Ski Mountaineering Revelstoke

Since moving to Revelstoke in 2004, one location has remained a staple for the start and end to my ski seasons, Mt. McCRae.  This modest summit in the Selkirks south of Revelstoke has a high logging road and summer trail leading to the alpine that makes for easy access in the fall.  When the first real dump of the season hits, you can count on the pocket glacier and summer snowpatch giving up the first powder turns of the season.  In the spring, as the snow retreats and access returns, it’s one of the last places to go where you can still ski right to the truck.

Last weekend, Julie, myself, and colleagues, Graham and Greg, headed up for what would likely be the last turns of the year.  A couple weeks of rain had finally broken, and the cool clear night meant the re-freeze was in full effect, conditions were perfect.  With more snow lingering in the alpine than anticipated, we luckily made it to the high cut-block on the north-west shoulder before putting the skis on and starting our way up.  The snow was heavily sun-cupped and would be interesting on the way down.

We made our way up through the well spaced forest, past the alpine lakes (still very frozen) to the pocket glacier and summit ridge.  The ridge made for good bootpacking with the snow still being a bit frozen, and the soaring temps were ideal in transforming the ice into perfect corn for the descent.  The summit is a bit anti-climactic after some of the rock scrambling at the start of the ridge, but the views south down the Columbia river make this extra effort very worth the while.

Perfect spring skiing awaited us.  We were all super excited to be out skiing, and all very surprised at how good the conditions were.  The glacier ski was outstanding and the broken rocks down to the lakes were equally good.  Even skiing through the trees and sun-cupped crap wasn’t that half bad.  Back in town by 2:00 and sitting at La Baguette enjoying some tasty espresso beverages and planning out the rest of the day…life doesn’t get much better.

Since my first hike in the Valley of the Ten Peaks back in 2002, I’ve always remembered the couloir above the lake.  Every time I walked past a “Canadian Rockies” souvenir calendar stand, the 3-3 and a half screams to be skied.  I’d never really done much skiing in the Rockies, and after having my first real ski mountaineering experience, I’m definitely going to return.

I had been talking to fellow skimo racer Ian Gale about the good-looking weather we were having, and when he knew there were other people stoked on skiing, all of his spring ideas started coming out.  Not really knowing much one way or the other, it was decided we’d head to the Neil Colgan Hut up on the edge of the Fay glacier, spend the night and hit up the north facing lines off Mt. Quadra and Mt. Fay.

We had some good beta 0n the routes since a pair from Revelstoke had been up on Fay earlier in the week, and just as we were finalizing our plans, Mr. Greg Hill was sending the exact route we had our sights set on.

Highest habitable location in Canada

We arrived in Lake Louise later in the afternoon on Friday, May 14th, met up with an old friend and waited for our fourth man, Ian Jackson, to finish up work down in Kootenay Crossing and make his way up.  Some final discussions and we were driving up Moraine Lake road in what was some perfect timing since it was the first day the road was open and therefore eliminated a long bike ride in.

Skinning up to the 3.5

Snow at the edge of Moraine lake was pretty isothermic and we were just hoping things in the 3.5 weren’t quite so heated up.  After making our way to the base of the couloir, we decided the hazard of something coming down was pretty low and we started the 1000m bootpack to the top.  Cresting just before dark, we were fortunate to spot the hut in the high col between Mt. Little and Mt. Bowlen, and we cruised into the comfort zone by headlamp just after 10pm.

Clear skies the next morning had us all quite excited.  However, the warm weather outside had us concerned since it hadn’t really cooled off as much as we’d hoped.  It wasn’t going to affect the morning objective of Quadra, but it might affect our ability to get up Fay as well since we were hoping to get back down the 3.5 before things really got warm.

Quadra

On the Glacier

Heading down

Booting up Quadra

Quadra sub-summit

Skiing down around Little was fast and fun.  In no time we were throwing the crampons on to boot up to the Fay-Quadra col and glide down for our first view of the north side.  Things looked good.  We quickly booted up the chute and hammered on as the three of us boys tried to keep up to Julie on the bootpack.  On the top, Ian scoped out a nice entrance that didn’t involve sliding in over rocks, and we leapfrogged our way down a great steep run that will be a highlight for years to come.

