Matt's Journal of Backcountry Skiing

Compilation of a Few Days Around and Torn ACL

2012-01-17T07:47:00.008-08:00

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

2012-01-07T18:28:00.004-08:00

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

2011-12-22T18:23:00.003-08:00

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

2011-12-12T08:03:00.006-08:00

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

2011-11-30T07:44:00.003-08:00

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

2011-11-20T18:39:00.005-08:00

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!

2011-10-24T19:57:00.004-07:00

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

2011-10-09T19:39:00.003-07:00

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

2011-09-07T08:49:00.009-07:00

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 - 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

2011-07-14T08:50:00.006-07:00

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.

Trip into the Seven Sisters

2011-06-20T19:31:00.004-07:00

Myself skinning up to the head of Boulder Creek next to the large north glacier.

Brad skinning up next to the large and very broken Boulder Glacier on the north side of the mountains.

Nearing the snow after 4 hours of hiking through a mosquito infested forest. We were glad to get onto the snow and away from the bugs.

June 11 - Brad and I got away for the weekend hiking into the Seven Sisters group via the Whiskey Creek Trail. We started right from the highway on the north side of the mountain and hiked with skis on our back with light overnight bags. 4 hours had us on the snow and another hour or so we had set up camp in the afternoon on Saturday. Wanting to ski something though we skinned up to a 1900m highpoint on the three way divide of Boulder, Whiskey and a tributary of the Coyote rivers. We had fantastic views and even better after nearly 1700m of gain we were lucky enough to ski about 1000m of vertical back to our camp arriving at 8:30 with a few hours of light remaining to hang out. The snow was really fast which was a relief after skiing slow slop for many mild weekends.

June 12 - We headed back up to our three way divide that we'd skied from the evening before and this time skied about 500m vertical into the Boulder Creek drainage down the edge of the large north facing Boulder Glacier. The snow was again fast after a nice freeze and recharge the night before. A quick skin up in the sun and another thousand metres of vertical got us back to our camp to get ready for the hike out.

A great weekend in the mountains. The skiing was great, the views spectacular and the bugs in the forest relentless. My shoulders were covered in dozens upon dozens of bites but I'm already wanting to head back in with a ticklist.

End of April, through May and into June

2011-06-03T17:23:00.010-07:00

June 5 - West side of Oscar Peak with a fork of the large glacier at the headwaters of Poupard Creek.

June 5 - Skinning up the mellow and smooth lower glacier with Poupard in the clouds beyond.

June 5 - The broken upper glacier with the summit of Poupard beyond.

June 5 - Brad skinning up onto the lower glacier. Fantastic hanging glaciers beyond.

June 5 - Breaking out of the trees with the views of our destination coming in.

May 21 - Roy and his first encounter with a porcupine. I just pulled out them out by hand. Roy was a real champ and didn't even complain. He didn't learn his lesson though and the following weekend at the same spot he got a few more in his face. Photo courtesy of Dave Weddell.

May 8th - Elissa going for first tracks in the Dogleg Couloir below Cornice Mountain. Fantastic corn snow.

April 30 - Oscar Peak from Lava Lake. We spent a large chunk of our season on this mountain exploring all over looking for and skiing many new runs. Great days of exploration. On April 30th we skied from the top of the little triangle just lookers right of the true summit. 6000ft of fun skiing.

April 30

April 30 - Dave Duddy who was a member of another group on the mountain this day skiing a fun looking face near the summit of Oscar Peak. Up here is it pretty rare to share a mountain with a different group away from the Shames area.

April 30 - Nearing the top of our run. We would ski off the top of pointy thing to the right of the true summit.

11 days out in the mountains on my skis with a few days here and there getting up to some notable things. On April 30 two seperate parties made it up onto the Oscar Glacier skiing some fun lines. One group from Terrace skied the skiers right line from up high while our crew of Ruparians and Terrights skied the far skiers left face which we skied way way back in Spring Break. We found powder from the very top of our steep face, into the big couloir and even a few pockets through the morraine at the bottom. Pretty amazing considering the heat at the time. The snow quickly turned to slop through the waterfall and made for an interesting don't you dare stop to talk for fear of getting taken out by a giant ball of snow. It was a fantastic day out under a blue sky. Nothing like skiing a 6000ft run (of which a large chunk was powder) on the very last day of April.

Another fun day had 3 of us heading out from Shames to ski the dogleg couloir below cornice ridge. We approached it from the top of the t-bar, heading up and over East Ridge to the col at the head of Mystic Valley. A bear had been all through the area trying to find a way into the Zymachord Valley which made for some entertaining sites. A quick boot up the ridge to near the summit of Cornice Ridge and we skied fantastic corn through the couloir and out onto the apron below. It was a great day out and we had more than enough snow to ski right back to the base area via Mystic Valley without any problems.

Fast forward to June 5 where Brad and I went up into the Nass area to see what we could find on Mount Poupard. Brad pushed his truck 8km up the May Creek FSR through some heinous brush that would have made walking difficult to the end of the logging cut which put us directly below one of the main valleys coming off Poupard. We hiked for an hour over broken snow through steep forest and within 90 minutes of the truck were easily skinning up a broad snow filled valley. We took the gradual approach option of skiing right up onto the mellow glacier and seeing that the upper glacier was considerably broken up with loads of sagging bridges decided against exploring higher in that direction. So instead Brad put in a long bootpack up onto a ridge overlooking the large forked valley glacier in the headwaters of Poupard Creek. The ski down this steep face was great on very nice corn and we managed a 3000ft descent on skis until we ran out of snow. A fantastic day that had us out on our feet for just about 8 hours.

A Few Turns Through April

2011-04-25T12:27:00.009-07:00

April 23 - Brad skiing down from the 1800m high point between Happy Valley and Monkey Bowl. In the background is the lower of the Happy Double Lakes, Happy/Doom col and run down into Happy Valley of the Happy/Doom Traverse which we skied the day before and were standing in an hour or so previous to this summit.

April 23 - Looking south to Mount Valpy left of centre and a summit we skied from the top of in the centre for a long long run to the Skeena River during Spring Break.

April 23 - Frozen snowballs in the Valley of Certain Doom. Interesting features in that they would have fallen from the mountains above during the night after the snow firmed up. There were hundreds and hundreds of them.

April 22 - First bear tracks of the season near the entrance to Happy Valley. They weren't there when we skied up the valley.

April 16 - Fun new run up Happy Valley. A steep 500ft vertical couloir, open middle section and then well below the exit couloir to get through the headwall.

April 7 - Great snow skiing down on the lake near Obi-1-Ski-Nobi. Elissa and Brad below their run.

April 7 - And my tracks down to the lake. Not as long as the run above but still really fun.

April 1 - Mount Little through a break in the clouds from near the top of The Dome.

April 23 - Valley of Certain Doom - Happy/Doom Traverse with a variation - Spotting a cool looking line up VoCD the day before, Brad and I headed up again with full gear to handle some glacier travel. We got an early start with our skis on before 6am to beat the sun as the freezing level was going to spike early on. We motored on up VoCD with Brad out in front and myself trying my hardest not to fall behind. We motored at full speed for 90 minutes before finding our run wouldn't go in the conditions of the day. With no real objective for the day we slowed it down a bit and moseyed on up to the Happy/Doom col for the 2nd time in two days. Along the way we found an interesting feature in that hundreds upon hundreds of frozen snowballs had tumbled down from the lofty summits during the night. It was really cool.

We managed to arrive at the Happy/Doom col within something like 3.5 hours and thought that with such easy travel we may as well keep going. So it was a ski traverse down to the Happy Double Lakes, which soon had us on long steep bootpack up onto the ridge between Monkey Bowl and Happy Valley. We were standing on the highest point between the Shames and Skeena Rivers which is 1800m. The views from this summit were absolutely incredible. The best of it being to the south into the Gitnedoix Watershed. The ski down the north aspect was fantastic up high with creamy powder and a steep little couloir. We were then into the exit couloir from the Happy Valley Double Lakes which was a bit of crusty powder but easily skiable and then because it was still early just softening corn snow.

A fantastic day out in the sun with great views, powder, corn and another new run skied.

April 22 - Valley of Certain Doom - Happy/Doom Traverse - I've always wanted to ski up into this area not just for the fantastic views but as well because of the name. You are in the thick of it for a few km heading up this valley as there is next to no protection if anything rips out from the big mountains above. It didn't disappoint and Brad, Elissa and I had a great time heading into this new area for the first time. Not very many people have been up this way which makes for some great exploration. I came out of the valley with a sore neck I was craning so hard trying to look around every corner. At the Happy/Doom col we skinned up onto the high point of the ridge for some extra turns and fantastic views. The skiing down into Happy Valley was fun if just a little sloppy and we exited out into the headwall of Happy Valley on snow that was incredibly slow. Gravity works though, we just had a load of suction from the wet snow and were moving slow.

