-so forecast, time, and frankly our motivation, lead us to change our destination en route and we decided instead to hike into Eva Lake in Revelstoke Park.

We got the expected reaction from the nice folks at the park gate, at 4 o'clock, as it started to rain:

"You want to go where? But no one's been in there this year. It's still full winter conditions. I'll need to call my supervisor! You'll never find the trail!! You'll die!!!".

Okay no one actually said we'd die, I just threw that one in for Bruno's benefit, but they were pretty alarmed. We filled in endless forms, payed additional fees for the privilege of overnighting in a national park, and repeatedly assured them that we knew what we were getting into.

Then we then promptly lost the trail.

Okay there are absolutely no trail markings to Eva Lake. None. To be honest if we hadn't been there before I don't think we would have found the way. I mean it's not that serious of a place to get a bit lost but we didn't want to get completely turned around.

There were occasional sections where the snow had melted enough for us to see a hint of the gravel trail, but more often than not we would just aim in roughly the right direction and then trudge for several hundred meters on the snow. We would then pull out the altimeter, guess whether or not we were too high or too low, and then make a bee line straight up (or down) across the contour hoping to find a bit of the trail.

We got there in the end. Originally we had envisioned pitching the tent near the lake. Of course when we got there the lake was still frozen and the ground was still covered in a meter or more of snow. What to do. Dig? Or stay in the old log shelter?

No contest!

And we felt even better for our choice as the rain hammered down on the roof throughout the night. We woke to a misty damp morning that made us think of our little hut as one of Scottish bothies written about so romantically in "Mountain Days and Bothy Nights".

We followed our tracks on the return journey and arrived back at the car by early afternoon.

Glacier Circle Cabin

2010-06-12T22:39:00.000-07:00

We sat dejectedly on our packs as the mist swirled thickly around us. Loops of wet purple rope lay between us in the snow. We were somewhere on the Illecillewaet Glacier, it was the Victoria Day long weekend, and it was still a very, very long way to the Glacier Circle Cabin.

This would almost certainly be our last ski trip of the season. Giving up now would be a disappointing way to end seven months of skiing. Besides, we were really looking forward to having a couple of days at the hut. So we pressed on. Occasionally there was a brief glimpse of Mt. Macoun and we quickly took a compass bearing (and tons of photos) but mainly we were navigating by GPS.

Traveling further and further onto the icefield a little seed of doubt began to grow in our minds; we weren't entirely confident of being able to find our way down the other side once we got there. Brenda and I had been this way once before but that had been on a beautiful summer's day. We weren't sure of being able to repeat it in a complete whiteout. There is an alternative descent via the Witch Tower to the west but that would add a few kilometers of unfamiliar terrain to the journey. Better the devil you know as they say.

After many hours the GPS told us that we had reached the high point near Macoun. Very tired, we stripped off our skins, and not without a little trepidation, began skiing down in roughly the right direction. The angle was gentle at first and we slowly lost elevation, peering through the mist, keeping a wary eye for crevasses. As the glacier rolled off and our speed began to pick up there seemed to be a slight brightening around us; the mist kind of changed from grey to white. We kept going. Now the visibility was definitely improving as we could just make out the ridge coming down from Macoun. The more elevation we lost the better it became. Then quite suddenly we dropped out of the cloud and there was the Deville Glacier across the valley, Mount Fox and Mount Selwyn, everything! It was amazing. The transition was so sudden, and so magical after being worried for hours. We were elated.

We weren't there yet of course. Snow that transitioned from slush to ice in the space of six inches provided it's share of heartbreaking moments with our big packs, and finding our way down the ramp wasn't quite as straightforward as we had hoped.

But before long, just as a snow squall began dumping thick wet snow flakes on us, there was the cabin, and we were sooo happy to be there.

It's a magical spot glacier circle; the history, the isolation, the stunning scenery, the effort it takes just to get there; all make it an exceptional place to visit. We stayed for two nights and reveled in every moment. We drank gallons of tea, chopped wood, dried our boots in front of the wood stove, watched some interesting ducks on the half frozen lake, took naps, and watched through the open door as snow squalls whirled passed the cabin.

And as if it couldn't get more idyllic, at least for me, I came across a book named "Among the Selkirk Glaciers" by William Spotswood Green. I had been looking for this book for years and had assumed that it was simply unavailable. First published in 1890 it's an account of a visit by the very first climber and explorer to visit Rogers Pass just a few years after the area became accessible by train. He was the first to survey and map the Illecillewaet and Asulkan drainages and made the first ascent of Mount Bonney among others. It was fascinating to read about his adventures 120 years ago in the very places that we had just traveled over to get to the cabin. I tracked down the publisher and now have my own copy to marvel over at home.

The discovery of an old pipe and tobacco had us trying to emulate Chic Scott's iconic photo of Ron Robinson, Dave Smith, Don Gardner and himself at Glacier Circle Cabin in 1973.

Those guys define cool. We on the other hand...

Our second morning at the cabin dawned with blue skies and we chose to try and return by the Witch Tower. It was a stunning setting. Avalanches regularly came down off Fox as we kicked steps in slush-over-ice with sweat streaming down our faces in the hot sun. We gave Fox a wide berth.

The Witch Tower route is far more straight forward than the Macoun route, but it's really steep and feels more exposed than the Macoun side. You'd definitely want good stability to come this way. This gives a rough idea of our route in and out.

After a few hours we joined our original track from two days ago and made our way back across the glacier. The return journey has much more downhill and what had taken us hours to climb up we gleefully skied back down in a matter of minutes. Things were getting pretty marginal by the time we got near treeline and it turned into real character building stuff as we got near the highway.

Nevertheless it was a great trip to a great place with great people. Thanks to Nick and Steve and everyone else for a great winter in sometimes trying conditions. We look forward to next year and let's all pray that we don't hear the acronym PWL any time soon. Only five months until ski season!

South Twin / Columbia Icefields

2010-05-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

from    Ross
to      Andrew
date    Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 12:12 PM
subject Re: Columbia
Yes it's a bit of work, however you know that you'll have to do it 
sooner or later and face it, you're not getting younger!

Ross doesn't do subtle; but I will admit that this little barb finally did convince me (ie: provoke me) into making a trip with him to the Columbia Icefields. Remarkably Brenda was keen as well and two weeks later, under towering packs, we made our way towards the upper reaches of the Athabasca Glacier to access the Columbia Icefields beyond.

The route up the Athabasca forces you along a narrow bench that threads its way between an icefall on the left and hanging seracs on the right. During our ski up the glacier we hadn't seen any activity from the seracs, and there was little sign of any recent debris. Predictably, just as we were making final preparation to dash underneath the seracs, a large chunk crashed down onto the glacier. Followed by another a few minutes later. You can make out the dust cloud.

Needless to say we sprinted across to the other side. After this there wasn't much else to do except put our heads down and endure the long tough grind further and further up onto the icefield. This we did this for next several hours. Thankfully the ever expanding vista of spectacular scenery distracted us from our heavy loads. It's an amazing place on a massive scale; everything is just so far away.

After 10 hours of toil we finally ran out of steam. In an ocean of white the very spot that we were standing seemed as good a place as any to set up camp so we shrugged off our leaden packs and dug in the tent.

We had an excellent supper and we were all in bed before it was dark. Ross had warned us of the potential for really cold temperatures and I had borrowed an expedition grade sleeping bag so voluminous that it single handedly endangered the world's Eider duck population. It was a cozy night. The morning dawned cold and clear giving us a great view of South Twin, our destination for the day.

North Twin is on the right and South Twin is on the left. The route crosses the glaciated face of North Twin from right to left and climbs to the col between the two peaks. From there we would drop down and then climb back up South Twin along it's right skyline.

That's pretty much how things went except that it all took about three times longer than even our most conservative estimates. Everything is just...so....BIG. And far away. The place is colossal. It took ages just to get to North Twin. The traverse across the face seemed to go on for hours. The drop down into the col and the climb back out seemed an eternity. By the time we had swapped skis for crampons below the summit ridge we were having serious doubts about the endeavor.

The altitude and hot sun began to take their toll. We soldiered on in the quiet heat with tongues hanging out of our mouths, up and over one heart breaking false summit after another.

Finally, at 4:00, my altimeter read 3540 meters and there was nowhere else to go but down.

I wouldn't say that we were elated or anything. Quietly satisfied perhaps? I suspect we were all thinking that it was a long, long way back home!

I won't prolong this blog post with too many details of getting back down. We left the summit under a warm afternoon sun and by the time we reached the tent it was nearly dark and we were wearing every stitch of clothing against the biting wind. Dinner, gallons of hot tea, and sweet, sweet bed.

It was an easy trip out the next day; blissfully downhill most of the way. We delighted, and I mean really delighted, the folks in the snocoaches.

And then the final grind up the snocoach road back to the car.

Climbing peaks on the Columbia Icefields is like repeatedly banging your head against a wall...it feels really good when you stop. So good that I think Ross could provoke me into going again next year. How many 11,000'ers are there Ross?

Complete photos are here.

Youngs Peak

2010-05-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

I pulled into the Asulkan parking lot all by myself on Thursday night; Brenda had to work the next day, and much to her chagrin, I didn't want to give up on the idea of skiing on Friday. Nick would join me the next morning.

It was quite pleasant hanging out in the van; a bit of dinner, Tom Patey's "One Man's Mountains" providing a good read, various Marley brothers playing on the stereo. It was a real coup when I discovered the hip flask in the bottom of the food bin.

Nick and I made our way up the Asulkan Valley the next morning. There is still lots of snow but there were a few places where we were reminded that spring is well on its way.

We stopped for a bit of lunch at the hut and noticed a solitary figure up on the Youngs Peak headwall. As we were leaving we came across a video camera perched on the rocks outside the hut, filming, and deliberately aimed at the headwall. Kind of a neat idea. We idly wondered if it was Greg Hill up there.

Turns out that's exactly who it was. He stopped to say hello on his way back down to the hut. By the time we got to the summit of Youngs there he was right behind us again.

