First time in the Backcountry

I took France up for her first experience going backcountry snowboarding today. After a bit of avalanche beacon practice, we headed to a fun, mellow open glade area underneath Evening Ridge. We had a bit of sun and a bit of snow, but the views were still lovely. France's snowshoes were acting up a bit on the way up, but we still had a nice ride back down to the car and she got her first taste of the backcountry.

France hiking up.



France ready for her first taste of the backcountry.

Another deep March day

Well, here we are at March 30th, well on our way to spring and it just snowed a foot of cold, light, dry snow overnight. I love living in Nelson. And I love how this March just keeps on giving. We had plans to get up into the alpine again today but with a foot of new, we weren't ready to hop on the big open stuff. So we headed for the steep and fantastic tree lines in Acidopolis. The players today were Tim, Steve, Eric, and myself, and the playing field was the deep white. Our first run down we all had huge smiles as we destroyed the white goodness.

Timmy in deep.



Joshua enjoying another March powder day.



Steve not missing Ontario.



We headed back up for a second run, and Tim had to head back to the resort to ski with his lady. One of Steve's skins was acting up beyond repair so he headed back with Tim as well. Eric and I were off for another lap down a nearby line and found more deep snow and some great pillows to huck.

Eric laying it down.




Eric midflight.



We finished up the day with a nice 1700 foot line down the side of White Queen. All in deep, untracked, beautiful powder. Just another sucky day in the Kootenays.

Is it really late March??

Wow. Let me say this has been an amazing March. It has snowed and snowed and then snowed some more. Well, guess what? Today it snowed! Steve and I headed up for some touring in the alpine today and were definitely rewarded. We first headed for a lap in West Ymir bowl. I haven't been spending much time in the alpine lately because of questionable stability, but it was nice to be out in some bigger terrain today, even though the visibility was not great. We had nice boot deep powder all the way down the untracked bowl. On our second lap we headed for Prospector's Bowl. A nice bowl with fun chutes to get into it and then big avalanche paths to ski on your way out. The powder was fast and fun the whole way down. Here's me practicing some of my best poses for my next horror movie audition.



After Prospector's we thought we'd take another lap down West Ymir Bowl again. Wow, that was a good decision. It had been dumping snow the whole day and so by the time we got around to dropping into this run it had really filled in. What was boot deep powder in the morning was now knee deep in the afternoon. The run was epic. Deep and blower the whole way down. Here I am enjoying it.



Steve opening it up in the lower half of the bowl.

Cat Skiing...Again!!

Today I got the chance to go cat skiing for the second time! And, thanks to my hook up through France, it was free! Again! First off let me say that I love free stuff. Secondly, I love skiing powder. Free + Powder = A great day. It snowed 4 inches last night, bringing the weekly snow total up to 13 or 14 inches or so. With a recipe like that it's bound to be a good day. The pow was light, dry, and fast which made for great skiing. However, it wasn't bonding spectacularly with recent sun crusts and I ended up triggering a small avalanche on our 3rd run of the day while skiing some trees. The avi broke about 12-15 feet wide, ran about 65 feet and was about 14 inches deep. Fortunately it broke right at my feet. The guides released multiple avalanches through ski cutting today, all of which were running fast. They did a good job of managing the hazard while still finding great, safe lines for us to ski. Another great day!

Looking down the first run of the day.



Looking down the third run of the day.



Our tail guide ripping down one of the runs.



Some of the sucky views.

Bluebird Pow Day

Yesterday was one of those really fun days in the mountains. It snowed 6 inches Sunday night, but high winds from the south, southwest, and west caused top and cross loading on several aspects. As a result, avalanche danger went up to high at treeline and in the alpine. So Steve, Phil, and I headed out to ski some mellow lines in the trees with plenty of pillows to throw ourselves off, while we played it safe. The views were outstanding, as the day was bluebird, and the pow was fresh.

Recently, Steve and I have been watching the fantastic ski movie "Ski Your Ass Off II." It's a movie filmed at Whitewater, the local ski hill, in the 80s and is probably the best ski movie I have ever seen. People going Mach 3 through tight trees, hucking themselves off of crazy cliffs, and all through deep, deep powder. If nothing else, it's a testament to how good the skiing is and the skiers are around Whitewater. Well, Steve and I decided to have a "Ski Your Ass Off" sort of day and plowed through as many tight trees as fast as we could and hucked ourselves off whatever we could find, without exposing ourselves to avalanche hazard of course. At the bottom of our second run we noticed this perfect pillow so we had to hit it. It tossed you into the air perfectly, and Steve and I both stomped our landings off of it first go. Ah, another great day in the Kootenays.