April 17 - I was without local partners for Sunday so met up with Josh and Anna from Prince Rupert to ski Obi-1-Ski-Nobi. We found great snow on a northwest aspect which had has skiing powder from the summit down to the lake, really carvable spring snow to treeline and then corn the rest of the way out. It was a fantastic day which as well had us moving really fast thanks to Brad and Elissa's skintrack from Thursday. We were on the highest point in less than 4 hours.

April 16 - On the 9th of April we spotted a cool looking double couloir up Happy Valley so headed on up there with Elissa and Brad to check it out. The top one turned out to be pretty steep and about 500ft vertical which was cool. This then put us on a wide open bench before we entered another couloir to get through the headwall. A great day out of steep couloir skiing with fantastic views once again. Not much to complain about when you find yourself up high in the mountains with great views.

April 10 - Not really even a ski day and I'm not counting it but I did have my skis on for about an hour. I had to bale pretty quick though when on the ski down from the switchback on very grabby breakable crust I caught an edge and rammed my face and thigh into a small group of trees. I sat in the snow for a few minutes dripping blood all over the place before collecting myself and skiing down to the rest of the group with a large fat lip and swollen nose. I quickly made the decision to head home with a mild concussion and spent the day on Heather's couch.

April 9 - Brad and I headed up Happy Valley hoping to find the same powder we'd skied two days before. Instead we saw the alpine being ravaged by high winds with some sloppy snow down low. But we persevered and made a day out of it skiing two laps of wet mank. One lap on the east aspect at the entrance to the valley and another much more fun lap on the north aspect skiing down to the entrance of the Valley of Certain Doom. A fun little day of exploration which we finished up with some isothermic bouldering on a large rock with a few metres of snow on top. I didn't manage to get to the top (fell heals over head when a large chuck of snow pealed off) but Brad did and was rewarded with a 3 metre jump into the deep snow below.

April 7 - For Brad's birthday, Elissa, Brad and I headed up to ski some powder on Obi-1-Ski-Nobi. The views were great and we skied some fun steep runs down to the lake on creamy fast powder. It was fantastic!

April 2 - The last weekend for lift access backcountry skiing took Elissa, Anna, Roy and I over to ski some powder laps on Darkside which is the other side of The Dome. The powder was great and we pushed it into some steeper terrain for our second lap.

Ran into some problems on the ski out when Roy and I were separated. I spent the next hour or so looking for him all over the ski hill. He was in a panic running up and down the T-Bar while I looked for him all over the rest of the hill. I later learned that he ran nearly all the way up to the base of The Dome. I finally tracked him down and we had a joyous reunion. I was getting a bit worried. Lots of people know Roy but he is so skittish around other people that he won't come to anyone. So there was lots of calling for him but that just confuses him even more. That little experience has pretty much stopped me from taking him skiing which is a little sad but I don't want to lose him.

April 1 - Brad and I skied Zymachord trees finding heavy wet slop down near the bottom but really nice powder up in the alpine on the north aspects. It was a fun day out looking for the good snow and set me up for the next day of powder skiing on Shames' last weekend of the season.

5 Days of Awesome!

2011-03-29T20:31:00.008-07:00

March 27 - Roy and I heading into Monkey Bowl. A great run with many different snow types. Great fun.

March 27 - Looking towards Shames and just a few of the bowls in the impressive backcountry around the resort. Left to right is Super Bowl, Thunder Bowl, Cat and Dogs and then various runs before getting into the resort itself. This is only a bit of the lift served backcountry. There is loads more over the backsides.

March 27 - Nearing the top of Obi-1-Ski-Nobi and just about to crest the ridge for some fantastic 360 degree views.

March 27 - Roy and Brad above the small lake on Obi-1-Ski-Nobi. Some great looking skiing in the background with a few steep chutes to the lake below.

March 26 - On top of our 6000ft run south of the Skeena River on the edge of the Gitnadoix Watershed. Looking east into the headwaters of the Dasque, Middle Creek, Wedeene and Clay Rivers.
March 26 - Brothers Mark and Steve in front of a very impressive Mount Valpy. The peaks behind are in Gitnadoix River Recreation Area.

March 26 - Brad punching a trail (as usual) up onto the summit ridge. Was a little unnerving being under those overhanging and massive cornices.

March 26 - Gaining elevation and maybe halfway up our 6000ft of gain.

March 26 - Kris finding it easier to walk on the very firm snow. We summited above his head via the out of sight couloir that heads diagonally to the right through a gap. The summit is about 5000ft above. We are going to call this run Big Bunny.

March 24 - Josh booting up a steep section of ridge to gain the small glacier next to Mount Little. Amazing snow that we were really lucky to ski.

March 24 - Looking south into the headwaters of the Wedeene River from the 1878m summit of Mount Little.
March 24 - On our way to the summit Mount Little shown here. We went around the backside for a more friendly skiable route.

March 23 - Myself skiing an incredible section of snow skiers left of the Oscar Glacier. A really fun ascetic run. 6000 ft of greatness!

March 23 - Kris just after riding a fun section next to the summit of Oscar Peak. A fantastic ski and real adventure.

March 24 - Brad looking into our run while Kris climbs up to him. Oscar Peak behind and looking very much unskiable.

March 23 - Myself nearing our highpoint on Oscar Peak. Great day out and my first 6000ft climb and ski.

March 23 - Skin track to gain Oscar Glacier.

March 23 - Brad and Kris on their way up and onto the Oscar Glacier. The start of a big day.

March 23 - Part of our ski descent. Small pyramid to the right of the summit and down behind the two rick knobs. Just a section of the 6000ft run.

March 27 - Last day of Spring Break and as well the last day that the good weather would hold. With no sleds and another timeline that we had to stick to we headed up Obi-1-Ski-Nobi to ski a north facing run down into Monkey Bowl. We had a late start and while heading through some low elevation trees heard a loud and close rumbling. A class 2 wet slide had spilled down off the rocks right next to where we'd be skinning up. It was a bit unnerving but as we gained elevation the snow firmed up and we gained some confidence. We headed right to the highest point above the lake finding some snow that was of a really nice quality. It was hard to pass up but figured we'd get a longer and more entertaining run into the north facing Monkey Bowl.

The views from the summit were again great. Seems like that is a theme in this area. But with the coast mountains, the rare sunny days if you are standing on top of something the views are going to be incredible. We were able to pick out the areas we'd been skiing the previous few days and even planned out a few new routes for future trips. So many possibilities.

The skiing was fun for the top half but with time quickly going and the south facing slopes we'd be passing under constantly shedding snow we had to move fast and couldn't start exploring an exit we didn't know would go. So we headed left into a couloir that Brad knew went to valley bottom and got the heck out of dogde. I ended up doing an incredibly long power slide down some smooth slide debris that was a lot of fun but had my right glute and legs on fire by the bottom. We didn't stop until we hit mature forest and were finally able to let our guard down to have some fun and joke around.

All that was left was a fun ski down the steep creek which was great with dog tossing and creek jumping. We easily made it down to the truck with loads of time to spare which meant we caught happy hour at the resort for some tasty beverages.

An amazing stretch of skiing. I skied 9 out of 10 days, with most of them being incredible days out. Such a good Spring Break and what I've been going for all season.

March 26 - I really needed to break after the last 3 days and 4 previous ones before that so marched Heather up to the top of the Dome for another go at North Bowl. The snow wasn't nearly as nice but the views were pretty good and we had a fun time even though she re-injured her tender ankle.

March 25 - Brad had been talking about this 6000 foot run he'd skied a few years previous about 30km west of Terrace on the south side of the Skeena. We had to check it out and so headed out with a group of 5 Friday morning under clear blue skies to ski a big run and get back in time for an 8:00pm concert which some of the guys were going to.

We started skinning about 100m above sea level and after something like 6 hours reached an elevation of 1870m. We'd spent most of that 6 hours in a massive terrain trap of a bowl trying our hardest to work the terrain to stay at least a little bit safe. A small condolence was that the avy danger in the alpine had been moderate for over a week. Our main concern even with that rating were the huge over hanging cornices looming far above our heads for the 600ft boot up a steep wide couloir. We all made it though and nothing ever fell down while we were there that day.

The views once on the ridge were incredible. South into the Gitnadoix Watershed where there are some truly spectacular summits. Steep mountains with glaciers spilling off of them. It was amazing. We had a timeline though and turned tail from the highpoint on our ridge at 4:00pm.

The skiing wasn't as good as Mount Little but we managed it and had some fun. We went from firm snow to crusty powder to pinwheeling slop and finally back to frozen corn here and there. We were right on schedule for getting the guys home when while being shuttled back to the waiting trucks, Brad's sled broke down. We were saved though by Kris who was able to tow us out in two trips. What followed was probably the most pain my legs have ever been in. Towing behind a sled for close to 20km of wet snow. The lactic acid buildup in my legs was impressive and the km markers ticked by slowly. But we all made it back just as the light was failing. Brad, Mark and Steve were able to get the final few songs at their concert but were in a bit of trouble for being late. Kris really saved the day as it would have been a real march to get out of there without the tow.