By this point in his day he had already climbed 9500' or something after doing 23,000' the previous day. We ultimately did a 6200' (1900m) and considered that to be a big day! The headwall was still holding good snow and we managed to squeeze in a couple of really nice runs each in between Greg Hill's numerous tracks.

On our way back down the snow transitioned from shallow powder into a tricky crust before finally softening into creamy spring-like corn by the time we were behind the Pterodactyl. It even held up well through the mouse trap as we dodged the avalanche debris back down into the valley.

A nice day out and one well worthy of being our last of the season if that does turn out to the case. There are some more photos here.

Connaught

2010-04-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

The effort-to-reward ratio on Saturday had been a bit silly; Bruins Pass was a long way to go for some so-so north facing terrain. So after a couple of beers with the animals in the hotel...

...we decided to stay another night. Nick came back up and we went straight back into the Connaught to the north facing fans on Cheops. We first skied up into the north facing bowl seen in this photo from yesterday.

After cutting back and forth across the lower fan we worked our way up onto a moraine. Generally we avoid moraines, they're always problematic, but this seemed the wisest place to be. We had stopped for a quick bite and were just taking in the surroundings when a terrific "Craaack!" jolted us to the core. An avalanche had cut loose from the top of Cheops and was thundering down the face on the opposite side of the bowl from us. There was a brief brown-trousers moment before we realized that we were in a safe place. We snapped a few photos of the ensuing powder cloud and aftermath from our ridiculous vantage point.

Then skied the fan below a couple of times.

And worked our way over to the next fan on lookers-left and had a good long ski down here too.

Turns-to-effort ratio? Excellent. Let's go home.

Bruins Pass

2010-04-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

Minus 12C, blue skies, and hardly a soul at the Visitors Center on Saturday morning (April 10).

We skied up behind the hotel, hoping that the fresh snow which had fallen during the week was still holding up on the north side of Bruins Pass.

Grizzly slide path had cut loose sometime during the previous week and come down well below the usual skin track.

Glad we weren't hanging around when that sucker came down. Continuing up the valley it remained quite cold, but any snow facing the sun was quickly getting wet.

We popped over Bruins Pass and took in the always stunning vista of the northern Selkirks. Skins off and down we went. Not quite the deep fluffy powder that we had hoped for; not great, but still pretty good.

Back up to the pass for a look down into 8812 bowl.

Looks stupendous, right? Sadly we were an hour too late. The sun was no longer shining directly onto this south facing slope and the surface had re-frozen into telemarker death crust. It wasn't pretty, but, it was still very pretty.

Have you ever seen "The Man Who Skied Down Everest"?

He's still skiing, albeit with a smaller chute these days:

More photos. There's even one of me!

Vista Lodge

2010-04-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hut trip number eleven with these guys? Or maybe it's number twelve. Or maybe I'm deliberately losing count so as to not put too fine a point on how long we've been doing this.

The usual suspects were there - Mike L, Smiley (Mike R), Paul, Mr 10% (Martin), The Professor (Dave), Ross, Furious D (Damon), and Louis. This was Norm's first ski trip with us. I know Norm from Montreal. Our last trip together was about 10 years ago; a disastrous attempt on Mounts Haddo and Aberdeen.

Vista is a great little hut; cozy, certainly smaller than Sorcerer or Campbell, but nicely rustic, with a good sauna heated to mind bending temperatures by a giant wood stove dubbed the "hippy killer" by our custodian. The only drawback is the long, long walk to the outhouse :)

The week started with warm spring-like temperatures but it very quickly turned into winter again. We received 40 or 50cms of snow over the first couple of days, and then each day brought a few more centimeters of snow mixed with periods of mostly clear skies.

We explored our new surroundings very cautiously; you know it's time to be careful when the previous week's avalanche forecast includes a link to the Hawaii Tourism Association's webpage as a suggestion on how to manage risk. Eventually we got a handle on which slopes were holding together and which were best avoided.

Ridge on Vista

We explored the adjacent drainages, summited a few peaks, had some good long days and then some good short ones allowing more time for eating, drinking, and unwinding in the sauna. Martin's daily hour-long cycles of intense sauna heat and jubilant snow rolling were awe inspiring.

We had possibly the best name game ever. Damon's previous best performance (a "Sitting Bull" pantomime from a few years ago) was topped by his clue "Female body part. And lots of it!".

(Any ideas? Think James Bond.)

The weather took a turn for the worse on our fly-out day. We all sat around expectantly in hurry-up-and-wait mode until 4 o'clock when we finally got two flights out in a mad rush of activity. Brenda, Ross, and I stayed stayed for an extra night and had one more magical evening of fine powder skiing in silent surroundings.

Back at the hut we found that Eileen, bless her, had left fresh pizza dough for us, rising in a giant bowl in the kitchen. There was enough dough for about 6 regular sized pizzas so we created two of the biggest pizzas I've ever seen. We did our best to get them down, but combined with our ill-conceived attempt to finish off the last of the booze, it was a losing battle.

We flew out the next morning under under cold blue skies and with acres of untracked snow beneath us. It was hard to leave.

Photos.

Edit on April 12:
As Martin mentions Brenda and I got engaged at the hut :)

Asulkan

2010-03-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend at the Asulkan Cabin brought us some Very Good Things.

Charlie.

The first significant snowfall in months (causing almost the entire west side of the Asulkan Valley to pull out on Friday night).

Superb, but conservative, skiing.

The best crash ever, earning Steve the new nickname of "Tomahawk".

And, last but not least, new foamies! Thanks to the ACC maintenance crew.

Hermit

2010-03-09T11:51:00.000-08:00

There was an interesting graph posted on the bulletin board at the Visitors Centre on Saturday. Something like this:

It showed height of snowpack vs time as measured at the Fidelity Research Station near Rogers Pass. The upper line shows the record high snowpack recorded, the lower line shows the record low, and the middle line shows this year. It all looked so promising back in November!

We haven't been backcounty skiing for a couple of weeks now; lying low while the avalanche hazard has gone through the roof. We finally ventured forth with Fred into Hermit Meadows on Saturday. It was blazing hot on these south facing slopes and we suffered on the way up.

It took a supreme effort to toil for that last long hour up to Tupper Ridge. The snow was still cold behind Tupper and we had one good run on the gentle north facing bowl.

Up to the ridge again and then back the way we came to battle the wet grabby snow with gritted teeth. It wasn't too bad at first, but as we descended lower we got into areas that had already been in the shade for a couple of hours that had developed a nasty crust. Oh it was diabolical. The worst conditions I've ever had in Rogers Pass bar none! Hard crust on top with wet and sometime bottomless rotten snow underneath. It was hopeless. We had to literally side slip most of the way down; all attempts to turn resulted in an immediate punishing crash. I shudder just to think back.

Ah well. We picked our way down and arrived at the car at dusk, alive and well to fight another day.

Sapphire Col Traverse (Lily Glacier)

2010-02-15T11:04:00.000-08:00

We skied up the Asulkan Valley last Saturday morning (Feb 13th). Usually when we come this way we're going to the hut with overnight packs; this time it was a pleasure to be traveling light and moving quickly.

We followed a well-worn skin track through the mousetrap and then began breaking trail up to climbers left of the cleaver. The forecast wasn't great so we were trying to leave some options open. We could come back the way we came; or we could sneak over the top of the cleaver to the Dome Glacier; or, more ambitiously, we could ski over Sapphire Col and exit out the Lily Glacier and Loop Brook (we had shuttled a car just in case).

Several hours later, with our heads down into the biting wind, we made the last long pull across the upper glacier to the col. When we arrived the visibility was crapping out and we couldn't see the steep slope that drops down to the Lily. Resigned to returning the way that we had just come, we ducked into the hut for a hot drink and something to eat. The respite from the wind made the tiny hut seem cozy and warm at first but it didn't take long for the cold to get into our bones and we figured we'd better get a move on.

By the time we looked outside it had cleared just barely enough to see down to the Lily. Time was getting on but we thought we'd be okay if we didn't dawdle. Seemed like a good plan at the time! Down we went.

We soon realized that this slope wasn't exactly the most stable piece of terrain we'd seen today. It took an age to pick our way down. Then the tedious haul across the flats seemed to take forever as these things do when you're in a rush. Finally the Lily started steepening into the long gentle run that we knew from our only previous visit. But something was a little different this time...

Crevasses. Or, more precisely, semi-bridged-difficult-to-see-in-the-fading-light crevasses stretching across much of the glacier. Our previous visit had been in April but here we were in February, hence the encroaching darkness, and in a year with a below average snow pack.

We hummed and hawed. We debated options. We went left. We went right. We checked the time. A lot. We picked our way down. It was by the light of three headlamps that we arrived back at the car.

Not a single photo; all three of us forgot our cameras.

March 7th: Just found a photo on Brenda's camera that she took when we got back to the car.

Zoa Peak and Manning Park

2010-02-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

Wes and Tina, who we met last weekend at Baldy, invited us to join them at Manning Park on Sunday. We were keen to ski at a new place but less keen on the 5:00am start that it required. So to break up the drive we went to Zoa Peak on Saturday which in a roundabout way allowed us to get to Manning on Saturday night with minimal extra driving. Zoa is at "B" and Manning is at "C" on this map.

Google Street View has recently become available in our area. This is the Zoa trailhead in summer. The snowy peaks on the left are Nak and ~~Thor~~ Thar. Zoa is the rather unimpressive looking ridge on the right.

View Larger Map

Zoa is an okay destination for an easy non-committing kind of day. The north facing slopes off the summit only provide about 200m of vertical, maybe less. We saw some neat hoar frost on the trees on the way up.

The ski out on the road cut can be either a mellow slide home or diabolical survival ski. Today was the latter on re-frozen snowmobile tracks. Yech.

Continuing on our way we eventually found the Cambie Creek trailhead in Manning and settled down in the parking lot for the night. In the morning we were surprised to find some sort of outdoor education camp set up just on the other side of the parking lot snowbank.

