Dec 18th, 2011 from Skimostoke on Vimeo.

When I first moved to Revelstoke and started ski touring, I never really had any issues with the permit system.  Likely because my days were filled with following skin tracks to areas that I knew about from the “touring Rogers Pass” mini guide of the day.

As my skills and skiing progressed through the years, I found the permit system a bit limiting.  But there were still plenty of options for getting in to non-permit areas.  With my work schedule I found it possible to get some early days in the mountains.  Access to Bostock and Flat Creek meant you didn’t need to get a permit and could get out early.  Then things changed…

 

The Winter Permit system allows backcountry users to enter Winter Restricted Areas that are affected by the highway avalanche program when artillery gunfire is not anticipated. This system protects the public from danger resulting from direct artillery fire, including shrapnel that can travel up to 1000 metres and the potential for sympathetic avalanche releases.

This is the bullshit that baffles brains.  They have been closing permit areas regularly and NOT shooting.  For sure, I understand that there may be a possibility that winds and/or precip could change the situation, but the seemingly random nature of the decisions makes it very difficult to make a plan.  Parks suggests you leave a detailed itinerary with a friend, pretty hard when you don’t even find out where you’re allowed to go until 7:30am at the earliest.

A recently released publication from some of the best ski mountaineers around labels the descent off the North side of the Swiss and Rogers peaks as classics.  The current permit system makes it next to impossible to take on a adventure like this while giving yourself enough time in the day to deal with the unexpected.

The inclusion of the 1000 m shrapnel zone has also boggled my mind.  For instance, they created the Grizzly Shoulder permit to account for shrapnel from shooting at Hermit, Puff Daddy specifically.  But here’s the thing, if they open Grizz Shoulder, it means they KNOW they’re not shooting Puff Daddy, so open it too?  You can find multiple situations like this throughout the park.

It just leaves us with questions.  While much of the “directly-facing-the-highway” stuff stays closed through and after the cycle, after a few days of stability, it usually re-opens.  I informally asked Parks (through some random trash-talking on twitter) what the deal was with the MacDonald and Tupper permits being closed for 7 days recently.    The response was that the “natural cycle last week kept many permit areas closed for avalanche shooting. Still winter up (there).”

Looking to the Herdman and NRC

The frustrating piece was that I was aware it was winter up there, that’s why I go up there every flippin’ weekend, AND why I was surprised that they hadn’t shot at MacDonald from the 3rd till the 9th!?!?  Or, if they had shot at it, why didn’t they open it? Or if they felt they needed to shoot at something, like, say the Herdman, why would they keep Avalanche open since it’s waayyy within the 1km shrapnel radius.  A raw deal for my three friends who had planned to head up there to ski a sweet line in sweet conditions.

There’s answers.  And here’s what’s even better, people are getting paid to solve them.  So solve them.  Let’s hear what’s in the mix to fix some of these issues.  Hiding behind the “transportation corridor being the number one priority” will only come back to bite you if anyone actually takes the time to read the Parks Canada mandate.

Dawson Amphitheatre

Audrey, Christina, Julie P and myself ventured for a few days in the Dawson Range area. We left early in the am on Thursday to get up the other side of the Asulkan Pass and set up camp. We had a quick look at the Dawson amphitheater trying to plan our next day’s objective.

Heading to Asulkan Pass

Before the descent towards Dawson

Ski down from Asulkan Pass

Friday morning we were up early, roped up on the Dawson glacier to access the south face of Fox. With a little boot pack we obtained the ridge leading us to the Witch Tower. By that point the wind was howling and the Selwyn glacier was looking a lot more broken than the picture we had of it. Committing to going up Selwyn meant committing to navigate it skiing down which didn’t appeal to any of us.

Lusti lustin' for the Comstock

More Dawson Range

Looking back towards Bonney

We then turned around with the intention of bagging Fox’s summit and skiing down its North West face. We had a great picture of it which helped us find the sneak into the rocky face. The run was amazing, the snow “powderrific” and we were all smiles skiing it.

Julie P and the Geikie

The ladies

Back at camp, we discussed our options for exiting the next morning. The weather allowed us to navigate through the Geikie glacier and we finished our trip with a ski down Forever Young.

Northwest Face of Fox (greghill.ca)

Oh ya, followed by a beer and nachos at the Village Idiot with the girls and to top it off, Jeff and I had a delicious venison burger at the Woolsey Creek Bistro. The best burger I have yet to have.

When Hartley calls me up, I usually don’t want to miss out on the adventure, knowing that he’ll come up with something good. The crew started out as 2, but quickly became 6. Discussions about options in the truck ended up with the Asulkan Valley as our destination.

We made our way up the Dome for some creamy turns, and headed back up it, but this time traversing over to Sapphire Col. With lots of sunshine left in our day and Renaud never having done the Jupiter traverse, it made for an easy choice. Hartley lead the whole way, which made it easy for all of us. It was over pretty quick and we were ready for our descent down Leda. The boys slayed it down from the summit and I choose a more conservative way not having looked at the line enough for my own comfort.

We then had an amazing long powdery line down the Thorington to finally head up to our final summit, Youngs Peak. The sun was still shining and a fair amount of people were shredding the Seven Steps of Paradise, however, there was still plenty of room to put our own lines in.

The weather changed as we got to the top of Youngs Peak and without my long johns, I wasn’t about to stick around too long. The turns were still really good as all of us made it down the Mouse Trap and out of the Asulkan Valley. The cool temperatures made for a quick exit.