March 24 - With such a big day up Oscar the day before I was really surprised when I felt ready to go for another big day. We headed up Middle Creek for a summit of 1878m Mount Little finding the best snow of my Spring Break. We skied off the summit onto the pocket glacier via a run called F.U.B. Face finding hero snow and sunshine. It was amazing! We then reskinned to the back of the glacier to ski a short new couloir we are calling "No Goats, No Glory". We'd been poached by an adventurous goat that had walked down this thing to get around a cliff on the ridge. It was a fun ski and from there we skied right to valley bottom on really nice snow. A good 4500 foot day with powder just about to valley bottom!

The views were spectacular once we were up on the ridge and it was hard to get moving looking south and imagining all the cool skiing in the Wedeene and Dasque River watersheds. What a great day out. I was feeling strong and with great weather and good stability it was getting hard to turn Brad down.

March 23 - The weather held and with such good stability we wanted to get up high and do something new. So Brad, Kris and I headed up on to the Oscar Glacier to ski a new run. We ended up skiing a 6000 foot run off what looks like the highest skiable point on the mountain. The run started with a steep face just skiers left of the summit. Once back on the glacier we skied down a steep wide north facing couloir which with amazing snow conditions just kept going and going and going.

A few days previous we had had a pretty good look at the glacier from the top of Big Bird to the north so knowing we'd be travelling through an area with some really large holes and long partially covered cracks we brought along a rope and glacier gear just to be on the safe side. Nobody fell in though and it was good practice tying in and travelling as a team. It was an amazing day out and one of my larger ascents and descents on skis. I was physically spent that evening and didn't know if I'd be able to ski the following day. Who knew I'd end up skiing 4 more...

4 Great Days in the Shames Backcountry

2011-03-29T16:30:00.005-07:00

March 21 - Brad and his first few turns in Big Bird to the north of Oscar Peak. The snow wasn`t the greatest so we were forced to jump turn most of its 300m vertical. It was fun but my legs were burning and ready for the much more open slopes of the lower section.

March 21 - We startled a few goats near the top of Big Bird. They had been busy testing the cornices and entrances to the three couloirs for us.

March 21 - Oscar Peak area.

March 21 - Brad got this shot of me looking west towards Mount Poupard. Yet another area to explore.

March 20 - Out for the day with Elissa on the bump above Geronimo Bowl. We were a bit too early to get good snow but it was fun being out there as always.

March 18 - Saturday with a stable snowpack, powder on north aspects and sunshine. The masses were out and these were just the late starters. A great day for a ridge walk.

March 18 - Kris having fun on a windlip above Hidden Lake. The snow was fantastic. Mount Kenny in the background.

March 18 - Mount Kenny above Hidden Lake and across the Zymagotitz River (most people call it the Zymacord though).

March 21 - Brad and I headed up for a lazy day in the Oscar area skiing a new and fantastic run we are calling Big Bird. This couloir is on a ridge to the north of Oscar Peak proper and drops 3000 feet north down into Poupard Creek. There are three entrances to this thing of which we have now skied the skiers right and left. The middle is still untouched. We are calling the area from skiers right to left, Bert, Ernie and Big Bird.

The skinning into the area was easy enough as we really have the approach dialed in having tested all the options. We even startled a few goats up in the alpine which were testing the cornices above the couloir for us. Looked stable so we dropped in finding a bit grabby snow in the couloir itself but fun powder down to the choke near the bottom. It was fun to tick this run off and get right into the belly of the most ascetic of the 3 couloirs. A good 6 hours out.

March 20 - The sun kept shining and the avalanche conditions since Friday had dropped to Moderate, Low, Low which means go, go, go and finally a big go. Ellissa and I marched out for a ridgewalk with big intentions however her coughing forced us down Geronimo a bit too early so we were not able to enjoy the soft afternoon snow of a solar heated aspect. Turns out she has been touring around the mountains the last while with pneumonia. Oops.

March 19 - Ellissa hosted a great party Friday night in which I even danced for a few hours but after a lazy start Saturday morning Heather and I headed up to do a lap off The Dome into North Bowl. The snow was fun and we had a fun time out. That was my first time actually skiing this bowl as I am usually heading out on a ridge walk and bypassing all that great easy terrain. We were both pretty tired though from a late and active night of dancing to great music.

March 18 - Took Friday off as the weather was turning bluebird and the conditions were hopefully going to really good. Kris and I motored out on a ridgewalk to Hidden Lake skiing a few fun runs on the steeps above the lake. We did one test run next to the trees and then stepped it up a bit for our second getting a small spine feature. The snow was surprisingly dry and fast which was strange considering how warm it had been the day before. We skied some crusty but very skiable snow out Fish Bowl and that was our day being out there for about 7 hours. A good way to start a long run of incredible skiing.

We even had a celebrity meeting of the legendary John Baldwin. A nice guy that has been returning to this area over the years to ski the great terrain and fantastic snow. He and friends were on their way to ski Super Bowl which after seeing their tracks looked pretty damn good.

6 Days of Deep Powder

2011-03-15T07:53:00.006-07:00

March 13 - Soaked right through after a day of skiing deep powder under a sky of falling snow up Middle Creek.

March 13 - Deep powder up Middle Creek. Natou getting some air in the cut block.

March 6 - Skin track through all that new snow up Middle Creek with the cutblock in the back. The skiing was really great.

March 5 - Brad catching a little air near the top of Pillowpalooza. What an amazing day. Good light, with deep dry powder. It was fantastic.

March 6 - Natou at the top of Pillowpalooza. Such a good run.

March 6 - About halfway up Pillowpalooza and planning out our lines.

March 4 - Jordon Manley and Chad Sayers planning out the next shot for their film on the Shames Mountain Co-op idea.

March 4 - Elissa doing what she does most days out. Entertaining us with her antics.

March 13/2011 - With all that snow up on Oscar but some instabilities we thought Middle Creek might be better. What we found was even more snow and more coming down from the sky. It was another shitshow getting the sleds up the road which we couldn't have done without Natou's big machine. Again lots of pushing, pulling and rolled sleds. But we pushed a trail up the timber cut and into the forest a bit above. The skiing was all time. Just point them and go. If only the visibility was better, goggles were not fogging up and clothing quickly becoming saturated.

At the bottom even though we were all well on our way to being very wet we had to use the skin track for another lap. It was just as good as the first one but for the most part we were dealing with foggy goggles which makes things difficult when its snowing so hard and the snow is right up in your face because its so deep.

We'd all had enough at the bottom and were just sopping wet. The sled ride out wasn't the funnest I've ever had and when the snow turned to rain further down we all hoped to just get the day over with. Fun time out but so wet.

March 12/2011 - Up to Oscar with a big party of 7 and only 1 sled. It didn't add too much to the day with two shuttles but we couldn't have gotten into the area so easily without Natou's big sled. We started the day in the sun but by the time we were at the top of the meadow the weather had moved in and that was it until later in the afternoon. We bashed a track up Pillowpalooza right in the milk bottle not even getting to the ridgeline above. We skied the left hand run finding deep snow once again which was really fun. The only issue for me other than some somewhat unstable conditions was that I was quickly wet and couldn't see more than a few feet in front.

We called it due to instabilities, visibility and poor weather and pushed up to the top of the meadow to ski out. The sky cleared and sun came out at this point and with the warming came a few slides which further supported our decision to get out. The skiing through the meadow was fun on slushy snow of the kind that sprays up onto your outside leg. I really enjoyed it. All that was left was a long ski out to the highway that was helped near the end hanging onto a rope behind a sled.

March 6/2011 - The snow fell even harder to the south of the Skeena and up Middle Creek and we could only get the sleds up to the switchback. Even Natou's big sled was bogging down in the deep snow. The sled trench was thigh to waste deep. Even with a trench put in by Natou and his big high powered machine there was still loads of pushing, pulling and rolling of the machines but we soon found ourselves at the switchback with some really deep powder. A track was put up the cutblock which we soon skied and it was amazing. The snow was so deep that all we could do was go straight. The second lap we went to just below the summit of Tri Mountain to an elevation of 1400m. This made for a great 800m run down to the waiting sleds below. Really a great 4 day stint of deep powder skiing.

March 5/2011 - We headed north to Oscar Peak to ski some fun deep powder with a group of 6 people. We ended up skiing Old Wise One and Pillowpalooza. The first run we did was great but you have to be on your game with trees and pillows so close together. Lots of coming around corners to find a big pillow in your way with another one on the landing. Lots of fun though and we marched up Pillowpalooza right after for an even better lap. My first on this run where I could actually see and I put together a fun run complete with wide open turns, airs and pillow to pillow airs. We didn't stop though and skied right to the bottom of the scree field right of the waterfall. It was absolutely fantastic.