As we were having breakfast they trooped by en masse to go watch the Olympic torch pass by on the highway. Meh. I'm fed up with the Olympics.

Joined by Sandy, Wes, Sid, and Tina, we skied up the Fat Dog ski trail for several kilometers before heading up a small knoll. There was some mellow skiing from the top and we just enjoyed being out somewhere new.

I'm not sure this location would be worth another 3 hour drive from Kelowna, not when we could be in Rogers Pass with the same amount of driving. But as always it was just good to be out skiing.

Mount Baldy

2010-02-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

We went lift skiing at Silverstar on Friday night for 5 bucks. Good deal eh? But then we spent many times that on beer at the pub afterward. Mmm... Back Hand of God.

On Sunday we tagged along on an ACC trip to Mount Baldy, a relatively small ski resort south of Kelowna quite near to the US border.

It's an interesting hill with an old time feel much like the small resorts in the Eastern Townships near Montreal. A one ride lift ticket can be had with minimal fuss for $13 allowing quick access to the summit.

We skied some really gentle terrain. It was the wise choice given the size of the group and the skiing level, but the slow pace and the limited vertical left me with that "mall funk", a pervading feeling of lethargy and sapped energy which usually occurs whenever I spend any time inside a shopping mall.

Nevertheless we enjoyed our day; we got to see a new place and met some very nice folks who we may ski with next weekend on an exploratory trip to Manning Park.

Bruins Pass and Sifton Traverse

2010-01-26T12:40:00.001-08:00

Weeks of persistent valley cloud in the Okanagan had left us craving sunlight. Saturday had a promising forecast and as we toured up the Connaught drainage that promise became a reality; bright sunshine warmed both our faces and our souls.

We climbed up Bruins Ridge and had a short run down the cold and shady north side before climbing back up and skiing down 8812 bowl.

The avalanche control teams sometimes go through an exercise of "ranging" their guns. This was going on full-tilt Saturday afternoon as the air was rent apart by the BOOM! of the Howitzers and the WHOOSH! of shells flying through the air. One can't help but feel a visceral response to such power and potential destruction despite knowing perfectly well that they weren't firing anywhere near us. We occasionally smiled at each other a bit uneasily.

Fred and Steve joined us on Sunday for a trip up and over Sifton Col and back down Hermit Meadows. The day started out brilliantly again and then clouded over and snowed a bit by mid-morning, but the visibility held and we enjoyed the 1400m run back down Hermit Meadows.

This is the descent just below Sifton Col. I remember this gave us the heebie-jeebies the first time we skied it. Didn't seem so bad today.

Fairy Meadows

2010-01-06T14:18:00.001-08:00

Fairy Meadows for 400 bucks over the holidays? Wow that's cheap, I thought. Someone is going to get a screaming deal there.

Wait a minute...I'm "someone". That could be me!

So to make a long story short (since interactions with the ACC often lead to long stories and this was no exception) it turned out that yes, we are in fact "some people", and we found ourselves goggling the scenery on the first flight into Fairy Meadows of the 2009 ski season. To we lucky chosen few went the dubious honour of several tedious hours of digging; hut, outhouse, chimney, woodshed, and sauna. What a job.

Nevertheless we did get some turns in on our first day and thus began a super week. There was a group of six from Washington and Oregon, three from Golden/Canmore, and another group of eight, including the ACC work crew, also from Canmore. They were an eclectic group of great people and we really enjoyed everyone's company. I knew one person, Helen, from a previous trip to Fairy Meadows in the summer of 2000 when I was taking a course and Helen was one of the guides.

Brenda and I spent the first few days skiing on our own. We'll admit to feeling a little overwhelmed at first; we were less familiar with the terrain and it seemed like everyone was charging all over the place doing these huge lines while we were pottering around trying to get a handle on things. But we found our bearings and in retrospect it was good to be making our own decisions over those first few days, and we enjoyed ourselves.

The week settled into that familiar and pleasurable hut routine of a long day of skiing followed by a long evening (especially this time of year) of cooking, eating, unwinding in the sauna, and working through the alcohol supply with some determination before being overtaken by utter exhaustion.

It was back to reality last week; first with work, and then getting waylaid with a nasty cold as the activities of the past few weeks finally caught up with me. Although we only returned from the hut a week a go it already seems like a distant memory.

More photos here.

Bonney Moraines

2009-12-22T15:18:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning at the Visitor Centre and we were hemming and hawing with indecision. The morning forecast had changed significantly from the day before; increasing cloudiness and flurries rather than blue skies. What to do? Go up into the alpine but risk getting stuck in flat light, or ski the trees where visibility wasn't going to be an issue but possibly miss out on the chance to get up really high? We chose the trees and headed for Loop Brook.

In the end there was a mixed bag of weather and human nature being what it is we questioned our decision all day! The valley fog lifted, returned again, and then burned off completely to leave some patches of blue sky peaking out from behind the clouds.

Ross Peak

Oh man it took forever to get up into the moraines. I haven't been cycling to work for a few weeks and I'm sure I felt it in my legs breaking trail. Thankfully Nick did most of the hard work.

We spent quite a while doing some compression tests and a Rutschblock. Not that we had reason to suspect the slope but the snowpack has certainly become more complex over the last couple of weeks and we wanted to get a handle on things (btw we were getting moderate results in the 40-55cm range which seems to confirm what the professionals are seeing).

The skiing was really good; wind-effected powder that exploded in chunks all around us. We did a couple of runs and then thrashed around a bit in the trees getting back to the "Elephants Trunk". I think descending via the Lily Glacier moraines on far skiers right is definitely the better option. It was nearly dark by the time we got back to the cars. Not a spectacular day by most measures but any day out in the mountains with friends is always a good one. A veggie burger at the Nomad and we all headed home. Some photos here.

Malakwa

2009-12-05T16:28:00.000-08:00

Malakwa on Saturday with a group from the Alpine Club.

Er, yeah, that's about it really. I'm completely devoid of content material. No witty anecdotes. No little tidbits of information. Nothing. I haven't even got my own photos. Here's one from Nick:

Worst post ever...

Ursus Trees and Puff Daddy

2009-11-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

Ursus Trees on Saturday with Steve and Nick. We left the parking lot at the same time as several large groups and there must have been 25 people strung out along the track. It was crazy. Thankfully for everyone a lot of folks went up Grizzly Shoulder and others peeled off to various destinations along the way until eventually we were breaking trail up Ursus Minor Ridge. Coming down it was the same story as it has been all season -- great skiing. We headed back early in order to be at the Visitor Centre in time for a "Winter Permit Orientation Session".

Ah yes, the bureaucracy of skiing in Roger Pass. There have been many changes to the permit system since last winter. One is that there is now an Annual Winter Permit that allows entry into the Winter Restricted Areas without having to obtain a daily permit. To get the pass you need to attend one of the orientation sessions. The permit is associated to your vehicle by license plate and has two parts: one with your photo on it that you carry on your person, and the other that you leave in your car.

It's hard to say at this point whether or not this is an actual improvement for skiers or if it's just a sop to the powers-that-be. On the one hand it will be convenient to not have to line up for a daily permit when intending to ski in a permit area (now officially called a "Winter Restricted Access" area). But that will only be the case when every member of the party has an Annual Winter Permit since those without an Annual Permit still require a daily permit. As well, the Winter Restricted Access areas will only be pronounced open or closed at around 7:30 each morning. Since there is limited cell phone coverage in the area (depends on your carrier) you pretty much have to be at the Visitors Centre to get the information anyway.

Dystopian nightmare? Remains to be seen. At least they're not charging us for any of these additional permits yet.

On Sunday Brenda and I went up Grizzly Shoulder with the idea of skiing Puff Daddy back down to the highway. We'd been there twice before; one time was great and the other time it was a fiasco. This time it was a little of both!

At first we recognized the terrain and enjoyed some nice skiing, but soon we were drawn into a steep gnarly gully and we realized that all was not well with the world. We were pretty committed at that point but the fear of a repeat fiasco drove us to put our skins on and thrash back up through some cliffs in the hope of finding a better way.

To make a long story short...

Yay! We found the twin slide paths that provide excellent skiing and popped out on the highway between the Visitors Centre and the Hermit trailhead.

I think the moral of the story is that it's pretty hard to go too far to skiers left on Puff Daddy.

Last thing of note. The hotel is much improved again this year (not that we stayed there, but we will). The buffet is cheaper, there's a well thought out dinner menu, and the pub fare looks great.

Alas there's much less weirdness. I kinda miss the weirdness.

Moe: "Nobody wants to hang out in a dank pit no more."
Carl: "You ain't thinkin' of gettin' rid of the dank are you Moe?"
Moe: "Ah maybe I am."
Carl: "Oh but Moe! The dank, the dank!?"

Malakwa

2009-11-23T16:14:00.000-08:00

Harsh 6:00am alarms ringing in the darkness. A freezing cold house since the heat hasn't come on yet. Groans from underneath the covers. Severe misgivings about about going skiing today.

Day trips to Malakwa start with a real...whimper.

This was our first trip to Malakwa since January 2008. Access is dependent upon the logging company plowing the access road and it wasn't maintained last year. The kilometer 15 pullout was jammed with a dozen vehicles by 9:30 so we continued on to around kilometer 16 and had the place to ourselves. There isn't as much open skiing as there is around 15k, but the tree skiing is excellent.

It's been an incredible start to the season. Two meters of snow at treeline in mid-November? Wow.

Après-ski drinkies at The Burner featured Mount Begbie's Attila the Honey. I'm no expert (Pat?) put this is a good beer.

No pictures (of beer or skiing). Camera on the fritz. Again.

Asulkan Cabin

2009-11-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

The most uneventful start to the season ever?

No mud. No sticks or rocks. No cow patties. No goofing around on daft patches of machine-made snow. No doubting the sanity of trying to push in some early skiing.

We simply drove to the pass, climbed to the hut, skied in midseason-like snow, and went home. What could be easier? I don't get it. No complaints though. A terrific start.

