Life Update

Lots has been happening in the last month. Work has been in full swing and quite busy, although the season has had a general lack of snow everywhere in North America this year. We've seen lots of rain on the Island though. Sweet...not. Anyway, Christmas was wonderful and France and I now have a new member in our family. No, France is pregnant or had a baby, we got a new dog! We've also decided to no longer foster dogs as it's too emotionally difficult so our new dog, Shasta, is for keeps. She's a total sweety, that we got from the SPCA in Nanaimo (about an hour south of where we live). She's a 7 year old, American Bull Dog/Pit Bull mix and a very gentle, people loving dog. We're happy to have her!



I've also gotten out on a few tours. The snow is definitely not what I've been spoiled with in the last few years and the weather is so erratic here that it's hard to get the good snow windows to coincide with my days off. However, it always feels great to be away from the resort, put the skins on the skis and be in the stillness of the backcountry. One thing that the Island sure has going for it is that it is definitely not crowded in the backcountry.

On December 23rd I went for a quick solo skin up to the old closed down ski hill at Forbidden Plateau, about 30 minutes from my house. The resort closed in 2000 due to consistent low snow, but since it had snow at the moment I thought I'd check it out. The old runs were definitely very overgrown with nasty alders and saplings, and the low snowpack made the ski down generally bumpy and inconsistent, but there was 4 inches of light powder and the sun came out half way up. All in all it was just a nice day to get some exercise although I don't think I'll be returning to the area anytime soon.

Happy to be on the skins. Hadn't had them on since mid November.



Found some cool rime/frost formations on the trees.



The sun and blue ski emerges above the abandoned ski lift.



The view before dropping in.



On the 30th of December, I went backcountry skiing on Mt. Cokely, a 1600m peak about an hour and a half south of Courtenay. Cokely also used to have an old ski hill there that was shut down due to low snow, although unlike the one at Forbidden, the removed the lift so you can't even really tell that there was a ski hill. Our initial plan was to ski the main bowl of Mt. Cokely, but sketchy dust on crust conditions with bad fall potential over water falls made us retreat to mellower ground. Here's Bill skinning towards the main bowl before we retreat with our tails between our legs.



We then took a lap down mellower terrain and found dust on crust conditions. Here's Bill skinning back up for the second of 5 laps we made.



On our 4th lap we decided to try a different aspect where the wind had blown more of the pow in to. We found about 5 inches of nice wind blown powder on top of a crust. It was definitely the best skiing of the day. Bill skiing the nicer snow.



On the skin back up from lap 4 we crossed under some fun little cliffs and spotted a short little chute that looked fun we threw the skins back on and had to ski it.



Bill heading in to the little chute.



And in it.




The ski out to the car was also good as we found some nice pow through mellow trees.

Family Time

My parents came up for a visit this past weekend and we had a fantastic time together. The sun even came out for a little bit! Here's a few photos from our couple days together. it was so great to have them around and see this part of the world. Come back soon!

Mom and Dad at the Comox Wharf. We tried to buy fish that day, but they were only selling shrimp.



My parents and lovely wife at the Wharf.



Sweet Mama on the ocean boardwalk.



Boat and partially obscured Beaufort Range.



Big Papa enjoying his first time to BC.



Mom, Dad & France in Comox.



I caught some bird poop...



And France was captain...



Dad thinking, "This beach looks a little different than California."



My Sweet Family.



Dad and France found this crazy long ocean tuber.



Mom and I at the Courtenay Riverwalk.



3 of my favorite people in the whole world.



Me and Big Papa at the Riverwalk.



France watching the birds in the estuary.

Numero Dos

Ski day number 2 for the 09-10 season. After Friday's sweet and deep turns the freezing levels rose and it rained cats and dogs. In fact it was flooded it Courtenay after we got 7inches of rain or something. The snowpack essentially got knocked in half, but the bottom half is bomber now. Fortunately rain turned to snow on Monday and it's been snowing ever since. I headed up for a quick run to see how the new snow was bonding with the raincrust. It's now buried about 40cms down with ski pen's around 15-20cms. Fortunately the new snow has bonded well with the crust and it came in right side up, leaving 15-20cms of nice lighter pow on top of a supportive base to ski. I was getting rimed on one side while skinning up.



A look down at where I came from, about a quarter of the way up.



As I said about 35-40cms on top of the raincrust with ascending hardnesses to the crust. Handpits revealed stable snow all the way up.



There was some isolated minor cracking but this was only at the upper elevations where the wind had buffed the surface. The cracks weren't deep.



As I got higher up the wind effect became more apparent. Moderate winds from the S, SE and E.



The snowpit I dug at 1380m continued to confirm that the snow was stable. Total snowpack as of 11:40am today was 112cms and the next storm is already on its way in with an additional 35cms expected to fall.



