Compilation of a Few Days Around and Torn ACL

Another edit from some days around the Skeena and Nass regions. The last shot had me jumping off a little double pillow which while tumbling produced a noticeable POP POP in my left knee. Turns out I'm not a teenager anymore and don't just jump back up again after a fall. I think its just a bad twist but I'm taking a few days off to rest and will get back into things slowly after I'm feeling stronger. But after further investigation I've found that I had a torn ACL.....



A few days were spent in the Middle Creek area skiing some pretty good vertical. Roughly 12,000ft of it with the highlights from the two days being above. Beautiful weather had us up into the alpine or my first time all season for some pretty good skiing. The top picture being a first descent off the shoulder of NW Hipp that we are calling Vanilla Milkshake due to its proximity to the run Smoothy.

Final Days of the Holiday

I got a GoPro for Christmas and the above footage is from January 2nd at Shames. I spent my holidays down south in the Shuswap missing many amazing powder days in the Skeena region but enjoying some fun family time. Heather and I went to Revelstoke with some cousins for a fun day of skiing but left a day early after seeing that there was a big storm heading for the North Coast of BC. We left the Shuswap on the 31st driving all day arriving back in Terrace some 14hours later just before the big storm rolled in. We had a gentle day of just a few backcountry laps on the 1st as we were tired from the long drive and were just a few chairs back of first chair on the 2nd getting some fun powder turns in resort before heading for the backcountry.

Some Pre-Christmas Skiing

I took the 2nd week of December off of work to do some renos on my house and then set off into the hills for 5 days of skiing. Had everything from avy debris, thick wind/rain crusts and beautiful powder in some late afternoon sunshine. Shames Mtn opened on the 16th for one of my best days skiing at that hill ever. There was such a fun attitude and the conditions couldn't have been any better.

Dec 19 - Some unexpected snowfall up Middle Creek had me worried I wouldn't be able to get my car out of the mountains. Looks like about 20-30cms of snow fell. Driving my sled through such deep snow made for some adventure and I was able to get it a few km up the road before getting it stuck and leaving it.

Dec 17 - Two sucky valley bottom Deliverance Laps led to a late afternoon lap on the Fay-zurs which was pretty amazing with the sunshine and dry snow. A great way to end a short day in the hills.

8 More Around the Area

Skiing has been a bit strange around here the last few weeks. The deep powder falling all the time started to get a bit touchy, with a few days of heavy snowfall and high avalanche danger, but this has all been followed with about 10 days of high pressure. The clear weather started off with great conditions however the temperatures quickly rose, it rained and then froze hard making for some interesting conditions. It has been a fun few weeks though and they can't all be bomber deep pow days can they.

Dec 11 - After hurting my hand falling on some ice in town I took the week off to work and get some things done around my house. It was a good time to not be out skiing though the only good snow was low elevation stuff. Above 1000m it was breakable crust with about 10cms of dry powder on top. Skiable for sure but you had to be ready for anything. Heather and I skied up into Middle Creek for a day to check it out and had a great time touring around. We decided to turn around shy of the summit because the skiing just wasn't going to get any better. Best turns were near valley bottom which is rare.

Dec 4 - Before everything turned to crap it was really great up at Shames. Heather and I skied a few laps in the calmest of conditions. The snow was still dry and the temperatures really mild. A great time out!

Nov 25 - Hoping to avoid rising freezing levels and high avalanche danger we headed north to Oscar. Elissa and I sat in the truck trying to mutiny while Brad went to scout out the road in the pouring rain. We nearly succeeded if it were not for 4 other skiers showing up a bit later and wanting to check it out. We actually found some really deep dry powder but had to sled in the pouring rain for a bit before skinning through some wet slop and finally deep dry powder. You don't know unless you go.

Nov 24 - Avy dangers were way up in the red but it just didn't seem right. With poor confidence on the report we had to check it out for ourselves and found incredible skiing in the Shames Backcountry. We managed two laps on No Socks finding as the picture above shows really deep powder. The following weekend the danger level went back up to high and for good reason.

Friends of Shames video by Jordan Manley

Friends of Shames: A Skier's Journey EP1 [Season 2] from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.

Jordan Manley and Chad Sayers were up in the Skeena Valley last winter for a few weeks filming this video to be added to Jordan's series "A Skier's Journey". I think he did a great job and gets to the soul of skiing and what lengths people will go to have it in their lives.