ESE Ridge Mount Lady MacDonald

2009-09-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

"Car died in Red Deer. Pick me up in Calgary?"

I was in Golden en route to Canmore when I received this text message from Ross. The extra driving between Canmore and Calgary and then back again, plus the delays in getting through the road construction between Golden and Banff, meant that it was getting late by the time we arrived at the Canmore Castle. We set our sights on the ESE Ridge of Lady MacDonald since it wouldn't require an alpine start. Something I'm always keen on anyway!

The approach begins on the edge of town and passes though the Cougar Canyon climbing area. The route has a few technical spots (5.5ish) and lots of exposed knife edge ridge scrambling. It generally follows the right skyline in this (admittedly poor) photo:

It's a fun route but it did seem a little tedious at times as the ridge scrambling is interrupted by loads of classic Rockies rubble, but it's definitely worth a go, even if only to climb a local Canmore landmark by a route other than the hiking trail.

We planned to do a climb the next day also. Sadly the fickle weather toyed with us. First we gave up on Mothers Day Buttress, then Kid Goat crag, and then were left thoroughly soaked by a hailstorm as we stood below the sport climbs in Cougar Canyon.

Miffed, we messed around with Ross's mountain bike at the town's little terrain park instead. This was quite successful actually. First, we managed not to hurt ourselves. Second, we managed to impress some local mountain bike gurus* by riding a hair-raising narrow wooden beam** from end to end.

*Local gurus were 10 years old (I asked)

**The track was a foot off the ground.

Balu Peak

2009-09-15T11:38:00.001-07:00

We spent the weekend in Rogers Pass with the Okanagan section of the Alpine Club. The entire event was organized by Brenda with the idea being to get people out on some scrambles and hikes in the area and to have a potluck dinner on Saturday night. There were some familiar faces and many new faces too. It went really well.

On Saturday we took a small group up Balu Peak. Our original plan had been to climb Mount Avalanche but we discovered midweek that the Avalanche Crest trail had been closed because of damage from a big storm the previous week. In fact the entire Illecillewaet campground is closed at the moment. It's an impressive scene; there are dozens and dozens of huge trees down, their root systems, including giant boulders, thrust up into the air at crazy angles. We saw a concrete picnic table that had been smashed to smithereens under a 200 year old tree (yup, we counted the rings).

The route from Balu Pass is really just a scramble. Nevertheless it often feels a leap of faith to take on the role of a "leader" for something like this. Despite all precautions you can never quite know what you're getting into with people you've never met before! In the end it was a great group and a lot of fun. I think the route was what people expected and that everyone enjoyed themselves. Hopefully no one resents the 7:00am start :)

Balu Peak

Brian on the way up

Fresh snow on the summit

Brenda on the descent

Cathedral Park

2009-09-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast over the Labour Day weekend called for rain on Saturday, rain on Sunday, and then just for a change, rain on Monday.

But we were planning to head further south, deep into the hot, dry, fruit growing region south of Keremeos. It's a desert down there, I mean how wet could it be? If it rained at all it would probably just sprinkle a bit at worst; an Okanagan rain that makes you consider a light sweater rather than a raincoat. So we decided to follow through with our plan and we hiked into the Wall Creek area of Cathedral Park to attempt the Grimface-Macabre-Matriarch Traverse.

And in the end the forecast was absolutely completely wrong.

It snowed instead.

Sigh.

Here I am at home now on a Tuesday evening, warm and dry, tapping away at the keyboard. Already the process of selective memory is taking hold.

So rather than having a good whinge about heavy packs, soaked feet, and freezing temperatures, I'll just say that we had a great trip. The weather swung wildly from warm and fall-like (however briefly) to full-on snow squalls and then back again seemingly within minutes. It made for a real study in contrasts; warm and cold, wet and dry, pleasant and grim, smiles and frowns.

I think the contrast between this video and just the one photo sums up our trip pretty well.

Canoeing on Okanagan Lake

2009-09-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

We followed in the footsteps of our fellow local bloggers at Tread Lightly this weekend and made a short overnight canoe trip down Okanagan Lake. (We're not stalking you guys, honestly! It's just that great minds really do think alike.)

We put in near Okanagan Mountain Park, a 20 minute drive south from our place. The lake was crowded with noisy power boats and even noisier power boat occupants. They gawked in amazement at our incredible craft which moved silently through the water. "No engine?" they exclaimed. "But how do you tow inflatable water-weenies up and down the lake?".

Okay Brenda says this exchange didn't actually take place. Fine fine.

We enjoyed the paddle and found a nice spot to spend the night. As the evening progressed the number of boats dwindled and watched the sun set behind the hills on the western shore in peace and quiet. A great way to spend the weekend close to home.

Mount Sir Donald Northwest Ridge

2009-08-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

Ross and I have been hoping to climb Sir Donald for years. Schedules, weather, and motivation have all played a part in preventing us from ever setting foot on the mountain. This weekend the stars finally aligned and we climbed the northwest ridge on Saturday.

The NW Ridge of Sir Donald is one of those climbs that you hear a lot about, often for all the wrong reasons. Tales abound of unplanned overnights and epic descents. In fact we witnessed examples of both unfold on this very same weekend last year during one of our previous pseudo-attempts. The climb is listed in Steck and Roper's "Fifty Classic Climbs of North America" and attracts people from all over the world.

To make a long story short we reached the top in 5.5 hours. It was mainly 4th class exposed climbing with short pitches of 5th class. We simulclimbed with about 15m of rope between us and placed the odd piece of gear. You don't really need a rope for most of the climb but it seemed easier to just leave the rope on rather than switching back-and-forth when it was needed for a short section. There was a surprising amount of micro-route finding on the way up. This sounds a funny thing to say about a ridge climb (just follow the freakin' ridge!) but the features are so big that were constantly peaking around corners and checking out ledges to find the path of least resistance.

We topped out at around 11:00am and sat down for a minute to have a snack. Clouds were boiling up in the Beaver Valley on the east side of Sir Donald while the west side was completely clear. We headed south over the summit to find the west face bypass. This would lead us all the way back across the west face to a point on the NW ridge about 1/3 of the way below summit. The ridge is festooned (a great word!) with slings and back-off anchors all over the place and we used them liberally to make short rappels in between sections of frightening down climbing. We each had a few "yeash!" moments at the down climbing bits but eventually we found our way to the first of 12 bolted rap stations and from here we knew we had it made.

It was a loooong 6.5 hours down from the summit. At last we made the final rappel and hit terra firma. Still in good spirits we decided to spend another night at the picturesque bivy site rather than packing up and heading out right away. It's not like we needed an excuse though; look at this place, it's amazing.

In fact staying another night was doubly entertaining for me. It meant that Ross, who had somehow lost all of his cutlery on the hike in, had to eat another meal of soup and pasta using nothing but a pointy stick.

That's the great thing about climbing with Ross; it's usually not the climb itself that you remember the most afterwards.

Full album of photos here.

Terminal Traverse

2009-07-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, your guest blogger (Brenda) accompanied Andrew on the Terminal Traverse.

We left after work on Friday and slept at the Illecillewaet parking lot (yay van!). Saturday morning began portentously; the alarm did not go off as planned, and we got up at 4:40 instead of 4:00. Our bleary-eyed cereal consumption was marred by the fact that we had accidentally brought whipping cream, not milk. Undaunted, we set off at 5am.

The trip began with the hike to Perley Rock. It's a tiring 3-hour uphill grind, but Perley Rock itself is a scenic spot beside the glacier. A perfect place for a snack.

From Perley Rock, we continued up the snow and crossed a corner of the glacier to get to the base of the south ridge of South Terminal Peak. Here, Andrew leads your guest blogger jauntily up the glacier. Our route up is the right skyline.

At the base of the ridge, we stopped for a snack and got ourselves ready to climb. The route itself was not always obvious - there was a good deal of poking around, wondering where to go next. The rock was good, however, and the climbing generally fun.

It took longer than we expected, so we stopped for a snack half-way up.

We finally made it to the top of the South peak, and took a well-deserved snack break. We enjoyed ourselves until we realized that we had to get down somehow. This did not come as a surprise, but it did cause some concern, as the way down was not obvious. We weren't sure whether we wanted to go for the traverse to the north peak, so we descended the ledges of the West face in the general direction of the North peak. The way down, much like the way up, was not obvious. Maybe descending more directly from the peak would have been easier, it's hard to know.

Eventually we determined that it would be easier and simpler to just go over the North peak, so we started in that direction. At last, the route was easy to find, and having found our way we stopped for a snack.

The trip up and down North Terminal peak was mercifully straightforward. We took the fast exit down the snow slope, easily over the bergschrund and off the glacier in good time. It was a relief to get off the glacier and stop for a much-needed snack just as a few raindrops started to fall.

All that remained was the bone-jarring hike back down the Perley Rock trail. Judging by the summit register, South Terminal doesn't get climbed very often. It was a long day, but a fun climb. At 8pm we made it back to the van. We found a place to camp, had dinner, and went to sleep.

Total ascent/descent - 2100m
Guidebook time - 12-14 hours
Brenda & Andrew time - 15 hours
Snacks consumed - 2 PB&J sandwiches, 2 cheese sandwiches, 2 pastries, several granola bars

West Ridge Mount Tupper

2009-07-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

Craig, Brenda and I hiked up to Hermit Meadows on Saturday afternoon.

Much less snow this year and we didn't even need to dig out a tent platform.

The next morning we got an early start and made our way across snow and braided streams to the start of the ridge. The snow was still quite supportive and there were only a few occasions when one of us would disappear up to the waist with a startled "oomph!".

The route wanders up and down across easy terrain until you reach the first steep part. It looks quite imposing at first but the rock is solid (for a change) and the holds are all there. We were tentative for the first few meters but eventually got into a rhythm as the Tupper glacier began to drop away beneath our feet.

We got the rope out for a little traverse, and then for the 5.6 corner pitch, and before we knew it we were on the final pitch to the summit. We'd been worried about the weather all the way up, but it had held for us and we had great views from the top.