Neil Colgan Hut area

Looking down 3.5 to Moraine Lk

Retracing our route from the morning, we headed back to the Colgan hut for some lunch and to pack our things to head out.  Slides roaring down most of the east, south-east and south faces, had us anxious to make our way back out.         Arriving at the 3.5, I only imagined what a line such as this would ski like in powder.  The turns of the top weren’t too bad at all, but you knew that we’d be getting into some much more variable snow, and it was just a matter of when.  Soon after, we were fighting our way through the runneled snow before exiting onto the lower fan and some serious schmoo.  A quick jaunt across the lake and we were back at the truck.

Such a beautiful place.  I keep looking at the weather hoping that they’ll be another good forecast, but it’s not looking too good for this weekend.  Might have to hit something local…hmmm.

Low angle schmoo

Lower 3.5

Quadra line

Like Krista pointed out this morning, “there is something special about being on snow when its warm and sunny”. It might be really nice here in town but out there in the mountains, its magnificent! Its the best type of traveling, believe me!

Today I hit a 100 days of touring for the season, pretty cool.

Having light fast gear is ideal this time of year, especially if you’re skiing with Miki, Stano’s Slovak buddy. They called me last night to meet up at the Pass for a quick ski. Miki is a strong and fine skier who’s taking his full guide exam in July, in a place like no other, Chamonix, France. It was great to see Stano back from Europe and Miki on his short visit to Canada.

As we headed out Balu Pass towards Cheops 5, we couldn’t help noticing the quiet and untracked terrain, with the exception of one snowshoer’s tracks. After skinning and a little boot packing along with lots of chatting, we made it up Cheops 5 and took a short break. The only time we had a cloud over our heads was at the top when we stopped.

We took a few pics, and started our descent. The snow was surprisingly good on the first pitch, a south west facing slope. We continued to get decent turns and eventually skied over some debris to finally ski fast corn snow on our way out.

Met up with the boys afterward for some eats at the Modern, I probably initiated the idea with my panini earlier on….I enjoyed their company before their long drive back to the coast and got myself a shot of espresso on top of a white chocolate scoop of gelato from a new place in town called La Baguette, to finish off this awesome day!

Thanks Stano & Miki!

With another Canadian Ski Mountaineering season under wraps, one can’t help but to think how far we’ve come as a country.  From the first days of the World Championships when Ptor Spriceneiks and Richard Haywood were spontaneously recruited to represent the maple leaf, to this season’s nearly full contingent of senior racers competing in Andorra.

I think the most important aspect was our increased participation at not only the World Championships, but also at other international events.  Through the past 2 seasons, Skimo Canada has placed athletes at the European Championships, a handful of World Cups and the “top-du-top” Pierra Menta.  While podiums sure aren’t a plenty, they are definitely closer than they once were.

So the question is, what’s next?  Easy.  PDG.  The Patrouille des Glaciers is a 3-person Swiss Army team event that covers more than 4000m or vert from Zermatt to Verbier.  This season saw our American couterparts put forth their first all-women’s team to challenge one of the most well supported races in the world.

For a great report of the race, check out Chamonix’s ex-pat Lyndsay Meyer’s blog, a must read.  My favorite quote:

Three, two, one, the gun was off and the soldiers forming the human start line jumped out of the way. Away we went running down the main street past all the bars with happy revelers toasting our exit. The race had starts every hour on the hour from 10:00pm until 3:00am. Someday I am going to be the one in the bar toasting the heats as they run past.

With next season being a back-to-back World Championship year (the ISMF wants to eliminate the Olympic year conflict…after all, we’ll be in them soon!), it might be difficult for Canadians make the extra trip for the PDG, or to stay for the time in between.  But one thing is for sure, it’s a classic worth planning year around.

