Asulkan

Zoiks it was -18C inside the camper when I woke up. A hot coffee restored motivation and soon I was out the door to meet M & D at the Wheeler Hut. We plodded up the Asulkan Valley accompanied by the infernal racket of Damon's squeaky NTN bindings.

The "drought layer" was very much on people's minds with good reason. Two interesting things in this photo I think:



One is the obvious avalanche just behind the hut. Never seen that one pull out before. The crown looked to be about 1.5 metres tall and it ran a surprisingly long distance, just about reaching the moraine where the up track is usually located. The second is the almost total lack of tracks above the hut even after two blue bird days. None across the valley on the Dome side either. Everyone was taking it easy.

And so so did we with a conservative route up towards the 7-steps before pulling the skins and skiing down the wind effected snow.





Fun. Cold! We scurried back to the hut for beer and burritos.

Balu Pass

A short day behind the hotel with special guests Martin and Damon. A little sketched by the stability we gave up on 8812 Bowl and diverted down Hospital Gully (I think that's what it's called). Fun, steep, great snow. Then to Balu Pass and up the ridge towards 8812 to ski a couple of laps on looker's right of the headwall. A freezing day but nice to see the sun.

Flat Creek

Come on...-24C!? I've been in the Okanagan too long for this. Anyway it was another cold morning and still no significant snow after 3 weeks. Keen to avoid the busier areas on a BC long weekend we headed up Flat Creek towards the slide paths on Mount Smart. We last visited these slides way back in 2008.

At least the cold temps made the creek crossing easy.



And the surface hoar was spectacular.



We worked our way up to around 1800m and called it a day. The skiing was surprisingly fun.

Albert Canyon

This was an exploration day near Albert Canyon just east of Revelstoke. We hoped to locate the actual Albert Canyon as it appears in so many historic railway photographs.

McCord Museum

It was a cold, cold morning and we really felt sorry for this fellow near the campground.



Research on Google Earth suggested that we should head east along the tracks so that's the way we went.



At first following a logging road through a recent clear cut.



Until forced to ski along side the tracks.



It was a little tedious but before long the canyon just appeared out of nowhere alongside the tracks.



We seriously had no idea it was there until right on top of it. It's so steep and narrow that when looking across from a slight distance we didn't even realize it was there. It's difficult to convey a sense of scale in these photos but it's a really, really long way down.



We tried to match the location with some old-timey photographs. You have to use your imagination but you can see the outline of this peak in the distance.




Again with this one where you can make out the old stone platform.




Sitting in the sun eating lunch we spotted a coyote loping up the tracks towards us. We crouched behind the trees and either he didn't notice us or just didn't mind that we were there. These are the best photos we could get from our semi-hidden position.





Of course this post wouldn't be complete without a photo of a modern day train passing by.



It's interesting to see the mini ecosystem than has sprung up along the tracks.



Little critters make a dash across the open space to pick up grain that has fallen from the cars.



It's fun to visit these old places which once figured prominently in Canadian history.

Markhor

A very cold trip up to the Coquihalla to meet Dave. There's been no new snow for weeks and the Coquihalla is as dry as anywhere else. Markhor has a north facing bowl which is surprisingly close to the highway. We had come this way twice before during the summer when trying to do the Markhor-Needle Traverse. It wasn't great but we made the most of it and found some good skiing

Kokanee Glacier Cabin

So let's get this out of the way right up front. On a scale from 1-10 this hut cabin whatever is an 11.



There's a micro-hydro plant. You want baseboard heaters? toasters? coffee makers? running hot and cold water? fridge? No problem. Indoor toilets? Check. There's an entire sewage and waste water treatment plant in the basement. The cabin sleeps 20 but only 12 are permitted in the winter (why?) so there's an unbelievable amount of space. It's completely over the top. Maybe that's good and maybe that's bad. I'm not sure. But I'm very glad we got the chance to see it.

The terrain here is brilliant. It's very compact with a little of everything on all aspects above and below treeline. We didn't see much new snow but had blue sky and great travel conditions every day.

We skied some steep north facing terrain.


Marveled at the ever growing surface hoar.


Drank Kokanee beer above it's namesake glacier.


Climbed a couple of peaks.


And said "hello" to Elliot in the old Slocan Chief hut.


Good fun.

Wheeler Cabin

This weekend Brenda lead the Beginner's Backcountry weekend in Rogers Pass for the ACC Okanagan.



It's not an easy trip to lead given the complex terrain that predominates in Rogers Pass. She has a four group leaders and chooses the most simple terrain you can possibly access in area. In fact the terrain is so simple that you can't help but worry that people will be bored out of their minds. But time and again we're amazed at just how happy people are to spend a couple of nights in the hut, get out on their skis and explore the area a bit.

Just look at that smile.



On day two we can usually able to split the group and visit some more interesting terrain. Here's Sean making it look easy.

Narao Trees

We woke up in Canmore to something like 30 or 40cms of fresh snow. The Lake O'Hara road looked impassable but the new truck made pretty short work of the snow once I got the hang of it.



There was a large group skiing up the road just before us, presumably going into the Elizabeth Parker Hut. Their skinny skis and huge packs made for gruesome trail breaking. They were dropping like flies within 500 metres of the trailhead. We eventually made our way past them and after about 2km Val lead us up into the trees.



It was fun skiing. Low angle with steep bits and widely spaced trees for the most part. And with all of the new snow it was an ideal destination.



Since we were expecting a tough drive back home over Rogers Pass we said our goodbyes after just one run as the others went up for more. If we'd known in advance just how bad the drive would be we would have just kept on skiing. But all's well that ends well and we were glad to ski at Narao. It's one of those destinations to keep in mind for when the conditions go south.

Pulpit Peak

Crossing the divide we met Brian, Shannon, Ross, Deanna, and Valerie at Lagans in Lake Louise after a night of car camping in Golden. It was great to see Brian who is now living in Yellowknife. Heading north on a very slippery highway 93 brought us to the south end of Hector Lake and a first look at the shoulder of Pulpit Peak.



Ambling across the lake in the sunshine we remarked on a first for us: warm temperatures and good snow in the Rockies!



Val's encyclopaedic knowledge of the area had us on top before long. Our usual late start didn't leave much time so after a quick bite it was skins off and down we went. Here are Brian and Brenda enjoying the run.





Following this up with pints and dinner at the Post Hotel it was a grand day out.

Big White

With family visiting over the holidays there wasn't much time for skiing. We did manage to sneak in a quick return trip to Big White one sunny morning. Following the same route from Gem Lake as last time we came out of the trees into the sun and had some great views.



This time we had enough daylight left to actually explore a bit. The run down off the ridge is short but fun and there are loads of options. We looped back around the base of the ridge to find our uptrack and then veered skiers left and found some more flagging tape that lead into some reasonable tree skiing.

It's not an awesome destination (so far) but being within an hours drive of home makes it pretty good in our books.

On a side note here's the new camping rig we got this fall. Yes we bought a truck and we're this close to buying Truck Nutz. Little ones.

NRC

Compared to some years there still isn't a whole lot of snow in Rogers Pass. We made a quick trip up a very brushy NRC Gully and skied the adjacent slide path. It was a bit of a thrash on some tricky upside down snow but we tried our best and came away smiling.