We were 5 1/2 hours up and we spent another 4 hours rappelling, down climbing, and slip-sliding back to the tents. The snow had softened considerably and there were quite a few more "oomphs!" on the way down than there had been on the way up.

We packed up, shouldered our heavy sacks, and trudged down the trail back to the highway. A great trip. More photos here.

Skyladder, Mount Andromeda

2009-06-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

Skyladder on Mount Andromeda has developed into a bit of a bugbear for me over the years. When we lived back east Skyladder was always on our todo list during the annual summer climbing pilgrimage; but our trips always took place in late summer and inevitably the route was out of shape with bare ice and nasty rockfall. Eventually we'd been in several times to look at Skyladder. Yeah, I know, "look at" is a euphemism for "we went to climb it but got scared and ran away in a comical Monty Pythonesque fashion". It's probably the reason I've climbed Mount Athabasca so many times; it's right next door to Andromeda.

The solution? Climb it in June. Brilliant. Apparently we're a bit late with this revelation since I don't think anyone climbs the route in summer any more. But still, we can be taught!

Ross and I left a bleary-eyed Brenda in the van at the climber's bivy at 3:30am. She had a full day of studying ahead of her, but that wouldn't start until after several more hours of sleep. It was dark, cold, sleeting, and miserable. Egad how I envied her! I don't think we really expected to get very far but nevertheless we turned on our headlamps and began trudging along the road and up the moraines. We found our way through the icefall (not without incident), dodged crevasses across the glacier, made an end run around the bergschrund, and began kicking steps upwards.

~~The usual~~ A common method of climbing Skyladder is to top out on the route and to then make a long traverse over to the Andromeda-Athabasca col. A number of raps gets you back down to the glacier. However it's notorious for getting people lost, especially in poor visibility, and visibility was decidedly lacking.

We'd resolved to kick really good steps just in case we needed to descend the same way we came up. This seemed like a great idea when I was in the lead making the steps. Unfortunately the frailty of our plan was revealed when I was later following Ross's steps; by the time I'd placed my feet in twenty of his steps the rest had disappeared. The blowing snow simply filled them in within minutes. I was mildly alarmed when I realized this but by then the weather was showing signs of improvement so we continued on up.

We'd set a turnaround time of 1:00PM. By 12:40 we'd basically completed the route but still hadn't actually topped out. The weather was still pretty dodgy so, much to Ross's dismay, we began heading down. Of course after we'd descended a few hundred meters the weather began to clear out in earnest and we were left agonizing over our decision. Oh well. The sunny skies made the descent seem easy despite not having any steps to follow down. We were back on the glacier in an hour and a half.

Almost without us noticing it had turned into a beautiful day; the sun was blazing and the fresh snow was dazzling. It was only at this point that I stupidly remembered to put on sunscreen and sunglasses. Alas, it was far too late and I already had the sunburn of my life. I'd even managed to burn my eyelids. The next couple of days were agony as my eyelids and face swelled up painfully.

Anyway, we trundled across the glacier, Ross fell into a couple of crevasses up to his waist, and we generally enjoyed our walk back to the van. Brenda, bless her, met us part way up the moraine with fresh water and snacks.

Jimmy Lake

2009-06-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

Bit late with this one...

Two weekends ago we loaded the old canoe onto the van and headed to Jimmy Lake to meet Fred. Ostensibly we were going there to do some fishing, but since Brenda and I only have one fishing road between the two of us, and one of us is a vegetarian, let's just say that the fish needn't have been overly worried.

On the first part of the drive, on paved road, we traveled 157kms in about an hour and a half. On the second part of the drive, on a logging road, we traveled a whopping 20kms in one hour. 16-year old VW vans don't like logging roads.

Some highlights of the trip were two loons tearing madly around the lake chasing each other, a baby deer with it's mother, and studying a bald eagle on its nest as we casually floated by in the canoe.

We also noticed loads of bright blue damselflies congregating on lily pads. Looking closely we realized that (what we assume to be) female damselflies were hatching in the water and clinging to the underside of the lily pads. The males were patiently waiting for them to come to the surface. As soon as a female got too close to the edge of a lily pad, a male would grab her and haul her to the surface and try to mate. There was a lot happening on those lily pads and we spent quite a while watching, enthralled.

That's about it. Fred claims to have caught a good sized rainbow trout, but since it was already cleaned and in the freezer when we arrived, we're a bit dubious.

Bruins Ridge

2009-04-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

We were hoping to get over to the north side of Bruins Pass again on Saturday. The weather forecast was pretty grim as we started up the Connaught on a wet and grey morning. We knew that we were pushing our luck with the weather but you "need to give the mountain a chance" as they say.

There were about 5cms of moist new snow over a hard surface. As we plodded upwards, and the terrain became steeper, our skins seemed to delight in randomly losing their purchase and skidding out from underneath us. Comical at first, but it got old in a hurry. The skins were balling up with frustrating regularity too.

But we fought the good fight and struggled on upwards. At first it looked as though we would be rewarded for our efforts too; a fleeting patch of blue sky appeared providing us with a view back towards Cheops.

The wind changed direction, the clouds churned up, and we actually had a reasonable window of good weather. After half an hour this was our view to Bruins Pass.

But even in this photo it already looked as though our window was beginning to shut. A few minutes later this was Steve pointing to the same rocky outcrop.

We hunkered down for a while under the tarp to wait-and-see. Snacks were eaten. The tarp layout was "improved" fifty times. More snacks were eaten. Chunks of snow were cut off the cornice and rolled down the slope to disappear in the mist. Old Easter candy was discovered in the bottom of a lunch bag and passed around to much acclaim.

But, reluctantly, we admitted defeat and carried our skis part way down the ridge until it was wide enough to begin skiing down.

Ah well, you win some and you lose some. Between yard work and family visits I'm sure we'll be out again this spring.

Forever Young

2009-04-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

Wow. Wow!

We skied Forever Young on Saturday, and today, two days later, we're still basking in the glow of good memories.

Forever Young is a steep couloir that drops off the north edge of Young's Peak. It's about 500m high and 40+ degrees for much of it's length. It's also extremely narrow in places, or at least it seems really narrow to weekend warriors like ourselves. And so yes I feel that we can legitimately use the term "couloir" rather than "gully" :)

(Photo from 2008)

The day started clear and warm as we skied up the Illecillewaet Glacier. The four of us were sweating buckets, but the great morning weather had turned foul and cold by midday. The visibility deteriorated so badly that we double-checked the GPS to make sure it was properly tracking our route, just in case. It's pretty easy to get turned around on the Illecillewaet in bad light.

We made our way over the rolling snow towards Youngs Peak. Along the way we met up with another party that were heading for the Young's Peak traverse; they were hunkered down to wait for the weather to improve. We said our hello's and continued over to the top of Forever Young where, admittedly, I could feel the butterflies beginning to form in my stomach.

It's just so bloody intimidating! The first turns are steep, but the real kicker is that the slope is convex; as you look down the gully it kind of rolls away and gets even steeper, hiding most of the run from view. The walls loom ominously above and pinch off part way down too for good measure. It's quite a sight.

It was simply an awesome ski; steep, exhilarating, thrilling, kinda nerve wracking, but most of all, exhausting!

We'd make 4 or 5 turns and then quickly scoot to the side to catch our breath and let our sloughs run past. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, the walls opened up a bit and the angle let up just a little, and we were left with a fantastic run down the lower third of the slope.

Best ski of the season, bar none. More photos here.

Bruins North and 8812 Bowl

2009-04-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

We expected that the only place we were going to find good snow this weekend was on north facing terrain at high elevations. Having never skied the north side of Bruins Pass before, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to go up and have a look. Nick and Steve joined us at the Visitor's Centre and we were away.

It sure gets quiet this time of year in Rogers Pass; I think people are just tired of skiing by now. After six months of it I was kind of feeling the same way as we trudged up the Connaught Drainage and started up Bruins Ridge. It's hard to get motivated when it's hot and the snow is beginning to melt away.

Spring seems to have arrived early and we were reminded again of how much less snow there is this year. Here's a photo of Bruins Ridge from March of last year (first photo) and another from the same spot this weekend (second photo).

It's a month later, and the ridge is pretty wind-blasted, but it still seems like a big difference.

Anyway enough about that. Our enthusiasm was quickly restored when we dropped over Bruins Pass. It was cold and wintry, the snow was powdery and untouched, and the skiing was fantastic. After one run down we were all smiles. We skinned back up and on a lark boot packed to the top of 8812.

We had another run down and it was even better. By the time we had skinned back up to Bruins we'd logged almost 2000 meters of climbing on the day. I think that's the biggest ski day we've ever had. The return ski down the east facing 8812 bowl was...er, marginal to put it charitably, so we won't talk about that. But overall certainly one of our best days this season.

Sorcerer Lake Lodge

2009-03-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

Another annual hut trip has come and gone. It's hard to believe that 12 months have passed since I wrote about our last hut trip. Where does the time go?

We have already been to Sorcerer twice. It's such an amazing place that when we last flew out from the lodge back in 2007 we booked a week in 2009 as we stepped off the helicopter. Of all of the huts we've been to, Sorcerer has the most impressive and varied terrain, the best accommodations, the nicest owner, and is the most professionally operated of them all. You've got a special place Tannis. Thanks!

The trip got off to a good start in Golden where we stayed at the Ponderosa Motel. When the proprietor learned that we were repeat customers he was barely able to restrain his enthusiasm. As we organized gear in the parking lot he chatted and joked with us. At one point he ducked into the office and returned with Ponderosa Motel ball caps for each of us!

This time of year you can get full-on spring or full-on winter conditions. Thankfully we had conditions that were more like winter with cold temperatures, generally clear skies and just a hint of spring in the air. The March 1st layer was still reactive at tree line. Although the avalanche conditions generally improved throughout the week we still avoided some of the steeper lines that we've skied in past years. There was also less snow in general, a common story in the Selkirks this year. There were many holes and fractures showing on the glaciers that we'd never seen before. We often wore harnesses and probed for crevasses whenever we stopped for lunch or something.