We were at the parking lot at 19h30, and got delayed on the highway for some snow clearance which was a great opportunity to stretch and for my boyfriend to cook dinner Love you Jeffie

Wednesday morning we woke to the sound of rain. Pouring rain that is, that could easily discourage any of us, even the ones with the best intentions with spring objectives in mind and gritty still to get out there and get after it. But our group stuck with our initial plan and got after it.

With a few discussions and the snowy, cloudy weather not looking to lighten up any time soon, we headed for the Balu trail. Conor decisively skinning towards the “cone”, had us up there in no time, wrapping the cone as efficient as it gets.  A few of us had never gone up that zone, we were surprised by the nice 1500 feet of spring-like conditions that felt like a groomed run underneath.

Tracy, Jeff, Conor and I paused at the bottom of our run, snacking and feeling damp from the wet conditions when we saw Mark appear from the cloudy horizon. Looking like he had spent the night rocking to some DJ playing in Golden, with only a couple of hours of sleep but with a keen attitude as always, we continued our search for good skiing.

Connaught Creek was quiet, not many skiers to be seen but a couple of groups wondering around. With a quick skin and boot pack to the top of Cheops 5 we were looking down the STS couloir.  Conor roped up and chopped a big chunk of cornice so we could all ski in easily and enjoy this long intimidating run. It was a repeat for some of us and this time around was a rather enjoyable thrilling descent for moi.

By that point the weather had cleared and the sun was shining in and out, bringing the temperatures significantly higher every time. We had some eats at the bottom, the day still early with lots of light left. It didn’t take us much to decide on going back for one more, seeing that the group that had been up top had not ski any lines down the main open bowl.

Jeff and I chose to explore the nose of it while Conor and Mark skinned a bit further to drop in the higher “door”. Tracy had decided against coming back up but was happy to wait in the sunshine or at the pass. We realized pretty quick how hollow the snow and how thin the coverage was on that nose so we waited for those guys to drop in and take some pictures. What a fast, enjoyable run that was. We chose a different exit and caught up with the boys right before spring skiing some more corn on our way out.

We were greeted by Tracy’s beautiful smile and great persona, thinking back on how awesome this day of skiing had been. But the fun wasn’t over yet as we met friends that were having a Cuba slide show from their 3-month trip at the end of 2010. Mojitos and lots of laughter were on the menu for most of the night, and for others salsa dancing lessons were just the beginning of the night.

Feeling under the weather a bit today, I will recover and then Jeff and I are headed to Golden for course setting and some fun races. Everyone is welcome to join, the more the merrier!!

ciao ciao ciao

ciao

Heading up into the Hermit zone, things were looking pretty white.  The crust on the southern aspects was very prominent, and we figured our best bet of keeping a low-vis option was to head towards Sifton as opposed to the Swiss Glacier.  As the day progressed, the variable cloud meant some beautiful light and some opportunities to push higher up.

“It’d be pretty nice to be standing on top of Ursus Minor right now”, I said looking towards it’s North face from the Sifton-Little Sifton col.

“How about standing on top of Sifton”, Mark replied, motioning up the ridge.

We discussed the options for ascent/descent and started working our way up.  After a bootpack and short descent, we wrapped around through the North-West basin and were soon on the North ridge making our way to the summit.  Once on top, we did a couple of roped up ski-cuts, and then it was time to drop in.

The surface snow was sluffing fast and as Mark rode the upper steep section, some substantial sluffs raced down the face through the choke and out to the fan below.  Ian followed Mark through the centre line, while Tina, Julie and myself worked our way skiers right to meet up with them at the bottom.  An amazing 3000 ft line in great snow and great light, one to remember.

We climbed back up a steep snow slope to the North ridge and crossed the North-West glacier to return via our line of ascent.  Surprise, surprise, Hartley opted to recycle the uptrack and return to the summit to shred back down the south-face of Sifton, MANIMAL!

Thanks to Julie, Mark, Tina and Ian for an awesome day in the mountains and a great start to my spring break…here’s hoping for a great week!

Julie and I enjoyed a bit of a sleep-in and headed up to Mt. MacPherson later in the morning.  There’s a small couloir that enters the womb from the fingers side, and I’d always been interested in finding a fun variation to get into the womb for a shorter day.

Once on top, the look of the couloir entrance (protected from cliffs above), seemed like more than we were ready for.  We worked our way skiers right through some nice glades to a cliff section on the edge of the couloir.  Hoping to find a ski line through, we ventured further right.  The next line I checked had me bootpacking back up above a BIG cliff to work myself further right.  By this point we had committed ourselves fully to the descent and it was obvious that the “rad cord” was coming out.

Setting up on the edge of a pillowed set of cliffs, we tossed the rope and quickly realized that 20m of rope wasn’t going to be enough to make it through the lower rock band.  However, it did get us over what looked like the steepest section, and it looked feasible to downclimb in the runneled gully and maybe even hop the rocks at the bottom.

Once below the cliffs we were able to traverse out into the chute and ski some great snow through the bottom of the womb.  A great day to practice escape rout techniques in the mountains!

Thanks to Brad Schalles for the great re-cap of the skimo race in Alpental a few weeks back.  Brad is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with on the circuit!

Alpental

“Hope it’s not raining like this tomorrow!” I said to Aimee as we drove back to our hotel through sheets of rain. We had been taking in some of the events at Vert Fest at Alpental ski resort and were planning on racing the next day.

Zach Giffin at one of the great Clinics held throughout the weekend