March 4/2011 - The clear and calm weather didn't last but we wanted to keep skiing so headed up to the hill for strong winds with blowing snow. There was another load of fresh snow and the skiing was again really good. We did another day of valley bottoms that didn't disappoint. Loads of faceshots and good times.

March 3/2011 - I ran Roy to the top of the ski hill Wednesday night finding a strong blowing snow like blizzard with slabby snow so was a bit surprised to find Thursday morning that the report was showing 25cm or something like that with a clear and calm sky. Elissa and I were up there getting pretty close to first chair and found an empty resort with loads of really great snow under a bright sun. It was amazing!

We met Brad after a few runs and decided it would be best to head out into the backcountry to do some valley bottom laps which were great. The snow was dry and bottomless. Can't better than that.

Last Frontier Heli-Ski - Bell II Lodge

2011-03-03T19:29:00.007-08:00

Not much for pictures I know. But skiing 50,000 vertical doesn't give one much time to get the camera out. Last Frontier is very efficient at shuttling guests and there was never much lingering around. It was all business so you'll just have to trust that I had a great time and skied some fun runs. Nothing TGR or MSP style but then I'm not a rockstar. Most runs were fun steep glades with pillows, little drops, and cold dry powder.

Feb 26/27 2011 - Last year while I was working for the Stikine School District in Dease Lake I attended a fundraiser for the local ice-rink. There was an auction for various items and the one that caught my attention was a 2 day trip to Last Frontier Heli-ski that included 2 nights accomodations, all the food and an unlimited amount of heli-time. Well I bid and got a smokin deal on the trip and finally used it on the last weekend of February.

What a trip it was. We started out on mellow runs to test us all out and then after lunch on the first day jumped into some much steeper tree runs that really had me grinning from ear to ear. The snow was great below treeline and the terrain was fun with features to play on. I feel that for the most part the terrain we skied was about the same as the runs I tend to do in the backcountry around the Skeena other than a few adventurous days here and there. Some of the heli runs even had mandatory airs which were fun with the soft snow. The 2nd day had us going from 3rd group to 1st group which would have us looking for the good snow and getting first tracks down the various runs. We skied some really fun steep glades which was a blast. Because the guides knew they didn't have to worry about me falling all over the place they let me stay in the back of the group so that I could ski as fast as I wanted and jump off whatever caught my fancy once they were well below. It was great and I felt like I took advantage of the situation.

Well over the 2 days I skied about 50,000ft vertical which had me doing about 25 runs or something like that. The guides and staff were fun and friendly, groups small (client/guide ratio of 2:1 for my group), snow excellent down low (wind had hammered the alpine hard), food amazing (I now know what helly belly is), and rooms really nice with a huge bed and my own fireplace.

It was a truly spectacular experience and it changed my whole perspective on heli skiing. I always had this image of having to ski down mellow glaciers in a v-formation, snuggling up turns to save the snow. It wasn't like that at all and I feel that if it wasn't 4-5 months salary I'd probably go again. Until I win my millions I guess I'll just have to keep earning my turns one foot after another.

Naming Runs in the Oscar Area

2011-02-23T16:52:00.009-08:00

Feb 20 - Oscar Glacier

Feb 20 - Interesting features in a snow cave on the Waterfall area of Oscar Peak.

Feb 19 - Most of the way down and nearing Poupard Creek in our fun couloir. The snow was great and even better was that it went and we didn't have to skin back up.

Feb 19 - Brad skied this run skiers left of Pillowpalooza on the 17th. We put 6 more tracks down it on couples day finding great snow and fun features.

Feb 20 - End of couples day and ready to go home after some fun skiing.

Feb 18 - Chris making it look easy in the upper section of Happy Valley Couloir.

Feb 18 - Roy near the top of Happey Valley. Enjoying the sun and brisk weather.

Feb 18 - Clearing the trees and looking into the upper reaches of the Valley of Certain Doom at the back with Happy Valley in the foreground. A rowdy looking line left of centre.

Feb 18 - Heading up the Valley of Certain Doom and on our way to our run.

Feb 17 - Elissa ripping it up on a fun pillow run. The snow was deep and dry.

Feb 20, 2011 - Couples Day - I somehow wrangled myself into this day creating a fake couple with Elissa. We tried our hardest to put on a good show for the other real couples though, complete with fights, cute names and background stories. We ended up skiing an alternate run down the far skiers left side of Pillowpalooza (might be calling this run Ernie. The other side being Bert) which Brad had put a lone track down a few days previous. The skiing was fun in the sunlight. The meadow to avoid the waterfall skied just as great and by the end of the run it looked like a ski hill with 8 tracks down it. A fun short day out.

Feb 19, 2011 - We had a really slow start due to some disagreement with something that Brad ate the night before and didn't get onto our skis up in the Oscar area until noon. Our plan was to ski a cool looking couloir off the north side of a ridge we have been exploring putting us down into uncharted territory of Poupard Creek. There were a few unknowns with this couloir. The exit being a big one of course as we didn't know if it went, but as well the most aesthetic entrance of the three possible looked like it might cliff out as well. So we hummed and hawed on our way up getting into a bit of trouble in some steep trees down low, getting a great look at an alternate and fun looking pillow run. We arrived at the top of the run and due to the late hour decided to take the easiest of the exits and just get it over with taking the unknown at the bottom. We kicked off the run just after 4pm giving us about 2 hours to make things right if the run didn't go at the bottom.

Well it went and it was an amazing ski. The snow was consistently dry and predicable the entire length of the couloir and we had a blast skiing it. The top had some pillows to play on, middle some fun ribs and the bottom choked into a cool cliff lined section. What a great day out. The final exit fooled us a bit and we went a bit low on Poupard Creek however we easily rectified this by skinning up into and traversing endless meadows until we hit the clearcut and eventually the sled we placed low down at the switchback to avoid the hassle of a final skin.

Feb 18, 2011 - The weather cleared up and we had a party of 3 plus Roy up the Valley of Certain Doom to ski Happy Valley Couloir. The couloir is nice and deep and since seeing it in early January very much filled in now. The snow up high was ever so slightly wind effected but that just made it look cool as it skied fun. The couloir itself was great up high and down low however there was a definite rough section in the middle that had me stopped a few times to catch my breath. A great day even with a little more excitement when Brad fell into the shallow creek getting his skis soaked and all iced up. The views once above treeline were amazing and Roy got a 1st Descent as he would be the 1st dog to ever run down it.

Feb 17, 2011 - I decided to take a 4 day weekend as the snow was setting up nice, there were a few runs that we planned to ski and I wanted to be there and not riding a desk. Thursday had a good group heading up to Oscar Peak for some run naming and getting into a bit of trouble with route finding. We skied Pillowpalooza which is the fun pillow line above the Waterfall and Rockstar bowl which is far skiers left of BigLeBowlSki. These runs sort of go together as they meet at the top and you just have to ski both of them. Both runs were really fun with great snow. Our exit on Rockstar Bowl became a bit problematic when we didn't line up the correct gully and were cliffed out. We had skied this run a week before and were able to squeeze through a steep area into a short couloir, however this time tried to centre punch the exit. I skied over the bottom roll first getting myself into some very steep spines which I had to hike back out of so the rest of the group skied the gully right next to it as it looked like it went. It worked until the bottom where it suddenly dropped away. Brad ended up spending nearly an hour tunneling through the wall (The exit of this run is now called Tunnel-vision) so that we could get onto a fun rib which quickly had us all at the bottom. We just made it back to the sleds as the light was fading. What a great day.

6 Days around the Region

2011-02-16T15:47:00.009-08:00

Feb 13th - Mid way through our 2nd run and the snow has become incredibly deep. It was a great experience.

Feb 13th - Roy has become quite the trail dog. If I want or the snow is too deep he will stay right behind me most of the way up the skin track. I usually let him run ahead though because he enjoys that a lot more.

Feb 13th - Heavy snowfall on Obi1SkiNobi. Managed 3 laps of over the head powder. It was amazing.

Feb 12th - Elissa riding on Obi1SkiNobi. Fun snow to valley bottom.

Feb 6th - Returned to snow covered sleds after a day of skiing deep powder under heavy snowfall. The ride back to the highway was fun!

Feb 6th - Brad skiing some great deep powder on glades near Oscar Peak.

Feb 5th - Roy ready to go after a day of running on firm snow in the mountains.

Feb 5th - Roy looking a little tired at the top of our 1st run. With the firm snow he kept up for the entire run. Behind is Mount Little on the left with Little N1 on the right.

Feb 13, 2011 - The snow kept falling and our plans of heading to Oscar were quickly dashed due to the superb skiing we would have in the Shames Valley. We had to do some road maintenence to keep our track from the day before so decided a few laps of Obi1SkiNobi were in order. We started out with only 5-10cm of new wet snow down low but nearer to the lake found that the skintrack had been completly snowed over. Mostly due to wind transport but as well due to the heavy snow that was falling. Trail breaking was in the order of knee to thigh deep and exhausting. But with a trail in we did 3 laps of incredibly deep powder. It was amazing. The Sunday before I had said that it was my deepest day. That quickly changed with the snow we skied on the 13th. We didn't leave ski tracks, we left trenches. Roy had a great time out as well, surfing his sluff, jumping off pillows and barking at all sorts of things. 7 hours out in heavy snow had me done and spent.