There were a couple of pine martens around the hut this year. They were incredibly bold. One only very reluctantly gave way to let me through to the sauna; he growled and hissed at me as I passed. Having left a pair sandals on the deck I returned to find one of them missing. Thief! I was miffed. From then on, after returning from a day of skiing I would wander around the hut with a shovel and dig up random marten holes looking for the stolen booty. It seemed a hopeless endeavor but I persevered.

On the fourth day I followed a particularly well worn marten path away from the hut towards the lake. It led to series of deep rocky nooks. As I approached actually saw the little bugger clambering up the cliff side away from me. I scrambled down to the lake and lowered myself head first between the rocks to peer into the darkness. As my eyes slowly adjusted I slowly discerned the outline of...a sandal! There it was far back in the deepest nook. Aha you little bugger, victory is mine. Well, victory of a sort anyway since there wasn't much sandal left. Still...screw you marten.

Here's the link to a schwack of photos and a video starring one of the infamous martens.

Asulkan Cabin

2009-03-24T16:04:00.000-07:00

Our trip to the Asulkan Hut this weekend seemed to mark the transition from winter to spring skiing. It began in the customary manner; clagged in and misty. We wondered if we would even be able to venture above the hut. We shouldn't have worried. An incredible overnight gale had the hut shuddering on it's foundations and made the simple task of collecting snow for water a major ordeal. But the wind blew away the clouds and we awoke the next morning to blue skies and the sight of an impressive avalanche that had crashed down off Mount Leda and continued down towards the mouse trap.

And thus began a remarkable two days of skiing. Blue skies, warm temperatures, great snow. It couldn't have been any better. Even when we had completely exhausted ourselves we didn't want to call it a day and just kept going up for more. A few in the group put in something over 2000m of vertical on Saturday. The place looked like heli-ski terrain by Sunday.

We had some visitors on Saturday afternoon.

Avalanche control was on-going in the valley and the helicopter had been dispatched to prevent a group from dropping into Loop Brook from Sapphire Col without a permit. You'd think the prospect of getting a Howitzer shell in the head would be enough of a deterrent?

Anyway they stopped in at the hut to do some repairs and to grace us with their presence.

How does that joke go...What's the difference between God and Mountain Guide? God doesn't think he's a Mountain Guide.

Okay not quite relevant but the idea is there. I guess they meant well.

Oh one last thing. We met a guy named Grog Still. He reminded us of someone but we couldn't quite place the name. He was shooting video with someone he kept referring to as "The Slough Monkey". Anyway he said he'd send us some footage. If he does we'll post it here.

In the meantime here's our own little video.

Bonney Moraines and NRC Gully

2009-03-07T19:46:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we headed up Loop Brook and skied in the Bonney Moraines. The moraines are a complicated mix of old, twisted, and interlaced ridges just below the glacier on Mount Bonney.

Despite the relatively normal sounding avalanche bulletin everyone was quite wary of the avalanche conditions. "Spooky" is a word that avalanche professionals seem to be using a lot this year. Looks like some skiers just avoided getting caught in this little nasty:

Anyway we did a couple of laps on one of the gentler moraines and then ventured onto the steeper treed slopes on far skiers right.

The skiing was, in a word, awesome.

Steve, Nick, and Fred headed home after skiing on Saturday. Brenda and I stayed and we had a short day in NRC Gully on Sunday.

If NRC wasn't just a giant avalanche path we would ski here more often! The turns-to-effort ratio is brilliant; you simply step out of the car, go up, rip off your skins, and ski right back down to the car.

But the fact remains that NRC is simply a giant avalanche path and I find it a little spooky.

Earlier this year a truly big avalanche ripped through NRC that ran beyond it's normal runout and tore up mature timber. We found lots of evidence of this event. Most of the trees have fresh scars on their uphill sides like this one:

The skiing was so-so. NRC is west facing, compared to Bonney which faces north, and the warm sun earlier in the week had made a crust that lurked about 30cm below the surface. We managed to avoid any classic telemark-death-crust-face-plants, but, like the crust itself, the possibility was always there, lurking!

Zoa Peak

2009-02-28T12:35:00.000-08:00

We skied at Zoa Peak on Saturday. Previous visits here have left us a bit underwhelmed but maybe we've just been unlucky. This time we really enjoyed ourselves and have a new found appreciation for the place. Good visibility too so we were able to look around a bit. There's plenty of scope for exploration here.

The theme for the day was surface hoar; it was everywhere, glinting in the sun, tinkling noisily, and shooting ahead of us in ethereal fast-moving surface sloughs as we skied.

Ice Climbing at Trout Creek

2009-02-22T17:40:00.000-08:00

Ice climbing in the Okanagan? Yup.

I used to do a fair bit of ice climbing when I lived in Quebec, before I discovered backcountry skiing anyway. Skiing has a much more agreeable fear-to-fun ratio. But I was never any good at it really and I've only been out a handful of times in the past several years. War has been described as "long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror", and this, too, can be applied to ice climbing..."long periods of freezing-to-death punctuated by moments of sheer terror".

So I scraped the rust and cobwebs off my now dated looking ice tools, packed a thermos of hot tea, a down jacket, enormous thick gloves, a balaclava; everything I could think of to keep warm. Sean had been somewhat vague about our destination, so despite the warm temperatures in Kelowna I was prepared for the worst.

I needn't have worried. We had a fun and easy day of top roping and the greater hazard lay in overheating rather than freezing to death. One of the bigger challenges was in trying to avoid the cactii as we set up a top rope. Those buggers are not to be trifled with.

So yeah, ice climbing in the Okanagan. Not like the old days at Lake Willoughby in Vermont.

Trout Creek with our climb on the right

Me (and a much appreciated top-rope)

Sean's nemesis

Asulkan Cabin

2009-02-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

A memorable trip to the Asulkan Cabin this weekend. Snow stability in the alpine is really good right now and people are skiing big, bold lines all over the place. As we climbed up to the hut on Friday we saw a conga line of people dropping down Forever Young, a steep and narrow couloir that lines the north side of Youngs Peak. That one is on our to do list but not for this weekend. However over the course of this trip we did get up Youngs Peak from the Asulkan side (we had previously been up from the Illecillewaet side) and also had a great time skiing below Mount Jupiter on the west side of the Asulkan Valley.

Steve and Claude were originally to start skiing at 3:00PM on Friday afternoon, planning to arrive at the hut slightly after dark. But they didn't get 10 steps from the trailhead before Steve had a catastrophic binding failure. After a desperate run to Revelstoke to rent gear they eventually arrived at the hut at 11:30PM to find us all, somewhat guiltily, ensconced in our sleeping bags. "If you think I'm going to be quiet you can forget it!" announced Steve as they stomped around in the dark cabin.

We met Katie, Mark, Sean, and Yann and also caught up with Dave who we last saw on Know Mountain in December. Thanks for organizing a great weekend Steve.

Forever Young

Asulkan Cabin

Youngs Peak Headwall

Yann, Andrew, Brenda, Katie, Henry, Dave, Steve, Fred on Youngs Peak

More photos

Little Sifton Col and Puff Daddy

2009-02-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

Permits were finally available this weekend. We grabbed one for Hermit and headed up Grizzly Shoulder towards Little Sifton Col with Nick. Visibility was reasonable and our plan was to drop over the col and return to the highway via Hermit Meadows.

We dug a couple of pits on the ridge above Grizzly Shoulder, the logic being that we would be descending a similar aspect in Hermit. We got some poor compression test results on an ESE aspect @ 2250 meters on yet another sun crust over facet layer about 15cm down. Higher up the wind had wreaked havoc and it was basically dust over crust from here on up.

By the time we reached the col at around 1:30 the weather was changing and the visibility was deteriorating a bit. The north facing descent from the col is really steep. We negotiated our way around the cornice and had a good long examination of the snow. The top 20-30cm was a rock hard crust sitting on a 5cm layer of crappy facets. It was a tough call. It seemed like it would take a lot to release the slope, but if it did go that it would go in a big way. We had one vote for skiing it, one vote for bailing, and one abstention. We bailed.

But all was not lost! Armed with the permit we could detour into Puff Daddy and save the day. We had never skied this line before. Wow it was fantastic. Steep lines and plenty of space between the trees. We whooped and hollered our way down to the highway and wondered why we had never skied here before.

The next day we met with Tim, an old friend, roommate, and climbing buddy of mine from Montreal. Years ago we had scared ourselves silly together on some of our first alpine climbs. Sometimes I wonder how we survived. He now lives in Lethbridge and was on his way to a locum in Nelson.

Tim had never skied in Rogers Pass before so we were keen to show him a good day. The weather was awesome with blue sky from horizon to horizon. With memories of Puff Daddy fresh in our heads we decided to go back again. After climbing up Grizzly Shoulder for the umpteenth time this season we popped up onto the ridge. It was a stunning view and Tim was all smiles.

The day was young and we decided to do a couple of laps higher up before dropping into Puff Daddy proper. The skiing was great and thank goodness it was because the descent down Puff Daddy was a complete fiasco!

Oh man I don't know where we went wrong. We thrashed through trees, skidded down dodgy gullies, and crashed in the crusty snow. It basically just sucked. We were desperately trying to find the brilliant line that we had skied only 24 hours before. The smile was long gone from Tim's face.

I was convinced that we were too far left so we kept traversing to the right thinking we'd eventually find the good skiing, but it eluded us.

Eventually we came across a creek and heard some voices. Peering through the trees we saw several people descending a well worn path. We were completely bewildered. Where the heck were all these people coming from in the middle of nowhere?

Then the truth dawned on us. We had traversed so far to the right that we had reached the main uptrack leading into the Connaught Drainage. We couldn't believe it. Even now, sitting at home typing this, I'm not sure how we screwed it up so badly.

I'm sure it'll all seem pretty funny...eventually. Thankfully we have a GPS track from the first run. This is how Puff Daddy is supposed to be skied...