Here's me hitting that pillow.



Steve hitting the first of a three pillow drop line on our first run.

Trash Chutes + Goat Slide + Acidopolis

The sun rose this morning over clear skies, providing endless views for Steve and I as we headed out for a tour. We weren't exactly sure what we'd end up skiing, but we thought that we'd take a walk out by Trash Chutes to scope out some of the lines. A nice ridge walk with outstanding views led us to a fun, steep pillow line with good powder. Here's Steve enjoying the pitch.



Trees and glades led us out to the Whitewater access road for a 2200 foot run. The snow on the second half of our first run was marginal at best so we decided to look elsewhere for more turns. Things were also beginning to warm up substantially, so we thought that if we wanted to ski anything south facing that we best get on it. We took a quick lap down the upper part of Goat Trees connecting into Goat Slide in the middle of the bowl. Creamy powder turns led us down the wide open bowl. After that we took a lap down Acidopolis where we hoped to find lighter snow in spite of the rapid warming. The warming had caused the snow to get a bit heavy, but we still found knee deep powder in many spots. Here's me enjoying some of that deeper snow.



Steve in good style.



Practicing one of my poses so I can get into the REI catalogue next year.

A Little Adventure

Yesterday was an exploratory/adventure kind of day. Perusing over some maps, I thought that an area to the northwest of the summit of White Queen would hold some potential for good skiing. However, sometimes maps just don't match up with what ends up in front of you. Me, Tim, Steve and John (who decided to ditch Rossland and stay in Nelson) were the lucky participants. We made quick time to the summit of the Queen in under an hour and then dropped into unknown terrain. Mellow open slopes led us into what we thought would be moderate tree skiing, but turned out to be 45 degree + slopes and couloirs. We traversed/side stepped over to mellower forested terrain and proceeded to ski great snow for about another 500 vertical before being confronted with another band of steep chutes and cliffs that were not apparent on the map. More traversing ensued before finding a suitable exit through the maze. Because of poor visibility we thought there was a ridge to our left that would take us back towards White Queen. Little did we know this ridge had a summit on it. When we finally gained the ridge we were much farther out than we had anticipated and had to descend several hundred feet before beginning the climb up the ridge we had originally wanted to hit.

Upon gaining the ridge, John and I decided to go for a lap down the treed face we had just broken trail up, while Tim and Steve headed back for the Queen and the parking lot. John and I ended up dropping in too far skiers left, missing the beautiful glades that we had wanted to ski, and ending up in tight, flat trees. Then we had to break a new trail to get back up to the ridge. Needless to say, it made for a long, but fun day, with more touring than skiing. However, we were rewarded with a fantastic powder run down the south face of White Queen, which surprisingly was only sun crusted in a few small locations.

The clouds broke a few times throughout the day and it became apparent to us the amazing potential that the place had for fantastic skiing. However, because of the openness and steepness of many of the lines, snow stability would need to be very good, which is not the case right now. I'll be back.

Steve descending into unknown territory.



Joshua and John on the summit of White Queen at the end of the day.

Playing it Safe

Conditions are starting to get a bit spicy out in the backcountry, with a lot of surprising natural and skier triggered avalanches occurring in the area. My friend John, out visiting from Banff, went for a tour with me yesterday. We thought we'd check out one of my favorite lines - a broad, lovely pillow field off the backside of White Queen. Concerned with what we'd been reading we opted to dig a pit and see what was going on before jumping on the slope. We found the two nasty surface hoar layers down 50cm and 80 cms respectively. Moderate compression test tapping popped both of those suckers out easily and we decided to retreat to more anchored terrain. We had fun running laps in the trees and skied some great powder.

Fun in the trees.



John layin' it down Alberta style.

Acidopolis

Headed out for a quick tour with my buddy Joe. It snowed again last night. So with all the snow we've been getting lately it was time to get into the steep and deep. We skied a line I've never skied before in 5 Mile Basin. It's called Acidopolis and is a great steep sustained line that opens up into a fun pillow field and then more treed goodness. It was deep and light today. The snow frequently blasting into our faces. I giggled the whole way down this run it was so good. Ski cutting produced one tiny soft slab avalanche. About 7 feet wide, 6 inches deep, and ran about 30 feet. Other than that predictable release, things seemed to be pretty solid. We ended the day with a great run down the steep trees off the shoulder of White Queen and enjoyed the first good turns off of anything south facing in weeks, thanks to the frequent snow of late. Another sweet powder day in the Kootenays.

Joe in the midst of "living the dream"

Cat Skiing!