I’ve only known Martin for about 2 winters now and interestingly enough we are greeted with awesome ski conditions every time he visits us from Nelson. We get powder in full season or great spring skiing like this past week-end. Jeff and I being on the Wild Rose cleanse for 8 days now, I had to do a little food planning for the 2 days we were going to be out in the backcountry at the Asulkan Hut. So I welcomed him with some healthy dinner on Friday and really started  getting excited about our week-end plans.

Jeff and I were easily convinced to switch to our very light gear and because of some boot malfunctions, Martin ended up taking Jeff’s F1 Scarpa and his Dynafit Mustagh set-up. Quite a change for someone who’s newly converted from snowboarding to skiing.

Downclimbing Pollux with the Asulkan Valley in the Background

Traversing Mt. Jupiter

Ridiculously Good Looking Crew

Line down Thorington

Looking at the cooler weather forecast for early Saturday morning , we decided on a later start and made it quite efficiently into the Asulkan Hut. To our surprise, only 2 more spots were taken for the week-end which made for great hut-life. We greeted the 2 young brave snowboarders from Edmonton, obviously a lot more fatigued than us, before heading out to venture up towards Youngs Peak. The visibility was not great but the terrain is pretty easy to manage.

There were about 10 to 15cms of fresh snow on top of a hard crust which made for some good skiing coming down from the summit of Youngs Peak. Plus with the skinny skis, we were guaranteed to get knee deep powder turns!  Martin’s first tour up the Asulkan valley and we skied the classic 7 steps of paradise.

April Powder

We settled in for a nice comfort food dinner and convinced our new friends to play a few games of Yahtzee. We enjoyed a good night of sleep on new mattresses and with the new propane stove put in the hut this past January, how could we not feel refreshed and recovered the following morning.

The weather had stormed a bit late Saturday but had cleared out before dark. Unfortunately, we woke up to a “mur blanc” and so we took our time to enjoy breakfast and refresh some quick self-rescue techniques. Having inspired Justin and Jason, they headed off to follow our tracks from yesterday towards Youngs Peak while we started our climb up the glacier towards Sapphire Col.

As we roped up and climbed wisely on the crevassed terrain, we were glad to have clouds protecting us from the hot sun rays peaking out from time to time. We quickly got to Sapphire Col and proceeded up up Castor peak for the beginning of the Jupiter Traverse. Martin got to try out crampons for his first time and here we were roping up again after Castor Peak, the first of 3.

Up to Pollux

Jeff nicely gave me the lead, which I was quite excited about and we continued on. With a mix of sun, cloud and wind, we had perfect conditions for this traverse. We reached Polux, the second peak with Leda as the last one before descending the Thorington route. Martin snapped a few pictures of his first true ski mountaineering experience, no chance of wiping off his permanent grin.

We got to our to the top of the Thorington line,  with Jeff skiing down first. A little bit of slough came down but he always manages to make it look good. Going second, I found myself challenged with the skiing on my little sticks and my F1 Scarpa Carbons. I experienced some heavy slough also before making a hard left to avoid an obvious bergschrund. I had to take a few brakes from the legs burning after this long descent. Martin skied down like he was on his regular gear and couldn’t get over this whole day so far.

Mt. Jupiter, Saphire Col and the Dome

Back to the hut for a late afternoon lunch, we packed up and started our way down with some super fun corn snow! Jeff took a wicked tumble after hitting some soft snow. I have to say that I’ve never seen him taken such a good wipe out on skis before. We all had a good laugh after I mimicked him a little lower down the slope. We carefully and safely exited from the Mouse Trap, looking up the Ravens from time to time, watching for any avalanche activity which is frequent there this time of year.

The snow was so fast allowing us to skate ski the whole way, we made it down to the truck in a record time. We were thrilled and happy to have had such a great week-end!

Thanks Martin for your good luck charm and Jeff for being the patient teacher that you are!

Allez-up!

This  time of year for the majority of people is the start of biking season, gardening or trail running to name a few. Most ski resorts are closed and the majority of skiers have hung up their gear. In Revelstoke this winter, we had very little snow in town which can sometimes play a big role in motivating people for this stretch of the ski season.

