Kootenay Coldsmoke Festival

I took part in the Kootenay Coldsmoke Festival this weekend up at Whitewater, our local ski hill. It's a festival that celebrates the backcountry and offers clinics, demos, and some races all focused on ski touring/backcountry skiing. I wanted to fly up from California last year and attend, but it just wasn't realistic. So, living in Nelson this year I had to attend. I only made it up on Sunday but took a clinic focused on navigation, route finding, and safe travel techniques in the backcountry. I was pleasantly suprised when I arrived to learn that Greg Hill was my instructor for the course. He is one of my hero's in the backcountry skiing world and is an endurance machine on skis. Map use was the primary tool of the day and we were rewarded with two fantastic descents during the course. The first was in West Ymir Bowl and the second, and best, was down a broad alpine bowl and some nice avalanche paths in Five Mile Basin. The photo below shows Mr. Hill shredding halfway down our run in Five Mile.