Feb 12, 2011 - The storm that we were expecting to come did indeed and in the process dropped 30cm of great snow. Elissa and I did a few runs at the hill skiing amazing runs in sunshine. Not often that I get to ski powder with the sun out. We met up with Brad and quickly set off for something new. We drove down the road and set off to ski Obi1SkiNobi. Brad the machine Zeerip put most of the track in which was impressive considering how deep the snow was. After a quick 4 hours we were at the top of the run looking down into Monkey Bowl and over at Sun Crust Couloir which we had skied at the end of the holidays.

The skiing though was amazing! The top was a bit firm but very easily skied with the snow only getting softer the closer we got to treeline. Into the trees we were quickly getting faceshots and jumping off pillows to keep ourselves entertained. It was an amazing ski. Thanks Brad for getting us up there! A quick little day out with 4 hours up and 1 hour down. Not bad considering we spent the morning making laps at the resort.

Feb 11, 2011 - We heard good things about Middle Creek so Brad and I took Roy up there hoping to find some good snow. We instead found very deep sludge, a hugely inefficient skin track and high winds that were setting off red flags all over the place. We quickly turned tail and headed for the sleds at the bottom of a big slidepath. The skiing was fun in very heavy snow.

Feb 10, 2011 - At the top of our powder runs the Sunday before we sited what looked like an easy way to approach the ridge above. So far we had been bamboozled by steep forest and rugged gullies in trying to gain the ridge. With a group of 4 we punched our way up and on top of the ridge to the north of Oscar and skied a really fun old avalanche path down to valley bottom. The snow was great and the terrain had loads of pillows which was surprising to all of us.

At the bottom we decided to skin up to the pillow run climbers left of the waterfall and from there would drop into the same valley as BigLeBowlSki. We had gone the opposite direction when we skied with Jordon and Chad a week or so before. On that trip we had skinned by what looked like a great wide open pillow field with a difficult headwall exit that could be fun. It was indeed fun but we got a bit messed up on the exit. Brad dropped down into the steep trees to find a way through and when he got to a point of no return I joined him and sideslipped further hoping to find an exit below. It looked like all cliffs from above but we found a way through and low and behold even more pillows. Another great day out.

Feb 6, 2011 - A storm came in over night and we knew that it wouldn't dump enough to cover the rock hard crust we found along the Skeena River. So we headed north to Oscar in the hopes of finally finding a way into some glades that would offer great skiing. We used our skin track from the previous week and quickly found ourselves on very steep, runnelled, icy treed slopes. It wasn't fun and in the long run heading up high in a storm to ski unknown terrain was foolhardy. We got ourselves turned around, traversed back to some low elevation glades and set about skiing some incredibly deep powder. We managed to ski three 400m runs that on each lap was deeper than the last. It was all faceshots and smiles. We even had a dry place to rest at the bottom of each run under a big tree. This was nice as it was snowing heavily and there really is no way to keep oneself dry when you are moving in this type of weather. At least I havn't found a way yet.

Feb 5, 2011 - Brad and I took Roy up Middle Creek hoping to find some soft snow up high. What we came across though was rock hard snow up to treeline with some soft chaulky powder above that. It was fun turns though if just a bit jolting and we did two of the heli runs that Northern Escape does in the area. The skiing and skinning were incredibly fast and we moved through the area with efficiency. The snow was so firm in some places that even on mellow slopes Roy was sliding down the hill. But for the most part he tired himself out with limitless travel and loads of things to bark at.

Into Some New Areas - Oscar Peak

2011-02-03T10:22:00.008-08:00

Feb 1st - The filming process. Chad skiing while Jordon films.

Feb 1st - Nearing the top.

Jan 31st - Looking south towards the run we would do the following day.

Jan 29th - Tracks in the Hourglass. Surprisingly good snow considering everything else in the area was swept clean a few days previous.

Jan 29th - Myself getting ready to ski the Hourglass. Crowns in the background are on Tree Triangle.

Jan 29th - Ian skiing the top section of the Hourglass. Great snow on the central rib. Even the slide debris at the bottom skied soft.

Jan 29th - Skinning out of Cherry Bowl. Great turns in the open. Not so great over the headwall with a thick breakable crust.

Jan 29th - Wind hammered snow on our ridge walk to Cherry Bowl.

4 Days around here and there: With the ski hill year after year struggling to stay open, locals in Terrace have come up with an idea to take over the privately owned hill and open a community owned and operated ski hill. There are lots of people working hard to get things going on this and the international ski media has taken notice. There have been articles and stories in various periodicals both on paper and electronically about Shames over the last year or two. Jordon Manley who is an amazing ski and mountain biking photographer and video producer came up with the idea to make a short documentary on the idea of a co-op style operation. Along with him was Chad Sayers who is a professional big mountain skier and they wanted to ski and document some of the deep powder that Shames is known for.

Well the deep powder fell a few days before Jordon arrived in the form of a large storm which dropped 2 metres of snow over a period of a week. But then it warmed up and we had a heinous crust below treeline and almost everything above was wind hammered in the Shames area. Throw in an Extreme avalanche hazard for the Wednesday when the storm was hammering the hill the hardest and everything that could slide did. Total destruction at the hill with what some locals who have been skiing at the hill since it opened in 1990 had never seen before. Crowns on all aspects as deep as 2-3 metres and massive run-outs with huge debris piles going into mature timber.

That was Wednesday and Jordon's first day filming would be Saturday. So the skiing at the hill was less than ideal but we went for a ridge walk, heading out to Cherry Bowl. We found great dry powder up high however once below the headwall the crust reared up and we had to fight through deep powder with a thick breakable crust on top. It was all an adventure though and we had a fun time. We skied out the Hour Glass which had surprisingly great snow most of the way to the bottom. Skiing next to and then below the huge crowns that came off Tree Triangle was humbling to say the least. Especially when we had to ski out through the extensive slide debris.

Sunday was mostly a resort day skiing groomers however in the afternoon we ran up to the top of Fish and Chips and skied a fun powder run in the alpenglow.

With the avalanche conditions being prime for some big alpine runs, (pretty amazing that it can go from Extreme to Considerable in such a short time) Brad and I headed north to Oscar Peak which I have heard loads about from many people. What a fantastic area. We skinned up a ridge to the north of the peak getting a look at the north side glacier. Brad wanted to check out some long treed runs that we could possibly get into and with such nice low elevation powder we had to have some fun. Two great runs and we were back to the sleds with just enough light to drive them back to the truck.

While we were out on Monday we spotted a cool looking couloir on the northeast side of Oscar, one bowl to the north of The BigLebowlski. Jordon and Chad immediately wanted in as the filming around Shames was less than ideal for them. We left early and with Mark along as well had a group of 5 out to ski a narrow little couloir in the alpine. A bit crowded but we made it work. We had some route finding issues off the start but were eventually into the right valley and scratching our way up and over the headwall into an amazing field of pillows. Up to the base of the couloir and the weather moved in. We could feel the temperature rising ever so slightly but we were so close that it wasn't bothering us too much. Booting up the couloir was easy enough with Chad out front while Jordon filmed and shot nearby. An interesting process if just a little time consuming. Once at the top the 3 of us twiddled our thumbs as Jordon and Chad did what they do and then I jumped in. The skiing was fun up top and would have been great throughout however I had a pre-release on a ski and it rocketed down the couloir coming to a stop after catching some air on a corner. It made a fantastic noise as the wind twisted it around. I'm really lucky that it stopped as it would have made for a much more involved day. So I was only able to ski about half the line which kind of sucks. At the bottom we quickly went up and over a col and were onto a north facing pillow run which took the film crew to the waterfall while Mark and I skied a fun pillow line nearby. A great day out in the mountains winding up 4 days out.

Some Days Here. Some Days There

2011-01-26T14:18:00.006-08:00

Most of the past 8 days have blended together. They have been a fun few days touring in the Deliverance area, some No Socks, a few evening tours to exercise Roy and a run or two on Fay-Zurs. The snow has been falling steadily so there were also a few days of riding the lift with friends which has been great as well. Skiing the powder that Shames is famous for which has been both dry and wet.

January 18 stands out from all the days I've done so far this season though. When I first moved to Terrace I spotted a cool looking couloir in behind the cliffs of Copper Mountain. I kept the idea on the front burner and after a fun few hours in the Shames Backcountry decided I'd check it out to see how it was fairing with all the low elevation snow we've been getting. A bit of driving to get the best angle and some pictures soon went out to Brad who was immediately interested.