More photos.

Tree Skiing in the Connaught

2009-01-31T19:41:00.000-08:00

Up to the pass on Friday. Overnight the wind was howling. On the avalanche report the next day we read that it had reached 140kmh. I'd believe it; the snapping of the flags at the Visitor Centre sounded like rapid fire gun shots.

No permits again on Saturday morning so we decided to stay in the Connaught Drainage rather than driving back to the Bostock or Asulkan trailheads. Ideally we would have skied up towards Ursus or Bruins or something but we were wary of crossing all of the avalanche run outs. Instead the four of us (Nick, Fred, and us two) started by climbing up the Cheops ridge and then skiing down the Hour Glass. We then crossed over the creek and did a run on Grizzly Shoulder. After that it was still early so we scurried across the Grizzly slide path and had a run in the Teddy Bear Trees. When all was said and done we'd climbed over 1600 meters on the day. That's a lot for us.

The snow was good but not fantastic. Overall there was about 70cm of new snow. At higher elevations this was on top of a lurking crust that would occasionally send the unwary telemarker head-over-heels. At lower elevations the new snow was lying on top of the hoar frost layer we've been hearing so much about. On the mellow terrain below the hour glass, where it had been exposed to the wind, the snow had compressed into a slab. We saw shooting cracks that traveled for 30 or 40 meters as the snow settled with a loud "whumph". We were able to trigger small remote sloughs too. Fun stuff.

As I write this on Tuesday the forecast is again calling for freezing levels to reach mountain top this week. Man, what a weird season it's been.

Fred amongst the shooting cracks.

(Photo:Nick)

I like this one of Fred.

(Photo:Nick)

McGill Shoulder

2009-01-17T17:21:00.000-08:00

We had a chat with Luc at the Rogers Pass Visitors Center on Saturday morning. He had a few good stories to relate that spoke volumes about the current avalanche conditions in the area.

The first, and the most pressing as far as we were concerned, was that Saturday was the 12th day in row that no permits were to be available for backcountry travel. Another was that during mid-week the control crews had fired five successive Howitzer rounds into the same slope without generating a result. They then moved on to the next firing location when the slope released on its own and ran down to the highway.

Tree skiing for us then! And off to McGill Shoulder we headed. We skied with Nick from Revelstoke for the first time. Blue skies and warm temperatures. It seemed more like April than the middle of January. Man it was great to see the sun and to feel some warmth on our faces. A nice change from Kelowna where it has been clagged in for weeks now.

We took it easy and did a couple of laps in the small clearings on skiers left of the two main avalanche paths beginning at about 1950 meters. McGill is a good option on low visibility days and we've often skied there under those conditions. It was a real treat to be there on such a nice clear day. Almost like being there for the first time. It became seriously hot. Snow was sloughing off the trees and snowballing down the slopes.

It's been a strange winter so far. In many ways we feel like it hasn't even really begun yet. I hope things settle down soon.

Photo: Nick

And check out these photos of the CPR Mainline taken last week near Rogers Pass (thanks Steve).

Video Compilation

2009-01-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

Just for fun.

Unfortunately there's no new footage. Just lots of older video cobbled together to make us look good. Well, sorta good anyway.

But why no new footage? Ah glad you asked.

We're in the market for a new camera. Our current camera is a Sony DSC-P92. It's just a simple point-and-shoot digital, several years old. It has served us very well but I dropped it down a scree slope last summer and it just hasn't been the same since. Actually it's a wonder the poor thing still works at all.

We've considered a video camera but we also want to shoot stills. My understanding is that most video cameras can also shoot stills but that the resolution isn't nearly as good as with a regular camera. And there's no way I'm going to carry one of each.

Any suggestions?

Here's the wish list:
- AA batteries
- video @ 30fps and 640x480 resolution
- viewfinder (or an LCD that is actually usable in bright light)
- >3x optical zoom
- zoom while shooting video (dreaming?)

Ringing in the New Year at Rogers Pass

2009-01-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

We spent five days skiing in The Pass over the holidays. 70cm of new snow fell while we were there which made for some tetchy avalanche conditions. We took it easy and stayed in the conservative terrain at McGill Shoulder, Teddy Bear Trees, Flat Creek, Grizzly Shoulder, and Ursus Trees. But we also heard of people skiing bigger stuff like Video Peak. We were mystified at that. Are they nuts for skiing it or are we nuts for avoiding it?

Two days were spent with MB on a sort of custom avalanche course which we had organized for just Brenda and myself. Time well spent. It had been a long time since either of us had brushed up on our avalanche training.

Some highlights of our trip...

The New Years's eve bash at the hotel was full-on.

Cold! The temperature one morning was -22C outside and -18 inside (that is, inside the van). It was a severe test of my sleeping bag and down duvet combination. The moisture from cooking and breathing produced a hard layer of verglas on just about everything.

The highway was closed one night for avalanche control as the military boys wheeled out their Howitzers. The boom of the guns and the roar of the avalanches echoed up and down the valley. I think they were shooting at the Herdman Couloir on Mt. MacDonald which was just east of where we were parked.

We explored two areas which were new to us. The south side of Flat Creek provided some good tree skiing. Unfortunately the lower third of the descent to the valley floor was diabolical! The snow pack is still relatively low and the forest floor was choked with fallen logs. Character building stuff. We also took what was for us a new line from Grizzly Shoulder. We went up and over the top and then skied down almost directly on top of the ridge to the valley bottom. Very tight tree skiing in super deep snow. I need to become a better tele skier for that stuff. Parallel turns ruled the day for me. Aye it's a slippery slope.

MB and Brenda on Grizzly Shoulder

Looking towards the Illecillewaet from Grizzly Shoulder

Knox Mountain

2008-12-20T12:46:00.000-08:00

We didn't stray too far from home this weekend. Our get-up-and-go deserted us. Short days, really cold weather, you get the picture. In four winters of living in Kelowna we've never seen such consistently low temperatures. Lots of snow too. Except for revealing how poorly insulated a 96-year old house can be, it's been great!

We managed to pull ourselves away from the wood stove for just long enough to trek up Knox Mountain. I had high hopes that some of the grassy slopes might be holding just enough snow for a few decent turns. Alas, not quite. There was no base at all underneath the powdery snow and the tufts of long brown grass seemed perfectly designed for catching ski tips. After two cartwheeling crashes I called it a day.

We ran into David who was out snowshoeing with his dog. We know him from a trip to the Asulkan Hut last year. We also saw a couple of other folks out there skiing too. We didn't have time to say hello. Any of you guys?

December 20th 2008

December 23rd 2007

Apex Backcountry

2008-12-14T10:47:00.000-08:00

We spent Sunday skiing with Ron and Sid near Apex Resort. Ron knows the area really well and was tour guide for us throughout the day. We made a few turns but mainly just wanted to connect some of the dots from our previous visits to Apex. The snow pack is still marginal so it's just as well that we were out for a tour.

It was a seriously cold day. I don't think it got any warmer than -19C. Okay Pat you're laughing at us. I guess three years in the Okanagan has thinned my blood.

We saw loads of moose tracks, enjoyed a bit of sun, and basically just kept moving to stay warm!

Ron shows us his shortcut

Ursus Trees

2008-12-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

Finally we got out skiing again this weekend. Just for one day on Sunday. A big system came through and dumped 50cm of snow in the Rogers Pass area. The driving was nasty. Vehicles were stuck all over the place in the Visitor's Center parking lot. It was a bit of a zoo.

Despite all of the new snow and the attendant avalanches roaring down off of Cheops it's still looking shrubby in the Connaught Drainage. The Grizzly slide path is choked with alder. But as usual once into the alpine the skiing is fine.

My camera crapped out again so we have few photos from our day out -- just one from Fred and another taken last year showing our runs. I wonder if Santa Claus reads blogs?

But despair not, dear reader, at this meager fair! At this scanty validation of our day of toil! A boring Friday night, some very fine Scotch, and lots of old video have together conspired to bring you the first and only Fast-Freddy Fanboy video for your viewing pleasure.

Sorry Fred.

Asulkan Cabin

2008-11-10T09:39:00.000-08:00

The fourth annual November long weekend trip to the Asulkan Hut. Brenda couldn't make it this year because she was speaking at a conference in Toronto (how grown up!) so it was Fred, Steve, and myself who made the long trudge on Saturday morning. It seemed like a long trudge anyway. We were knackered when we arrived. Why doesn't this get any easier?

The upstairs door had blown open and the 2nd floor was covered in a snow drift that was rapidly melting through onto everything downstairs. We cleaned that up and called it a day. Just as darkness was falling we noticed another group climbing up towards the hut. We idly wondered if it was anyone we knew. Turned out that we knew all of them; Jeff and Dustin, Jeff and Julie, Ryan, and Kaylie. (Thanks for the marzipan Dustin!)

So we skied, we ate, we slept in. We did some beacon searches. I'm not so bad at searching for multiple beacons after all. Fred had a good crash at one point - this alone was pretty entertaining since he hardly ever crashes - but his ski released and took off as if determined to make it all the way back to the highway. Oh man that sucker went for miles. Leashes? I dunno. Generally we don't use them but sometimes you gotta wonder.

The ski out was great at first but as we descended the temperature rose and it became pretty grim. The snow turned to rain and the trail turned to muck. I admitted defeat and put my skins on for most of the way down. We were soaked to the skin when we reached the car.

A fun start to the season but we need more snow. Please?

BTW (for anyone heading up the Asulkan Hut) one of the stoves is missing. I assume Parks removed it for repair but I sent them an email anyway just in case they don't know about it. It might be worth bringing up your own stove if the hut is busy.

Canmore

2008-10-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

Canmore over the long weekend. Originally to do a bit of late season climbing with Ross. However, in a word, it was c-c-cold. Snowing when we arrived on Friday night and a low of -9 or something. So we did a couple of snowy scrambles and enjoyed the sound of snow crunching underfoot again.