But if you’re like me, skiing just takes on a whole different meaning. Hello sunshine, traverses and peak bagging season!

Although this year I have decided not to go on a traverse, I’m definitely still very keen to go up on a daily basis and soak up the sun and spring conditions. Being surrounded by amazing skiers and mountaineers, I have the luxury of skiing with partners that really know the Selkirks area and are still able to find the “sweet spots”.

Last Wednesday, I joined up with Greg and Aaron to go skiing up around Bruins pass. Things were warming fast in the valley and we just made it up Video before any signs of isothermal snow. I couldn’t believe how warm it was, and how hot the boys were;) We had a great run down the North face of Video and toured around to summit Ursus Major peak which was pretty sweet! After a great run down Ursus, we headed up to the col of 8812 and skied the south facing slope down to Balu and headed home.

This is it for now, tata!

What an outstanding event.

This past weekend, Golden Alpine Holidays hosted one of the most impressive race experiences possible.  The event took place in their vast ski-touring tenure in the Northern Selkirk mountains.  GAH has a series of three huts (used to be four before the Sentry lodge burned down this fall) that were used as finish lines and accommodation for racers at the end of their leg.

The race took a little extra time to get started since the guides needed to be out on course and assess all the potential hazards for the day.  Of specific concern was the likelihood of slides on south aspects due to rapid solar warming.  The last leg of the race was canceled and instead the racers in the elite division would do two laps in the Sunrise Lodge tenure before traversing up and over to the Meadow Lodge and finish line.

The race went very smoothly and the usual suspects were out in front after making up their gaps from the 2-min staggered starts.  On the men’s side Brandon French and Reiner Thoni spent the afternoon in a speed-tour mode while the rest of us tried to keep up.  On the women’s side  it was Melanie Bernier who kept her top-form and took top honors ahead of Julie Matteau.

After a some time to re-hydrate and get some food, the crew of elite racers still needed to get over to the Vista hut for the night.  There was talk of bringing in a helicopter to move everyone over, but as the temperature cooled in the late day, the guides opted to have us complete the traverse and ski up and over to our intended finish.  A couple of hours later, we were greeted by a great crew over at Vista and had a wonderful night filled with good food, good drink and good people.

We woke to coffee and “egg/ham flowers” before some folks got in a quick ski before the scheduled 10 am heli flight out.  An extra special thanks to all the volunteers and guides whose hard work and big smiles made this event so very memorable.

Check out Ian’s report over at Golden Skimo

This last week-end was the Easter long week-end and also our last Canadian Cup race of the year.

Kicking Horse had its 2nd annual Canadian Championship race and it was very well organized and put together once again. We had a yummy dinner on Friday night along with our race briefing. The race next morning started at a casual time of 11am, with some music and people at the top of Eagle’s Eye.

We started with the usual sprint around the Eagle’s Eye’s restaurant, which always makes for an interesting start to watch, followed by a Chinese downhill and our first ascent. Billie and I fought for the 2nd position until our 4th descent, where I started taking some lead. Melanie was well ahead having her own “battle” with Alex,  meanwhile Reiner was also well in the lead. Miss Pierra Menta aka Andrew McNab placed well with the second place. Jeff had an unfortunate fall which cost him the race since he hit his head hard and couldn’t see straight for a little while.

See here for results

This last week-end was also special because of Jeff’s family presence. His mom and dad flew a few days earlier to be part of the event. We also had the pleasant surprise to spend the week-end with Jeff’s sister’s family along with her husband’s family as well. Everybody enjoyed the snow and the time together as they all live back east!

River, Jeff’s 8 yr old nephew, showed us around on skis at Kicking Horse on Sunday. River had no problem ripping down CPR ridge, the White Wall, Terminator Pk….you name it! Jeff, Andrew (dad) and I skied like little 8 year old kids and had lots of fun! River also managed to bring uncle Jeff, Antoinette and myself to go tubing on Saturday night. What a fun week-end!