The couloir itself is 400m vertical with an additional 200 metres of fooling around at the top and bottom. As it starts at 150m and tops out at 750m getting the best conditions would be a waiting game that could last a few years. When I checked it out on the Monday it looked to be about ready to go. We'd have to hit it quick though as the conditions were turning for the worse and it might not be skiable again this season or the next few. Just a week later a large sections of the lower half have only a tiny bit of snow.

We were able to skin up to base where we swapped between skinning and postholing for the journey up. The skinning had us doing a load of kick-turns, pulling and pushing on trees and rocks and the postholing was much the same with about knee penetration and the occasional foray into crotch deep. Near the top the couloir ends suddenly with some very steep forest which Brad bashed a trail up. This involved some pulling and pushing on all sorts of things which really sapped my strength but was fun and added to the adventure. It was tough work but worth it for the extra vertical and fun skiing. The top few metres was a cluster of large truck sized boulders which made for interesting skinning and skiing.

The ski itself really couldn't have been any better. Shin deep powder for the top section getting a bit shallower lower down. Didn't really have much trouble with rocks within the walls and we were super stoked for the ski. A few scratches on the apron in shallow snow but very worth the effort. Car to car was a fast 6 hours which we thought would have been much less.

I'm not sure if it is named and let me know if I'm ahead of myself here but we calling it "19th Hole" because its right above the Skeena Valley Golf and Country Club.

4 Days Up Middle Creek

2011-01-12T10:16:00.010-08:00

Jan 11. Goat watching us from the slopes of Little N1.

Jan 11. Skinning to the summit of Little N1 below the slopes of Mount Little proper.

Jan 11. Brad skiing down the north ridge of Little N1 on our attempt of the northeast face(lookers right). Steep roll with large exposure. Not today.

Jan 9. Dave looking south into the Wedeene River drainage. On the right is the heavily glaciated north face of Mount Holt. Lots of big mountains and icefields. We didn't linger long here as the winds were strong and temperature low.

Jan 9. Dave skinning up to ski a fun run at the head of Middle Creek. Little N1 is behind in the sun with Mount Little proper in the shade on the left. Our skin and ski on the 11th was just about up most of the sun/shade line

Jan 8. Skinning up through gentle meadows to ski the couloir in the picture below. Behind is Mount Little on the left with Little N1 on the right. We skinned up between the two peaks on the 11th hoping to ski the face on the far right of the picture. You can just make out the entrance couloir.

Jan 7. The west facing couloir we'd ski the following day. It was lots of fun.

Jan 8. My entrance shot before we pushed most of the surface snow in to test the stability.

Jan 8. Dave in the heart of the couloir.

Jan 8. Guido skiing a fun little spine feature in the couloir.

Jan 7. Guido skiing out the lower section of the avalanche path. Great snow.

Jan 7. I crawled into this warm vent on the ridge between the two Middle Creeks. As it was mild outside I couldn't feel the warmth but if you looked closely you could see moving bits of moss as the warm air escaped.

Jan 11, 2011

I took a much needed rest break on Monday, where I tried my hardest not to fall asleep at work and headed out Tuesday to ski a big line Brad had been waiting for the right conditions to ski for years. With the clear cold weather the snowpack seized right up and with us experimenting all around on different elevations and aspects we were ready to ski it. The run is the northeast face of Mount Little N1 and you gain this face through a narrow couloir. From the bottom it looked doable and each day going up we stopped to look and discuss it. I was ready for it. The only thing is that we didn't take into account the death traverse from the summit to the couloir...

The temperatures have been dropping a bit each day as the outflow takes hold and Tuesday was the lowest yet. In Terrace it was -9 with Snowforecast calling for -19 near 1200m. That was before the windchill. I don't think it was that cold but it had to have been around -15 through the day with a windchill in the -20s. It was cold and for the most part I skinned with my big mitts on.

I was excited for the ski so got out front for the start putting in a trail to treeline. The route up to the summit of this mountain can only safely be skinned under the most stable of conditions. You are exposed to huge cornices from above on Mount Little and are above really large cliffs at the bottom of the huge slide paths. Feel like being a little bug scurrying through a playground with kids running around. Move fast and hope to hell that you don't get noticed.

Near the col between the mountains we stopped for a few minutes to watch some Mountain Goats do their thing on incredibly steep ground. Really majestic creatures. It was then to the summit where the down came out and we tried our hardest not to freeze. The ridge to the couloir was intimidating to say the least. The snow was bomber but the thought of traversing on a really steep slope with huge cliffs below threw us for a loop. Brad made an attempt on the ridge but turned back when it rolled over and he couldn't see where to go.

Not skiing the run though didn't mean we had to have a crappy ski though. The run which Nothern Escape calls Higgins and others call Goat Conspiracy was nice powder for all of its 1000m vertical. Lots of fun.

Jan 9, 2011

Stability even though being rated considerable was looking bomber. We hadn't noticed any natural of skier triggered movement other than sluff on our two days out and so wanting to jump onto some bigger slopes in the alpine in the near future decided for some short alpine lines at the head of the valley to test things out. We sledded to the end of the road and from there skinned to the end of the valley and up onto a fun run. The snow was firm under the 15cms of dry powder which made for really easy travel. We managed 3 laps before calling it a day. The wind was blowing on the ridgelines making for fast travel and it was well below zero in the shade but once in the sun things were nice. We managed about 1300m vertical through the day and I crashed right when we arrived back at the sleds. It was more that I didn't drink enough liquids through the day. I find it really hard to drink cold water when I'm trying to stay warm. But a few cups of hot tea made for easy sledding on the way back down.

Jan 8, 2011

On our skin the day before we noticed what looked like an amazing couloir cutting through the trees on the east side of Middle Creek. With the good stability of Fridays ski we had to check it out on Saturday. We sledded to the switchback which would be the bottom of the run and then quickly skinned to the end of the road. It was just upwards travel through gentle glades to the top of the mountain which was easy enough. We were quickly in the sun which took some of the chill off but the snow stayed nice a dry.

The top of the run just getting to the entrance was absolutely amazing. The snow was maybe 15cm of the driest quality on top of a crust making for effortless turns. We fumbled around at the top of the couloir for a few minutes discussing the dangers and then jumped in for what turned out to be great conditions. The ski was easy through deep sluff and the walls made for good picture opportunities. We quickly leap-frogged down the thing and were soon out making turns through the regen at the bottom. What a great run. It was likely a first descent which made it all the more amazing.

The day was still early though so we skinned up a new run on the other side of the valley getting a short lap at the bottom of the slide path. Fun open turns to round out the day of jump turns through the couloir.

Jan 7, 2011

I took Friday off to from work as the snow was promising to be great and I didn't want to miss out on a trip into a new area up Middle Creek. Guido had been exploring the ridge between the two Middle Creek drainages and had found some warm air vents and a way into an avalanche path that would have been difficult to get to from the bottom. For the most part the trailbreaking was easy as the snow was so light even though quite deep. We had a faint skin track to follow which helped us arrive at the end of skinable ridge within a few hours. The views into West Middle Creek were impressive to say the least.

We skied the east facing slopes though and after some steep trees which had the excitement of fast moving sluff we arrived in the avalanche path for an excellent ski down to the valley below. The top half of the ski seemed bottomless, but about half-way down we started to find a soft breakable crust. This didn't make the ski any less fun though. It was just different.

8 Days of BC Skiing in the Skeena Region

2011-01-04T08:43:00.011-08:00

300m down and a fun 700m left to go to the valley bottom below. A great way to end my Winter Vacation. Jan 3rd.

Roy tuckered out after two days in the backcountry. It was a bit difficult for him to find some empty floor space with 6 people inside. Jan 1st

Getting close to the end. Peak 4811s north slopes on the right with the Anderson Cabin on the sunlit slopes in the distance. 3:15pm and still a ways to go with less than 90 minutes of daylight left. Jan 1st.

Skiing back to the cabin after a lap on Hollywood wasn't all work. We still had some fun turns. Skier Roger Fehr. Jan 1st.

Mount Remo to the west. We'd eventually end up in a deep bowl below the long line of cliffs. Jan 1st.

Skinning up for lap number 2 in HoHoHo bowl with Terrace below. Dec 31st

Nice powder in the Zymacord Trees. Skier Dave Miklivic. Dec 28th.

Bright blue sky on Christmas morning.

Jan 3, 2011

I planned on taking the day off, however Brad called and said we had to ski something big before the avalanche conditions took a turn for the worse and snow conditions became better. We skinned up the Valley of Certain Doom, made a turn into Happy Valley and ended our day with a 900m vertical couloir which put us in the Monkey Bowl Valley. Total vertical for the day would be an optimistic 1200m. This was a fun circular trip which had us exploring and checking things out for future endeavors. We skinned upwards and onwards for nearly 6 hours, and skied for something just over 2 hours. The couloir itself had loads of different snow qualities but was mostly nice firm powder. I couldn't have ended my Winter Break any better. What an amazing ski. Managed to ski 13 days over the holidays.