Yesterday I got the awesome opportunity to go cat skiing for the first time! Since France is working for a heli and cat skiing operation just outside of Nelson, I got the hook up and got to go cat skiing for free. Now that is love. It's been snowing pretty good throughout the week and it snowed another 5 inches the night before I went cat skiing. It was an amazing experience. Skied untracked, totally blower powder all day long under blue skies with amazing views. Even the guides were impressed with how good the conditions were this late in the season. The day was epic to say the least. I didn't get any photos of us skiing because we were just having way to much fun skiing over a foot of heavenly powder. I definitely recommend going cat skiing!

Dave, our guide, at the top of our first run.


One of the bowls we ended up skiing later in the day.



One of the many slopes we slayed.

Sweet Pow Day

Had a fantastic day out touring with Steve and Timmy. 5 Mile Basin has been the place to be of late because it just keeps delivering the goods. It snowed about a foot over the past week of super nice, light blower powder. Our first run we dropped into a mellower line to get a feel for the snow and do a bit of observing. The snow felt solid, just minor surface sluffing, and ski cutting produced no results. The snow was just too cold to form into a surface slab. So, we headed back up for another couple runs on something a little bit steeper and, fortunately, deeper. We found great snow up to knee deep in some spots. Definitely a great day of ski touring. I'll let the photos tell the story.

Tim enjoying the pow on our second run.



Loving life.



Tim hitting a pillow.



"Why is powder so fun?" said Timmy.



"I do concur," replies Joshua.



An American flying in Canada.



Joshua enjoying the steep and deep on our third run.



Timmy loves pow...


But where did he go?



Steve in action.



Steve flying.



Tim in deep.

Short Day

Steve could only tour for part of the day because he had too much school schtuff to do, so we headed to 5 Mile Basin for some quick fun. I wanted to check out 5 Mile because I haven't been touring around Whitewater since last Saturday and I was a little concerned about slab avalanche formation over the past week. 5 Mile never dissapoints. It has lots of variety and lots of options for a variety of snow stabilities. We dropped in off the ridge at 6850 feet and dug quick snow pits after trying to ski cut the slope with no results. The snow was fairly solid with no solid slab formation off the ridgeline. The lower we got, the heavier the snow got and, naturally, the more cohesive and slabby the snow was, however, it did not appear to be at that critical point yet. More load and warmth and it should be a concern. Anyway, we skied a great line through glades and trees for a nice 1100 foot run in heavy, but still pleasantly soft snow.

Here's a vid of Steve gettin' er' dun.



Me pretending I know how to jump off of stuff.

Road Trip

Headed up to Valemount earlier this week so France could check out the helicopter job potential up there for the summer. But since we had to go through Revelstoke, we had to stop and ski the new resort. It's a big mountain. Lots of vert. And fortunately for us, we happened to hit it on a powder day. It snowed 6 inches Sunday night and then kept snowing all day Monday when we were skiing the hill, or maybe I should call it a mountain. After all, it is 4,735 feet of vertical. I skied almost 25,000 vertical feet on Monday and wasn't even hitting it that hard. That's like going heli skiing! Crazy. Here's one of France enjoying some powder on her 5th day ever snowboarding. She's doing great. She's wearing my jacket because her zipper broke in the morning.



In the car. My head looking 3 times bigger than France's.


France on a sunny day in Valemount.


The sucky view from Valemount.


The view over Slocan Lake, about 45 minutes from Nelson.

Winter Is Back

Winter is finally back. Last night it snowed about 5 inches with moderately strong southwest winds so we had to get out and hit some real powder. Tim, Steve, Trevor, and I headed up with the intent of skiing some lines off the backside of White Queen into Five Mile Basin. White Queen has a nice north facing bowl that offers a fantastic 800 foot run into Five Mile Basin. We took a few laps on this and then skied another north facing pillow field that we noticed initially on our way to the summit of the Queen. The powder was especially delicious since we'd all felt a little powder starved for the last two weeks. The powder was boot deep, some places deeper, and nice, cold, and dry. Love that coldsmoke. To get back to the car we decided to ski a line off the south face of White Queen that none of us had skied before. We had a long 2000 foot run back down to the road, but the powder wasn't deep enough to keep us from hitting the nasty melt-freeze crust formed over the past two weeks. All in all a good day in the mountains with good friends.

Steve enjoying winter again on our first run.



Joshua in the pillow field.



Steve on the lower half of the first run.



Tim hitting one of the pillows.



Trevor's turn.



Steve hitting three pillows in a row.


Joshua, Tim, and a random dude on the summit of White Queen.