And for those of you that aren't snow geeks like me...the turns were definitely sweet. Sorry about the flat light.



Only had time for one lap. I promised the snowplow guy that I'd move my car after I dug my pit. Let it snow!

Crazy Trees

A few weeks ago, France and I went on a hike out to some waterfalls just outside of town. We got to watch the salmon spawning upstream and try and fight there way up these waterfalls and cliffs. Really an amazing, Planet Earth-esque thing to watch. On the way to the waterfalls we saw some more amazingly erie trees that this very wet climate harbors. Beautiful to see.






These trees are so amazing that they not only provide shelter, but clothing. In this case...Organic Undies.

Opening Day '09-10

Hallelujah! The wait is over. Summer is exceptionally torturous for me. Today I got my first turns of the 2009-2010 season. Even though I'd gotten a little spoiled the last two seasons getting multiple ski days in October, today was by far the best opening day turns I've had. It had been snowing on and off all week and I knew that there was a good 45-60cm/18-24 inch base. There was a storm forecasted to snow about 6 inches last night with dropping freezing levels and clearing to sun, so I figured that would be a pretty good day to have a look. Well, the storm came and then the sun came and the freezing levels dropped and the wind dried out the snow brilliantly making it positively non-traditional Island snow, which is normally more akin to concrete than the Utah powder I'm used to. And...to top it all of it snowed 30-40cms/12-16 inches of blower snow instead of the 6 inches forecasted. Needless to say today was a good day. Trailbreaking was a bit of work, but that always means the turns are going to be that much better. I went on a solo mission today and skinned up some of the runs at the local hill so no real skiing or touring photos, but enjoy what I got. GOOD DAY!

Happy to be back in winter and breaking trail.



Gorgeous.



I skinned up to the saddle between Mt. Washington peak and a subpeak and then went all the way up to the subpeak on my second lap. Here's looking down at the Ocean from the saddle. Surreal place to be.



My skin track up to the saddle.



Do I have anything in my teeth?



Great views into Strathcona Park looking at Mt. Albert Edward at left and Mt. Reagan on the right.



The contrast on this photo wasn't the best, but some sweet turns were had.



A look at the rocky NW face of Mt. Washington. They use an avalauncher to control parts of that face and the bowl below it.



Glad I got it when I did, because in typical Island fashion it's supposed to rain 80-90mm in the mountains starting Sunday. YUCK! Fortunately more snow on the way next week.

Muchas Gracias Dios

Dear Lord,

Thank you for the 45cms/18 inches of snow that fell last night upon Mt. Washington's slopes.
Thank you for the blue skies that came out after the storm.
Thank you for the snow that is forecast throughout the coming week.
Thank you for the start of ski season.

Amen.



From the Mt. Washington webcam today.

Island Life

France and I just recently moved out to Vancouver Island. I got a job working on ski patrol at the local mountain and she's managing the women's fitness center in town. I love the mountains and she loves the water so it seemed like a good place for us to check out. We got out here about 2 1/2 weeks ago and have been pretty busy getting all moved in. The majority of our stuff was still in storage in Nelson, so we made a quick trip through there to rent a uhaul and visit some friends. It was great to be back where we used to live. Nelson will always have a special place in my heart.

Even though we lived there for almost a year, I never went on the classic Nelson hike up to Pulpit Rock. It's a landmark that sits across the lake and overlooks the town. So, since they'd just completed trail improvements we headed up for a quick hike.

France on the way up.



My beautiful wife.


On top of Pulpit Rock looking down on our old home.



Joshua.



After emptying our storage locker we drove to Vancouver and stayed with France's sister for a few days then hopped on the ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island, ready to make our new home in Courtenay, BC. Looking back at the gorgeous North Shore mountains that sit above Vancouver.



Keeping warm on the windy ferry ride across the ocean.



Gorgeous Mt. Baker in Washington State was our guardian angel on the ferry ride. I'm going to ski that beast someday soon.



The fishermen are out.



Heading towards the Island.



After a few crazy days of unpacking and getting somewhat organized in the new place, we decided to go for a little hike. There is a great park called Seal Bay park about 5 minutes away. It's a lovely mile long walk through amazing old growth forest down to the ocean. There is a lot of rain on Vancouver Island so things can grow quite large. This maple leaf makes France look like she shrunk! Also of note is that the Ewok forest in Return of the Jedi was filmed on Vancouver Island. Amazing trees everywhere.



Looking across the ocean to the gorgeous Coast Mountains.





Courtenay has a great riverfront park where the Puntledge River runs through town and into the ocean. It's a great place to walk, run, or bike. I snapped some photos of the fall colors the other day, although they were better a week before.