Dec 31, 2010 - Jan 2, 2011

Back up to the Anderson Cabin but this time for a New Years party. We had a group of 6 with Roy along as well. On day 1 after waiting around for the weather to clear we skied in the HoHoHo bowl finding some nice snow and as well in the Bowling Alley. We managed 3 runs before having to ski back to the cabin in quickly fading light. The bright lights of Terrace had already come on as the citizens were getting ready for some New Years celebrations. Our party involved beer, wine, booze, food, singing and a small fireworks celebration.

Our second day with a full crew and bright skies we headed for a run called Hollywood. I was able to summit my first named mountain in a while which was Ainsbury. From there we skied north down some steep slopes to the lake a ways below. The snow while not being blower powwas fun to ski but wasn't of the quality where one could just let them loose. With time ticking and short days we only had time for 1 run and had to start the journey back to cabin. We skied out to the north of Peak 4811 getting some more fun steep turns before finally around 4:00pm put our skins on for the last time and headed back to the cabin in the dusk.

We woke to overcast and flat light so our plans of skiing Under the Big Top were scratched for Guidos. The snow was definily skiable however wasn't the deep blower I'd experienced 10 days or so previous. Back at the cabin we skied out managing to get to the highway in less than 2 hours. Roy happily surprised everyone by jumping off an 8 ft cliff without any hesitation at a road cut.

Dec 28, 2010

There were reports of a skin track into Zymacord Trees and with the 15cm of fresh snow my day off turned into a ski day. A little group of 3 grew to 7 as with the touchy conditions on a few rolls we didn't want anybody above as we were down in the guts. By skiing down a large chunk of the uproute we managed to knock most of the hangfire down which made things a bit safer. The skiing was really good with deep dry powder, loads of pillows and a fun group. We managed to get two laps in before calling it and skiing out the Waterfall with tired legs.

Dec 27, 2010

Katherine was out for a day of skiing. We did a few Fay-zurs/Waterfall Laps with some of them being straight back to the chair and others being of the ski down a ways and then skin back up for a longer lap. The snow was deep and for the most part untracked. Fun to get some slackcountry in and build the strength in my ski legs.

Dec 26, 2010

Dave and I headed out getting 3 laps on No Socks. The snow was deep, dry and fast. It was a busy day in the backcountry in that area but we still managed to get all our laps in before the crowds decided to go home via the No Dogs, No Socks runs finding them skied out.

Dec 25, 2010

Roy and I skinned up a closed resort on Christmas Day. Started out clear and sunny but the weather quickly moved in the post noon hours. We quickly found ourselves at the top of No Dogs with what would be a really nice ski out. A long rest at the bottom, back to the top of the T-Bar and then a high speed cruise to the car at the bottom of the hill. A fun, relaxing, quiet Christmas. My new boot/ski combination really showed its colours as the ski out on the groomed runs was amazing. My boots had the power of downhills and the skis held an edge really well. It was also nice to be skiing an empty resort.

Anderson Cabin and some others

2010-12-24T11:06:00.005-08:00

The above 2 pictures "Special Thanks to Roger Fehr". I love the one of Roy and I skiing together.

Anderson Cabin

Roy on his first of hopefully many helicopter flights.

A brief clearing on our way to Guidos Choice.

The next party coming in as we were getting ready to depart.

Dec 21 ski around the Dome to check out Zymacord Trees. This part was cold.

December 23, 2010

The next group flew in Thursday morning so we cleaned up our gear and went out for a last run. Guidos had been so good the day before so we had to give it another go. Last run would of course give us the best turns of the trip. Loads of faceshots and the glades all seemed to line up for some really fun skiing. We quickly skinned back to the cabin, cleaned up and were out under a bit heavier bags to ski out to the highway some 1100m below. The skiing was fun up high but became something like work lower down with a quickly diminishing snowpack. We were left to sideslip and traverse through blueberry bushes for the last little bit before hitting the lower logging road. All that was left was a ski out to the highway below.

What a trip. A warm cabin, amazing tree skiing and a fun group of people. Roy was a sport throughout and is tuckered out from 3 days of deep powder skiing.

December 22, 2010

The snow fell through the night and with some wind created a bit of a soft slab at treeline. We wanted to check out one of the more popular runs in the area call Guidos Choice. This run would put us at the bottom of our skin track and would give us about 500m of steep, deep powder turns through some natural glades with the occasional powder pillow to play on. The top had Jamie and I a bit tentative however Roger assured us we could pick our way around the soft slabby storm snow that was setting off some alarm bells. A few turns in though and the slab turned to deep blower powder and we skied some amazing turns to the bottom of the valley.

The skin back up though seemed to drag on forever though. All the food we'd eaten the night before and then even more that morning had us feeling a bit sluggish. Our first lap turned into 3 hours which brought us back to the cabin for lunch. We felt another lap on Guidos would work and with fading light a short run following that. We arrived back at the cabin in the dusk just after 5:00pm. The snow was amazingly deep and the skiing so good.

December 21, 2010

I got an invite on my last trip to fly into the Anderson Cabin with Roger and Jamie. It's just a short flight and the cost divided by 3 was not that much. Only $120 each, which for 3 days in a cabin is pretty good. Flying in allows one to really take some nice things as well. Beer, bacon, sausage, liqueur, chips, wine; these are just a few of the luxuries that we went with. I was even able to get Roy in the helicopter to come along as well. He did pretty good and wanted to look out the window, however I kept him on the floor between my legs. When the helicopter landed it was my job to keep him pinned to the ground away from anything moving while Roger and Jamie unloaded all our gear.

The ride in was a bit shaky with the outflow winds but all went well and we landed next to the cabin waking the three guys inside who would be skiing back to town that day. We quickly unpacked and were out the door to go skiing just a few minutes later. It was nice not having to skin anywhere right off the bat and we were faced with a 300m powder run down to the bottom of the basin through some really fun glades. We put an efficient uptrack in which we then used for the rest of the trip. We managed 4 laps of it before the light started to fade. It was a good way to start the trip.

December 19, 2010

Outflow winds had me up to the hill hoping for a sheltered day of backcountry skiing. The hill is open now although it is hurting a bit for snow. I was sporting a new pair of skis and skins so was excited to get out. My new ride has some early tip rise or rocker, I'm not really sure. Whatever it is they are fun to ski. Smaller than my El Hombres but noticeably lighter and better on the uphill and way better on the downhill. I was a bit wrong on that avoiding the outflow winds thing but had fun with a newish group of people to tour with. We were blasted by the winds up in the alpine as we dropped into Zymacord trees. Didn't like the way the hoar frost was bonding though so just before the last committing roll we turned tail and skied into the Mystic Valley. We did see lots of evidence of large naturals that came down during the big storm the week before. The snow below treeline was soft powder and I had a fun few hours out in the mountains.

December 15, 2010

With all the snow that fell during the last big cycle I really wanted to get on my skis and find some powder before it settled out. The only problem was that I was working a full time gig. I ran out of the office at 4:00pm and was at the ski hill for 5:00. A somewhat relaxed 45 minutes or so to the top and then a quick few back down to a waiting car. I was out for an hour car to car and skied some soft snow. It had already settled though and ski pen on the downhill was maybe ankle deep. But it was fun trying anyways. As I was getting my new boots punched I wore my Spirit 4s. I always thought they were a good boot but what a surprise. Turns out that they are heavy blocks of unresponsive plastic. I'm glad for my new boots.

5 Days for the most part up Middle Creek

2010-12-13T17:32:00.005-08:00

Middle Creek, Dec 11. If you look closely you might see that Brad is using a stick for a pole as he forgot to replace one broken the previous day.

Shames Resort to the north across the Skeena from Middle Creek on Dec 5

Middle Creek, Dec 5

Shames, Dec 1

December 12 - And once again we were back to Middle Creek with a large group. 7 of us on this trip with a straggler to make 8. It had snowed heavily through the night and we figured it would be better to stay off anything even remotely ready to go. Skinned up a logging cut to an upper road finding deep deep snow. Just below the road we experienced a large whumph and settlement which spooked all those on it. From there to the top of a second higher cut where we triggered a size 1.5 which sent a powder cloud to the bottom of the block. We quickly turned tail and skied down the edge of the cut in incredibly deep snow. At the top of our main cutblock we regrouped and with a lower snowpack and slightly different aspect were not as worried about triggering anything. The skiing was amazing on one of BCs finest cutblocks. Great angle, lots of little drops (logs and stumps) and deep deep powder. I was convinced to do a second lap which turned into a third and we were out for something like 6 or 7 hours in the mountains. It was a day of faceshots, heavy snowfall, pillows and large sounding avalanches in the clouds.