9 Days of Mostly Amazing Deep Dry Powder

Not many pictures to post as its just been snowing heavily for the last few weeks in the mountains. Shames is sporting what would be a good mid winter base and its only late November with something like more than 2 metres at the top of the resort and 130cm at the bottom. The snow is pretty much blower bottomless powder and the hill doesn't even open for a few more weeks. It was so deep for a few days that I on a whim bought new skis from MEC that are absolutely amazing in the deep stuff. I picked up some Voile Drifters which at 125mm at the waiste with some early tip and tail rise are so much fun to ski in the deep stuff. With my new skis in hand on Monday I finished up a 12 day stint of work and took the rest of the week off skiing 5 days in a row of deep dry powder. It was amazing and we are off to an great start of season 2011/2012. Not even the end of the month and I already have 15 days of great skiing under my belt.

Nov 20 - Heather in the deep stuff off the backside of a still closed Shames Mountain.

Nov 19 - Top of the T-Bar with sunshine, cold temperatures and some amazing dry powder!

Nov 11 - Mark and I skied a lower section of North Bowl in the Shames Backcountry. Once again deep dry powder with some sunshine.

Nov 5 - Myself skiing for once with photo credit to Anna Usbourne. Met up with Josh and Anna for some once again deep dry powder. It was both of their first days on the hill and they were amazed with the coverage for so early in the season. A great day out of backside laps behind a not yet open resort.

Wesach Mountain: Best October Turns Ever!

Oct 14 - Blower pow and sunshine makes for the best conditions I've even had in October. Brad on the Wesach glacier.

Oct 14 - Elissa high on the Wesach.

Oct 14

Oct 15 - Heather making her first of many turns of the 2011/12 season.

Oct 23 - Elissa and Roy heading up the skintrack. Roy hadn't been out for two weeks after hurting his leg on our first day out but ripped it up here after a bit of rest. Some great powder on this day with next to no visibility. A great time out.

Oct 14 - With snow falling all week I had to take the Friday off work and what a day it was. A blue sky, cold temperature and the dryest snow I've had up on the Wesach in my limited amount of time up there. The skiing was amazing! High speed carefree skiing through blower powder in the middle of October. You really can't go wrong with that. Can't go wrong with those conditions in the heart of winter. We skied pretty much the entire 700m of vertical in one go which was great fun and a real workout for the legs this early on.

Oct 15 - With such good conditions the day before I wanted to get Heather up on the snow as well. We were lucky with milder weather which was nice as it was pretty cold for early season the day before. The snow stayed just as great for the second day which was a bit surprising considering the wind that usually plagues the area. We had a great day out there and even had company from another party for a brief part of the day.

Oct 23 - Thwarted on opening up Middle Creek for the season due to the new power project going in up there we headed up to Wesach for what we hoped would be some great deep snow. Friday the snow started with some heavy flurries in town and we knew we'd find the goods up high. What we found was about 15cms of heavy snow down low, with thigh deep sections on the stairway to heaven and a consistent 20-30cm on the snowfield itself. We couldn't see much of anything for our descent but with a smooth slope that didn't matter too much. Just point them downhill and hope for the best.

Wesach Mountain: 2011/2012 Season Opener

October 9 and already I'm into the new season. Its only been about 10 weeks since my last day on snow but that 10 weeks has been some of the lazier weeks in the last few years for me. So it was nice to click into my bindings and skin up a mountain for a few thousands vert. The descent while being a bit like skiing in a milk bottle was great with about 10cms of powder on top of a firm base. We skied a steep couloir off the top, then open bowl and finished with another fun narrow couloir at the bottom. It was a great day out!

More Summer Skiing and Hiking

Summer is over and in some ways has been a dud for the hiking. I've been involved in some other pursuits like couch sitting, eating and drinking while watching the rain fall or clouds sock in saturating all the brush. There have been a few brakes in the weather though and I tried to get out and take advantage of them. There have of course been many, many, many trips up into Middle Creek which I will not blog about.

Aug 12 - Got away from Baby Fest 2011 in the Shuswap and into the mountains finding myself in just 90 minutes on the summit of Mount Grace something like 30km north of Seymour Arm. I followed a little used atv trail into the alpine in what I am thinking is a popular sledding area in the winter. Roy found a lone patch of snow to cool down on before arriving on the summit.

