Marble Canyon

Thumbing through an old "Central BC Rock" guidebook we came across a section on Marble Canyon.

"Marble Canyon is the enigma of BC rock climbing. The canyon consists of the main headwall, two immense chasms which split the wall, several crumbling pillars, and many lower walls of good quality limestone".

Intrigued by the long moderate routes we loaded up the van and made the 3.5 hour drive for an exploratory weekend.



We camped at a strange but pleasant roadside campground a couple of kilometres from the crag and walked over in the morning. The cliff is huge. Massive. Several hundred meters high. Content to explore, on the first day we combined a couple of easy routes called "Mayday" and "Aspiring". The rock is limestone, rare in BC, and weird to climb on at first. Felt like climbing in the Bow Valley.

We didn't see any other climbers for most of the day. The whole crag had a general feeling of abandonment, as if this was a place where people climbed in the 70's and 80's but not so much these days.

A few raindrops chased us off by early afternoon. Walking back along the road we peered down into the super-clear waters of Crown Lake to watch a loon diving beneath the surface to chase fish and looking for all the world like a penguin in a nature documentary.

We explored the "Icy BC" ice climb waterfall.



And then did some "studying".



The next day we climbed a 6 pitch route named "Brown Sugar". The first pitch only added to the feeling of disuse as it wandered over crappy rock and through bushes before ending at some ancient bolts.



Thankfully the quality of both the rock and the belay bolts improved as we got higher and higher on the route.



We enjoyed ourselves here and may come back again in the fall when the temperatures have cooled down.

Wild Horse Canyon to Commando Bay (Okanagan Mountain Park)

The hike begins just a 20 minute drive south from our front door. The forecast for Saturday wasn't exactly stellar. As if to drive home the point it began bucketing down just as we were lacing up our boots. Undeterred we deployed Alpine Umbrellas and squelched away from the car.



It's a varied and interesting 10k hike across the park. The main feature is a long towering cliff. You hike along the base for 3 or 4 kilometres. It's not quite a canyon as the name suggests but it's certainly a deep gully. Given the remarkably wet spring we've had here in the Okanagan this made for a very wet section of trail. The blood thirsty mosquitoes and pouring rain didn't leave much time for sightseeing.

After about 3 hours we emerged from the canyon onto a plateau above the lake. It was strange to see this desert setting so wet and green. The smell of moist sage hung in the air.



As the sun came out from behind the clouds we descended down to the lake with steam rising around us from the wet soil.





It was a great time of year to by camping along the lake shore. Normally the lake is teaming with people and noisy boats. We had the place to ourselves.



The next morning we got the tent down just before it starting raining (that was a first) and began the walk back under a light rain.



Not bad for a weekend in town.

Monashee Lake

This was one of those trips that we pulled out of our arses at the last minute. It was the May long weekend and unsettled weather discouraged us from skiing into Glacier Circle. Certain that this would be our last ski trip of the season we convinced Gerald that going into the Monashees was a good idea.

The trailhead begins at 22k of a logging road and ideally this was where the snow would begin, but it was anyone's guess how far we could drive before being forced to abandon the little CRV and start trudging.

With fingers crossed we lurched through several deep snow patches before hitting serious snow at 16k. I was fairly certain that we could drive a few more kilometres if only we could get through this 500 metre bad patch. Doing the math: a couple of hours of digging vs 12k of extra slogging out and back on the road.



It wasn't that easy but I still say it was worth it (screw you Brenda). We got to 20k before abandoning the car, hoisting the packs, and reverting to travel by foot and ski.





It wasn't too bad and before long we arrived at the trailhead and could begin the real climb to Monashee Lake.



Up through old growth timber, alder, and old avalanche debris.



Before setting up camp along the snowy shores of Monashee Lakesever. Several glasses of port and Scotch made for a merry evening.



Waking to a grey and overcast morning, we spent the day exploring the area bit, got up some minor peak, and even found some okay skiing.



A fine way to bring 7 months of skiing to a close.

Here and there...Rogers Pass, Big White

The season kind of ended with a whimper rather than a bang for us this year. It kept snowing but things warmed up in a hurry and all that new snow turned to mush rather than corn. We did a few trips to Rogers Pass but never seemed to get the timing right. This trip up the Asulkan to the base of the Youngs Headwall was pretty typical...heavy work up followed by heavy skiing down in gloppy heartbreaking snow.



As always though it was just good to be out.



Eventually we gave up on The Pass and made trips closer to home like this one with Kieran to Big White.





A fun day out but the end was definitely near!

Sapphire Col

Sapphire Col Hut in winter? Yeah it was about as warm as it looks.



But what a setting and it didn't take long to warm up with a hot soup inside us and four people inside the hut.





The plan for the next day was to continue across the Lily Glacier and go around (or over) Swanzy to explore new terrain on the south side of Bonney. The hitch in this plan was that we had just spent several hours breaking a steep trail through fantastic untracked powder, a definite novelty this time of year, and we were reluctant to pass up all of the good skiing. As we buried deep into our sleeping bags to ward of the cold we still weren't sure in which direction we would head the next day.

The morning started off with Steve attempting to burn down the hut and my stove lying in a smouldering hole in the snow outside the door. On the upside it did warm things up several degrees. We had our first good view of the route over to Bonney. It looked like a lot of work.



Sometimes the novelty of exploring new terrain wins the day. Other days you just gotta go for the guaranteed good skiing. Or maybe we're just getting old. Either way it was brilliant and we went back for more.





A slight tinge of regret as I write this up several weeks later but there's always next year. Here are a bunch of good photos from the trip.

Campbell Icefields

We went to Campbell Icefields this year for our annual hut trip. It was my third visit to Campbell and the best by far.



