Big White Backcountry

The was a day trip to the side country at the local ski hill. We've been up a few times this year but haven't blogged those days. Today was really nice so I thought I'd share a few pics. It's an interesting time of year: backcountry skiing one day and mountain biking from our front door the next. Kelowna isn't exactly Revelstoke or Golden but we'll take it.

Blanket Glacier Chalet

Not the greatest snow conditions for our annual ski trip this year. However we took advantage of the fast travel conditions to venture far and wide.

The cabin is pretty basic compared to most other commercial backcountry lodges we've visited but it's efficient and very well designed and grew on us through the week. But the sauna. Oh man. Simply the best.



The tenure is shared with CMH heli-skiing. With the conditions severely limiting the terrain available even for heli-skiers they were forced to spend a lot of time in our vicinity. Total pain in the ass is putting mildly. Oh well, we co-existed.

At one point after they had dropped in above us yet again their lead guide Ken stopped by to offer his apologies. No worries, we were cool. And also to offer a "pop". A what? We were dumbfounded, not sure that we understood. But yup, that's what he meant. Free lift! We took full advantage and 10 minutes later were standing on a ridge top above a run that would have taken us several ours to reach if we even could have made it there at all. In the end the run was merely okay but the story was priceless!

The Overlook

Back to the Overlook again. The Avalanche Crest trail was so icy that we took off our skis and walked!



But this day will forever be known as The Day that Martin Lost his Ski. A picture being worth a thousand words...

Freedom! Spot the ski.


By some miracle it hit our uptrack, flew through the air like a magnificent javelin, and buried itself tip first in the snow(bottom left in photo)








It was a near thing but all's well that ends well.

Lookout Col Traverse

The rolling terrain below Lookout Col was so wind blasted and scoured it was like skiing up a series of snowy dunes.



On the far side of the col Martin and I watched the others struggle down the south facing slope and decided to contour around into the bowl searching for better snow.



It worked out and we had some fun turns.



What a place.

Vaux Moraines

The guys were staying at the Wheeler for a few days of skiing before we all headed into Blanket Glacier the following week. Conditions were still...let's just say character building below 2200 metres or so. We hoped the Vaux Moraines would still be holding snow so we headed that way once again.



We were lucky. The wind had blown in quite a bit of snow onto the north side of the moraine.

The Overlook Bowl

Almost hidden below the southwest ridge of Eagle Peak is a narrow feature called The Overlook Bowl. We had never been there before. A little research showed that there was a route into the top of the bowl from the vicinity of the Sir Donald-Uto col. Alternatively it seemed possible to sneak into the bottom of the bowl by climbing up the Avalanche Crest trail and then cutting across the lower part of the ridge on Eagle.



We chose the Avalanche Crest option for the novelty factor. There hadn't been much new snow since the January melt down. Or maybe there had been and this was just the latest big melt down? Can't remember. That probably says a lot about this weird winter. Either way the Avalanche Crest trail was an icy gong show.

Using the map and GPS we navigated through the trees and popped out in just the right place giving us a first view into the bowl.



It was so hot it felt more like April than February.



We got high enough to scope out the entrance from the other side before calling it a day.







Back at treeline we took a leap of faith and went hard skiers left in an effort to traverse across into the Practise Slopes above the Illecillewaet. It wasn't pretty but it worked. Definitely worth another visit.

From 15.02.22.overlook

Vaux Moraines

Day two of Brenda's trip organized for the ACC. We headed up to the Vaux Moraines with a much diminished group. The first day's outing had proven to be plenty for a few folks. Despite the pre-trip screening that we do and a certain amount of group seeding it's still tough to choose a destination that's suitable for everyone. In fact we didn't get too high before it became clear that there were some very tired legs. So before exiting the trees we took break, had lunch, and called it a day.

Lookout Traverse

This was the first day of a two day trip that Brenda organized for the ACC.



Thankfully we got 10-15cm of fresh snow overnight which helped to take the edge off the diabolical death crust. We headed back to Lookout Col while the other half of the group went to the Vaux Moraines.



We were glad to have checked out the route the previous day because it clagged in pretty badly for a couple of hours before clearing again near the col.



There was a wide range of skill levels so there were some tired legs at the end of the day but people seemed happy overall.



Doing a traverse and returning by a different route always adds something to the day.

Lookout Traverse

This weekend Brenda would be leading a two day trip out of the Wheeler Hut for the ACC. It was set up to be a next step for folks who had previously participated in one of her Beginner Backcountry trips. Unfortunately it had rained during the week again so we went up a day early to get a handle on the conditions.

Yup, dust-on-crust up to 2200m.



With some reasonable skiing above that.



Wolverine tracks at the col?



The upper part of the descent down into the Asulkan side wasn't too bad. But once we hit the Ravens? Oh man bad doesn't begin to describe it. It was the worst most diabolical breakable crust you can imagine. Full survival mode from top to bottom.

Oh well. No one got hurt which was a minor victory in itself. At least we could laugh about it over beers in the Wheeler Hut that evening.

Vaux Moraines

Still scruffy!



We climbed as the high as the moraine and called it a day.



The skiing was good above the shrubbery-line.

NRC

We had been camping at the Visitor Centre for the past three nights and the camper was just about buried by now. We headed to NRC for a couple of quick laps to take advantage of the new snow before heading back home to reality.

Loop Brook

Still pretty scruffy up in Loop Brook. Where's the snow this year? That rain in December didn't help.





It was a strange day. It took us forever to break trail up through the trees and get on top of the middle moraine. Then by the time we got there it was time to go home! The days are short in January. Oh well, as always it was great to be outside in the mountains in winter time.

Dispatcher Bowl

Dispatcher is the high bowl between Ursus Trees on one side and the Frequent Flyer Ridge of Grizzly Mountain on the other. We had never been in here before probably because whenever we come this way the visibility is crap and we're heading into the trees on Ursus. Today the clouds lifted by mid morning so we decided to drop off Ursus Ridge and climb up into Dispatcher. The bowl is wide open, rolling, and mostly gentle terrain with steeper aspects on all sides and of course the waterfall exit down to Connaught Creek which we gave a wide berth.





We enjoyed the mellow turns in some often tricky light and then climbed up into the trees on the Frequent Flyer side for one more run.



A fun day. We look forward to returning on a nice sunny day.