Ross got delayed on a business trip so Brenda and I strolled around chilly Canmore on Saturday morning. After meeting Ross around midday we started up Fairview in the early afternoon. It only takes a few hours to hike up Fairview and we were quickly rewarded with spectacular 360 degree views of the area for very little effort.

I had my first view of the Aberdeen glacier since trying to climb Aberdeen about 10 years ago. We were pummeled by rock fall that day and were very lucky to walk away. Ross had a similar experience just this summer.

Aberdeen Glacier

Ross and Brenda on Fairview

Caution, rant below. Sorry Brenda.

Did you know that you can rent a canoe on the beautiful shores of Lake Louise in Banff National Park? That's right. You give the nice man forty-five dollars and you can paddle about for thirty minutes.

Wait a minute. Forty-five dollars? Forty-five dollars!? For 30 stinkin' minutes!?

That is mental. Banff is (supposedly) a national park, not some tacky tourist trap designed to fleece people of their money. It's undignified. It's pathetic.

Anyway, back to the weekend. On Sunday we tried to scramble up to the south summit of Mount Indefatigable in Kananaskis. First we got up late. Then we drove to a trailhead, thought we were in the wrong place, and then doubled back many kilometers only to find out that we had in fact been in the right place. Then after starting from the car we immediately missed the turn off to the trail and hiked for an hour in the wrong direction. Again we doubled back. A couple of hours later we blithely trudged past a trail junction for the south summit and instead headed up towards the north summit! It was comical.

Still, we had a nice day slogging around in the snow and mud. We didn't quite make the summit since it was plastered with wet snow and getting late.

Mount Indefatigable

On the way up I encountered a gentleman wearing an English football jersey but I couldn't tell which club it was. Upon inquiry he pulled a pack strap aside to reveal the word "Forest".

"Ah, Nottingham", I said, which left him pretty chuffed. He of course asked where my allegiances lay. At first he seemed dead suspicious when I told him Liverpool.

"What's your connection with 'em?", he asked.

"I'm from Liverpool", I replied.

"Oh". His expression softened. "That's all right then. I hoped you weren't like one of them prawn eating Manchester United fans is all."

It's the little things in life :)

Shuswap River

2008-09-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

We had a nice day paddling a short section of the Shuswap River on Saturday. We were with Brenda's parents who have been visiting from Sarnia. Started at Trinity Bridge east of Enderby and finished up in Enderby. We're not white water paddlers by any measure. This part of the river is very gentle, but it does move along at a good clip in a few places which keeps it interesting. No salmon yet but we did see a black bear along the shore.

Pinnacle Lake

2008-09-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

We were at a loose end as to what to do with ourselves last weekend. Having both been away the previous week we hadn't put much thought into the upcoming long weekend. It had been cold and rainy in Kelowna which probably meant that the snow level in Rogers Pass would be low enough to hinder the climbing aspirations of mere mortals like ourselves.

So, for a change, we headed to Pinnacle Lake in the Monashees. One hour north, one hour east, 22k on a logging road, and we began the short hike up to the lake. On the way up we ran into Henry who was hiking with his family and friends. We met Henry in February on a trip to the Asulkan Hut.

We spent two nights camping near the edge of the lake. It was a beautiful setting with the lake nestled in a little amphitheater and The Pinnacles rising above the far end. When the sun disappeared behind the peaks in the early evening the temperature quickly dropped and we retired to the tent to cook an early dinner. This seemed like a good idea at the time but one morning a couple of guys told us they had been forced to frighten away a young bear that had been making its way around the lake shore towards us.

On the middle day we scrambled up to the ridge line and looked over at Monashee Lake. We had tried to get into Monashee Lake last spring but didn't make it. Which reminds me, still need to get a buck saw to keep in the car for trips like this.

We continued scrambling along the ridge under the indifferent weather. We were rained on, snowed, hailed, and sunshined on at various times throughout the day. Eventually we scrambled to the top of the Middle Pinnacle (according to the summit register) and called it a day.

We explored an ice cave, foraged for blueberries, and sang daft songs to let the bears know we were coming. A relaxing weekend quite close to home.

Uto Peak SW to NW Traverse

2008-08-25T20:11:00.000-07:00

Took a few days off last week to join Ross for some climbing. We had grand ambitions with the NW Ridge of Sir Donald topping our list. Sadly the weather turned foul and put a crimp in our plans. The third week of August is notorious for bad weather.

So, instead of meeting in Rogers Pass as originally planned I drove straight through to Canmore and met up with Ross at the Canmore Castle. We had a good fester, did some long-boarding, visited Banff where Ross bought some new boots (he needed 'em), and had a swim in the hot springs under the cold pouring rain. I hadn't been there since I was a kid.

The forecast for the weekend improved and we eventually made our way back to Rogers Pass and up to the Sir Donald bivy site. When the clouds parted we had our first worrying look at Sir Donald.

Doh.

We set up camp and climbed up to the Donald-Uto col to look around. The NW Ridge was soaked and covered in snow. To our surprise there was a party on the route. We watched them for quite a while but they hardly moved an inch. We returned to camp. As we cooked and ate dinner we could see them rappelling down the west face racing against the encroaching darkness. Eventually they got down and came through the bivy site where Ross exchanged a few words with them. They were soaked to the core, freezing, and had basically had a very, very bad day. Ross said their eyes were as big as saucers.

With that in mind the next day we decided to give Sir Donald another day to dry out. Instead we opted to traverse Uto by climbing up the SW ridge and descending by the NW ridge. The weather improved throughout the day and we enjoyed ourselves. It wasn't Sir Donald but it was still good route in a much less threatening sort of way!

That's Sir Donald behind us in the last photo.

Another group that had arrived the previous night had decided to go for the NW ridge. We saw glimpses of them throughout the day but they too were moving agonizingly slowly. We lost sight of them and thought that they must have given up and rapped off.

When we got back to camp we debated going for it the next day, Sunday, but for me the momentum was lost and we decided against it. We planned to spend the night and head out the next morning.

We again had entertainment of sorts while eating dinner. The party which we assumed had bailed was still trying to get down off Sir Donald. However it was pretty obvious that they weren't going to be as lucky as the previous night's group and that they were doomed to a cold night out. We felt for them as we watched their headlights bobbing up and down along the distant ridge.

We still felt for them the next morning as we packed up and could still see them up there making their slow way down the ridge.

Cheops SE Ridge

2008-08-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

We tried the SE Ridge on the holiday Monday with Fred and Joanne. To make a long story short...much bushwhacking, took longer than expected, and we bailed short of the summit. The worst part is that now we have to go back and do that bushwhack again!

It's quite a nice route once you gain the ridge. The final summit headwall looks a bit dodgy when you view it straight on but I'm sure it would have gone easily enough if we had had enough time to poke around a bit.

Thankfully the descent wasn't too bad. We scrambled across onto the east face and boot skied down snow patches for hundred of meters.

Abbott-Afton

2008-08-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

Over the long weekend Martin payed us a visit and we spent most of our time in Rogers Pass. Martin, who now lives in Dundas Ontario, was on his we into the Bugaboos but had come out a few days early to see us. We had hoped to do one of the Rogers Pass classics such as the West Ridge of Tupper or Uto. Unfortunately the weather didn't really co-operate and we spent a lot of time hanging out in the campsite (which was still pretty entertaining).

We did manage to scramble up Abbott and Afton one day. This is fast becoming the iffy weather route of choice for us. Joanne and Fred joined us and we had a good time.

The most interesting part of the day was this owl that was perched low in a tree just a couple of meters from the trail.

We'd never seen an owl up close like this before. It just sat there staring at us seemingly unconcerned with our oohing and ahhing just few feet away. He craned his head around and blinked in an owly manner until we got bored. It was really cool.

Eagle Peak Traverse

2008-07-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

We were back in Rogers Pass again this weekend to try Eagle Peak. Most of the fresh snow has melted off and it's beginning to look more summer-like in the alpine, although I think there is still more snow remaining than in previous years.

The plan was to gain the col between Avalanche and Eagle, climb the N Ridge and then descend by the SW Ridge.

We really enjoyed the route up. There was plenty of snow below the col which really helped. Under the snow is a steep scree slope which I suspect becomes more character building as the summer wears on. From the col the route is part ridge walk, part scramble, and part low 5th class climbing. We did get the rope out at one point as the ridge became steeper and less blocky near the top. Probably wasn't necessary in the end but hey, we had a rope, might as well use it.

All went well and we were on the summit by 2 o'clock. The guidebook suggested 6 hours up and we took 7. What!? Slower than guidebook time? Us? We'll have to have a word with David P. Jones about this!

So, the descent down the SW ridge...

Here's some advice: if there's someone in your life that you really, really don't like, tell them that the SW ridge is a good way to descend from Eagle Peak. 'Nuff said.

Six hours(!) after leaving the summit we arrived, very footsore, at the Illecillewaet campground. We didn't even look for the friends that we knew were camping somewhere nearby. Food. Bed.

Balu Peak SE Ridge

2008-07-12T15:51:00.000-07:00

We planned to try the north ridge of Eagle Mountain in Rogers Pass this weekend. It was to be our first alpine climbing weekend of the summer and the route seemed like a good low-key way to start. We were already familiar with the descent route since we had checked it out last summer. However when we arrived at the pass on Friday night the mountains were looking very white from the storms which had come through the region on Thursday.

In the photo Eagle is the peak at middle right. Uto is peaking out from behind and Sir Donald looms high above from the far right. The north ridge of Eagle climbs up and right from the col in the center of the photo.

So enough about what we didn't do.

A post on the ACC Okanagan forum made us think of the SE Ridge of Balu Peak. A quick check of the guidebook and we were on our way.

We've been up Connaught Creek many times in the winter but this was our first summer trip. What a fine hike. Great trail, great views. From Balu Pass our route followed the left skyline in this photo. The col on the right is the start of the 8812 bowl.

A fine day out as they say. 3rd class scrambling over mostly solid rock.

It took us 9 hours including a short nap at Balu Pass. There were a couple of guys skiing up there and it looked pretty good. Only 4 months to go until the season starts again :)