The hut is in the middle of a large cirque and at first it seems like the skiing is somewhat limited. But this is deceiving. It's a huge area with lots of smaller terrain features that constantly lead you exploring further afield and surprising you at every turn.



The weather was superb and the snowpack was surprisingly stable given the difficult week we had just had in Rogers Pass.



We were very happy that Pat was finally able to join us for the first time on one of these trips. Hopefully his better half Anke will join us next year.



And of course Konrad, purveyor of fine pastries and other delicacies.



A super trip. See you all next year.

Catching up...A few days in Rogers Pass

We got behind on the blog back in March. Since then the job of catching up has grown bigger and more daunting. Now it's 34C outside in July and here I sit sweating in front of the computer wondering if it's even worth the effort.

But the reality is that the biggest users of this blog are probably Brenda and myself. It's a diary of sorts that we regularly consult to figure out what we did, when we did it, and how long it took. From that perspective we may look back when we're old and grey and wish we'd kept the thing going. So, with the photos we've posted online as a guide, I'll attempt to make a series of rapid fire back-dated posts over the coming week to catch up.

This first post takes us back to the week before the annual ski trip. Damon, Brian, Martin, and Matt came out to do some skiing before going in to Campbell Icefields. It was a bit of gong show. High/high/high for the entire week, permit areas closed, highway closed, and a touchy snowpack that tended to fail huge or not at all. In the space of an hour we witnessed the first major path behind the hotel go full-length to valley bottom and up the other side, and then this huge avalanche off Avalanche Crest.



Despite lying low for much of the week we did manage to get in some limited skiing, and what we could ski was pretty fun. Recognize that hat?



And of course no matter what the skiing conditions were like I wouldn't have passed up a week of hanging out with these guys for anything. It's silly how much fun you can have when there's a sauna, a ukulele, too much snow, and too much beer. Not sure that Major Rogers approved.

Big White

We've been away skiing for a couple of weeks and haven't had time to make any updates. This trip was a quick jaunt up to Big White with Dan.

I didn't know much about the backcountry around the ski hill but Dan was up for exploring and I was in need of the exercise so away we went. We parked at the Black Forest lot and followed a well beaten path just below the ski out from The Cliff. On the way we met up with John Fazekas who I knew from trips many years ago to Apex or Zoa or somewhere. He was using Dynafit boots on homemade bindings and a homemade splitboard. Neat stuff.

We climbed around the lower end of the ridge that forms the skier's left hand side of The Cliff and into a small bowl on the backside of the resort (Smoker's Bowl?). The snow was wind hammered and nasty but we were well compensated for our efforts by one half of John's splitboard making a break for freedom. He post-holed around searching for some time while we had lunch and ruminated on life in general.

After this we climbed back up to the ridge and found better snow for a couple of runs on the south facing side amongst the trees before calling it a day.

Close to home but otherwise not much to recommend Big White on this day anyway.

Zoa Peak

Steve and I made a quick trip up Zoa Peak last Sunday. Snowing and blowing like heck for the whole day so we didn't get much skiing in. Making the best of it we dorked around doing every type of snow stability test we could think of on a 35 degree slope on the north side of the ridge. Of note were some sudden planar compression tests (CTM14 and CTM12) and a Rutschblock that failed as I stepped onto it.



The snowpack is really deep along the Coquihalla this year. From the bottom of our 2 metre deep pit we couldn't even find the ground with a 320cm probe, so over 5 metres. As we dug around the swirling snow soaked our faces and filled every nook and cranny with fine snow crystals. Our packs were full of it. Small items left on the surface were buried within minutes.



Anyway we were outside and got some exercise and the roads weren't too bad. So not a bad day overall!

Fidelity

Last weekend we went exploring on Mount Fortitude Fidelity across from MgGill Shoulder at Bostock. This was the first time we had skied up this valley on the summer hiking trail. Usually we're traveling in the opposite direction at about mach 3 praying that there isn't a fallen tree across the trail around the next corner. At a slower pace it's a pretty place.



We skied to the head of the valley before turning west and heading up the first ridge north of Christiana.



By the time we climbed above the treeline the mist had come down and we couldn't see much. There were ccasional glimpses towards McGill Pass where we came out from the Three Pass Traverse last spring.

We skied along the edge of the trees down into the basin south of the ridge. The storm snow was sloughing very fast and made us quite wary. There had been a long dry spell and the new was sitting on top of surface hoar or sun-crust or a combination of the two.



We put the skins on and climbed up the basin for another run. When we ran out of sparse trees to guide us in the flat light we gave it up and skied back down the long mellow run to the valley bottom. This is really just a broad avalanche path a lot like NRC Gully (and felt equally spooky).

Photo:Nick

Once at the bottom, instead of climbing back up to the hiking trail on the opposite side we tried to ski out along the creek. This was a really nice way to ski back to the road and much more pleasant than the hiking trail. Although I don't think it would go in low snow years.



A nice day out. There's a good amount of north facing terrain up there that might be worth a return trip later in the season.

Asulkan Hut

When we visit the Asulkan Hut we're pretty much assured that the weather will be spectacular. We just never know if it will be spectacularly good or spectacularly bad. (Although even spectacularly bad can still be amazing, if somewhat limited.) Anyway last weekend truly fell into the spectacularly good category; blue skies, calm winds, fresh snow, and good stability all combined for three days of great skiing.

Youngs Peak Headwall


Moon Rise over Youngs Peak


Farming


Rogers Pass remained in the clouds the entire time adding that special look to many of our photos.





It was our second trip to the hut this season, and possibly our last until next year, so I'm happy it was a good one. You know it's been a good trip when changing two outhouse barrels is a minor footnote to the weekend rather than the major talking point.