Aug 12 - Looking southeast towards the the rugged Monashee Mountains north of Revelstoke on the west side of the Columbia River. In this picture you can probably see Feline, Cat, Schrund, and Frenchman Cap.

Aug 7 - Heather and I hiked along the ridge above Shames Ski Hill camping on the summit of Geronimo Bowl. We had amazing weather and a spectacularly cold dunk in a small snow rimmed tarn. After setting up camp we walked to the top of Thunder Bowl for something a little extra. Roy managed to kill 5 giant horseflies in just 20 minutes while we took in the views.

Aug 7

Aug 7

Aug 7

Aug 7 - Goats above Hidden Lake.

Aug 2 - I've tried to get to summit of Thornhill Mtn 6 or 7 times now but because it is not much of a summit I am usually just out for the exercise and hiking in the rain. But with a clear day I marched up to the summit finding this amazing view of a still snowed in Seven Sisters Range.

Aug 2 - The bustling city of Terrace BC from near the summit of Thornhill Mtn.

Aug 1 - My cousins were in town for a few days so we went for a hike up into the Sleeping Beauty area hoping for some sunshine. We didn't get it but did have a few views of the surrounding mountains which was nice.

July 21 - A client of Brad's wanted to get some summer turns in so we took him up to Wesach where we found some sloppy new snow. Brad and I skied two laps getting the fresh snow to slide fast and far to the flats below. A really fun day of skiing in the sunshine.

July 21 - Alex nearing the top of Wesach hiking up in fresh snow.

July 21

Summer Skiing and Hiking

July 12 - Roy and I hiked to the top of Gunsight Mountain. It was a fairly easy trip arriving on the very top in just over 3 hours. The hike was made much easier with the firm snow that was continuous right from the lake. Definetely made for an easy descent. In the above picture Roy is posing in front of our Middle Creek playground. Mount Valpy is the biggest peak but Little, Wedeene and Hipp are in there as well.

July 12 - From the summit of Gunsight looking southeast into the Chist area with the big peaks probably being Clore and Chist.

July 10 - Brad and I headed up Middle Creek for some great summer skiing. I backed off a steep run down Boxcar Face and ended up skiing a fun run down the Little Glacier which then had me through the Fingers and out onto the long apron below. A great 2500ft of fall-line skiing in July!

July 10 - Brad making his descent of Boxcar Face. Named after the boxcar sized cornice which fell here in April 2010 nearly taking a group of people with it.

July 10 - Brad and the rest of Boxcar Face

July 10 - Brad looking at his run and trying to convince me to ski it. I wouldn't have any of it though. Maybe next year with some more snow. Little bit of remnant ice across the lake as well.

July 10 - Roy

July 10 - Roy and I skiing Funky Monkey. This short couloir is named after its banana like shape. Fun, steep and will be a blast with some powder next winter!

July 10 - Booting up Funky Monkey

July 10 - Crossing wet meadows up on the bench of Middle Creek. Mount Little behind.

July 7 - Elissa and I tried to go skiing up on Wesach. It never really stopped raining though and we never left the forest. Roy in all his happiness of course played in the mud and had to be dunked so that he could ride in the car. I'd much rather a swampy smelling dog than a muddy one.

July 7 - I managed to get my car most of the way to the end of the South Douglas. A little bike riding had us at the end of the road and ready to wait in the forest for the rain to stop. It never did.

July 3 - This beautiful Mama bear on the side of the Nass Highway. Her two cute cubs were not far away.

July 3 - The freezing levels dropped which meant snow in July! Brad and I took advantage of it and skied some fantastic conditions high on Wesach's East Bowl. While clagued right in the powder more than made up for the poor visibility. We used Verts to get up the steep section here which was interesting. They are somewhere between a snowshoe and crampon and let you climb steep powder snow without postholing.

July 3 - Lower down on Wesach and out of the new snow. The skiing was still great though.

June 26 - Our first day up on Wesach and it didn't dissapoint. We skied this long couloir at around 6:30pm on a Sunday evening.

June 26

June 19 - Heather and I made a trip out to Hyder Alaska and as well drove up to have a look at the Salmon Glacier. Great views all day long and well worth the drive.