After being back from the European World Championships, the Pierra Menta and Chamonix, there was a little bit of an adjustment to fully get back into things at home.

The Loop

It looked like spring in town without any trace of snow on the ground and a lot of my friends were either back to work or hadn’t been out skiing a lot. We fortunately received a decent amount of snow and some inspiration to get back out.

Conor, Ian, Jeff, Sam and I attempted the Jupiter traverse on March 27th without any success due to poor visibility and strong winds. We made it up to Casper for Sam, a friend of Conor coming from Europe, and linked the Dome for a nice descent. The snow was variable along the way but was pretty good.

A few days went by and I had motivation for running and biking only. Aaron invited me along to ski with his group last Wednesday and we had 2 of the most amazing backcountry days of the season!

There was 6 of us the first day; Aaron, Danielle, Greg, Joey, Tommy and myself. We went up Loop Brook and had 2 amazing runs! The snow was unbelievable with great sun and clouds weather. I went home which such a good feeling, and wanting more too!

Pic de Glace

Day 2 there were 8 of us; Dave and Heather tagged our group of 6. The plan was already decided with Loop Brook, up the Bonnie Glacier having in mind Clark. We had some good turns but not without waiting for the visibility to return a few times. We went by a big chunk of glacier that had broken and fractured a deep line on the slope. The ice was        impressive and you can just imagine how loud it was when it happened.

We turned around from Clark for the lack of visibility and time but had a amazing descent back. Dave and Greg, masters of braille skiing, guided us down and we finally had a window and could see for a little bit.

I don’t know if you are like me but I can easily get use to a lack of snow with lots of sun like the past month and be happy…but the feeling of powder is something on its own. I can probably compare it to being able to get up on a surf board for the first time and wanting that feeling over and over again. Its addictive let me tell you!

Never Stop Exploring

I think everyone should go to Chamonix.  Some people might say that everybody is already in Chamonix.  But despite the obvious popularity, the experience is second to none.  Arriving Sunday evening after finishing the Pierra Menta, focus quickly shifted from racing to touring.

Discussions just after the Pierra Menta (Mar 15) with ex-pat Lyndsay Meyer had us more focused on the Grand Montets/Argentiere region.  Conditions were looking good for travel and we wanted to do something classic, so we decided to head out and ski the 3 Swiss Cols.  The route heads out from the top of the Grand Montets tram at almost 3300m.

Things were still a little socked in when we got to the top, so we thought we’d wait it out for a little.  The thought of skiing down through a glacier full of bus-eating crevasses with no visibility was less than inviting.  By the time we had descended to the Argentiere glacier, things had already started to clear and it appeared as though the forecast blue skies were on their way.

We weren’t without company on our journey, this tour also serves as day 1 to the traditional Haute route.  There were several groups working their way up to the Col du Chardonnet, as well as a bunch of military personnel heading further up the glacier.  With some of the icy skinning on the way up, we were thankful to have our wall-to-wall skins with us since most everyone else was wearing ski-crampons.  When we got to the col there was a group of Spaniards rappelling down the back side to the Saleina glacier and Switzerland, they asked if we had anything longer than a 30m rope, but unfortunately that was all we were carrying.  Julie and I threw on some crampons and downclimbed past the group of 4, with another guided group hot on our heels.  A little bit of ‘schrund jumping at the bottom and we were gliding down to make our way up to la fenetre de Salenia.

Bootpacking up to the col brings you over to the the Trient Glacier.  We kept the skins on for the easy traverse over to the col superior de la Tour, which leads to the Tour glacier and back to the valley of Chamonix.  It’s at this point that you could turn East and continue along the traditional Haute route.

Skiing down from the col, we passed a large group on their way up to the Trient hut.  Instead of dealing with the col du Chardonnet, however, this group had climbed directly from the Argentiere glacier, up through the col du Passon, and were looking pretty much done when we passed them.

Skiing wind pressed snow, into breakable wind slab, and down towards some spring schmoo, eventually you join up with the runs of the La Tour ski station.  A 15 min wait and you’re back on the bus to Chamonix…what a great first tour!