December 11 - Back up to Middle Creek because it was so good the week before. There was a packed skintrack this time as Brad had been up there a few times during the week while I was trying not to fall asleep at "work". The weather wasn't as spectacular as the previous weekend but the snow was much deeper. We ended up finding 165cm at 1300m which is pretty good for this time of year. With the hoarfrost ever present below 40-50cms of snow we could hear the rumblings of slides all day long on the steeper windloaded aspects. We even managed to trigger a small size 1 which took me for a little ride when I stopped to have a look at the debris pile from above as Brad had triggered it initially and unknowingly. The hangfire plus maybe a little extra is what swept me off my feet. But it didn't go far and all was good. Our last run we skied out the large avalanche path to valley bottom for some amazing turns arriving at the end of the logging road just as it was getting dark. Another long and great day in the mountains, sledding out under headlamp with a tired dog in my lap.

December 5 - Well all the work of the day before paid off and we were able to sled just about to the switchback without getting stuck until the very end. We skinned from there to the end of the valley, across a massive avalanche path and then into the old timber on the headwall. We skied a few runs and with failing light arrived back at the sleds just as it was getting dark. The skiing though. Was it ever good. There was a load of hoarfrost on top of some dry powder that made for some hero turns. The trees were evenly spaced and we had a great time. A good 8.5 hours out truck to truck.

December 4 - I took a 12 day job that is turning into one of the most boring experiences I've ever had. The money is really good though being at scale and with Christmas Break coming up I can't really complain. Brad and I tried for a day up Middle Creek but were thwarted by a few things. First of all he forgot his backpack which once the sleds were unloaded caused a bit of a delay as he had to go all the way back. 90 minutes later we were motoring up a freshly plowed road. 5 or 6km up we took an unplowed branch and pretty much ground to a halt in the thigh deep snow. We managed to get the sleds stuck 6 times (3 each) which was sort of annoying. Finally just near the top of the first and only real hill we called it and decided to skin the rest of the road to the end. We put two side by side tracks going in and then two more on the way out to try and pack the trail down so we'd be able to get in the following day.

December 1 - Skied great powder on two laps of dogs up at Shames. My first lap down the run I couldn't line up the openings as well as I would have wanted to0 however the second lap we went for a more direct run and it was great. Everything seemed to work out and I found all the gaps I needed. Roy was out and loving the deep snow as well.

Shames: 5 days. Each One Better Than The Last

2010-11-29T18:10:00.010-08:00

Nov 28 - Roy and I skinning towards Cherry Bowl with Mount Kenny beyond.

Nov 28 - Brad about to drop in Geronimo Bowl with the ski hill and the Skeena River Valley in the distance.

Nov 28 - Brad in Geronimo Bowl

Nov 27

Nov 27 after our 2nd lap on Cats. Nice dry snow.

Nov 28 - Headed out with Brad and Dave after an epic of a day on Saturday which had us skinning and skiing out the mountain in the dark for the final hour of the tour. I gorged on food Saturday night hitting up McDonalds for a Quarter Pounder Meal and then an hour later a load of what I usually eat for dinner which is rice, vedgies, beans, tuna and a slather of salad dressing. As well knowing I'd have a big Sunday I tried my hardest to drink a load of water before going to bed. I think I did pretty good as I wasn't sore Sunday morning.

We started out with a large group however even leaving from the base area we were down to just three guys. We slowly made our way up to the base of the Dome and feeling that the 20 or so tracks down it the day before had done enough slope testing for us, headed across to the alpine ridge we'd take all the way around the large bowl. We were at the top of Cherry Bowl about 3 hours from the trucks and it was a beautiful traverse with great views. I love the coast mountains. The wind was calm and temperatures mild which made travel easy. It also helped that we were on a skin track that was being broken just ahead of us.

After a good break at the top of Cherry Bowl we dropped in and finding about 20-30cms of amazingly dry powder snow. The top 2/3 of the bowl was open alpine skiing but at treeline the pitch increased at a headwall feature and we skied a fun chute to the base of the avy path. I had particular fun on a short spine feature. Due to the low snow however we had to get around some rocks in the middle. Roy just jumped them all like a champ however I snagged some rocks at one point blowing a shoe but it wasn't much to get it back on.

Brad put a skin track in making it look like nothing at all, hoping that Dave and I would be well rested to do another lap. We protested though as we were both tired and sore and decided due to the time it would be best to start the trip out as it was already 2pm and we had a bit of skiing left to get out. We quickly skinned over to the top of Geronimo Bowl and in flat light skied it out to the bottom. The last section took a little effort to get over some steep lightly snow covered rocks which was followed up by some crusty thick snow that was a bit difficult to ski with tired legs. The run was fun though and I had a good smile going on. All that was left was a last skin up to the top for a final 500m ski to the base.

An amazing day out in the mountains with dry snow, sunshine and friends. A pretty big day that culminated in what I'm thinking was a 12,000ft weekend.

Nov 27 - Out with Elissa and Brad to check out Dogs and Cats. We were the first ones at the hill and ultimately would be the last to leave. The skin up Dogs was patchy however the promise of dry powder on Cats kept us going. I was also munching on the last few remaining blue berries. It didn't disappoint and with a skin track in had to get another lap. The snow was really dry and didn't get thin until the very bottom of the run. Just really nice open trees with great snow. At the top of Dogs we were able to watch as 7 skiers skied North Bowl across the way at the same time. It was something to watch and lent to us the confidence to make a traverse decision the following day. North Bowl looked like a ski hill shortly after. After our two laps in Cats we were standing at the top of Dogs at 3:00pm. A little late but we hoped to get out in the low light of dusk. The ski up top was alright with a slight crust however at the bottom became a bit brushy which combined with some slightly covered gullies created a difficult situation for Elissa on her board. At the creek crossing though things ground to a complete halt when her tailess skins which after a day of being on and off were completely useless. We eventually got them on with my duct tape and were skinning back up to the top of the ski hill using headlamps in the quickly dwindling light. It was completly dark at the top of the T-Bar and we skied out the mountain arriving back at a deserted lot after 9 hours. A fun day out which turned into a bit of an adventure towards the end.

Nov 25 - I worked a 2 week part time gig and spent my morning in the classroom leaving right at noon to pick Roy and Elissa up to get some afternoon turns at the hill. We skied some fun powder meeting up with Brad at the top for a run. We did one lap over the backside before calling it, leaving Brad to another lap in the dusk. The skiing was fun and was getting better each day.

Nov 24 - Working the morning, Brad and I headed to the hill for a few laps in the powder I'd found on the weekend. We did two laps over the backside getting about a 1000m vertical over 3.5 hours. It was fun to get out and get some exercise after a day in the classroom.

Nov 21 - Owen and I were up to Shames during the outflow winds which made Terrace a place that was not very comfortable to be. The windchill that was occurring made Dease Lake seem like a pleasant place to be. My motivation was not really existent however I needed to get out and see what was going on. We found no wind at the top of the Dome and had a fun few hours out finding nice snow at treeline and ice up high.

Wesach Mountain: Always an Adventure

2010-11-06T20:43:00.003-07:00

Nov 5 - Good from afar. Far from good? Well it was fun but the skiing was something else.

Nov 5 - Nearing the top of the East Bowl glacier.

Nov 5 - A beautiful skin track

Oct 30 - Top of the run in West Bowl shortly before we lost all our visibility.

Oct 30 - Wesach Mountain into the mist

October 30

Wanting to get into a new area on Wesach I headed up into West Bowl with Brad. We found pretty good snow at the top of the morraine however by the time we arrived at the top of the small glacier the weather had moved in and we couldn't see anything at all. The skiing however was kind of fun so about halfway down we decided we'd better go back to the top in the hope that just maybe the weather would clear and we'd actually be able to see more than our feet on the way down. It didn't and we slowly skied down to the top of the morraine where due to incredibly low light we couldn't see if we were going up or down. Due to the very shallow snowpack we found it best to walk the rest of the way out. A fun 5 hours of adventure skiing.

November 5

We had really high expectations of a much deeper snowpack after the 40cms that was forecasted to fall early in the week. This heavy snow was quickly followed by high elevation heavy rain which we hoped would bring down any unstable snow. Quickly after the rain the freezing levels would drop solidifying everything right up. With any luck there would be some fresh snow that we'd have a great time skiing come Friday. Well all this happened but what we didn't account for was that the rain would obliterate any of the fresh snow that fell earlier in the week and take some of the snow from even earlier storms.

We walked into East Bowl finding very firm snow with a really nice icy crust. We had to boot large sections because the skinning was difficult but it was fun being out in the mountains with new friends. Visibility for once was good and the skiing interesting on the icy layer. The best ski section of the day was the bottom of the run where we could see some definition. Fun, long power slides on firm snow.

We were out for about 7 hours getting a 900m run which was pretty cool. Even though the skiing each week has gotten increasingly worse the runs have gotten a bit longer which although not the best trade-off is something I'll take.

November 6

Even though we knew the skiing would not be all that good we wanted to get out for the exercise. We thought we'd check out West Bowl to see if some of the snow had blown over there and what we found was a rough breakable crust at the top of the morraine, high winds, blowing snow, and low visibility. We quickly turned tail and retreated getting back to the truck after just about 3 hours.

Wesach Mountain: Milk Bottle

2010-10-29T09:22:00.005-07:00

At the col of east bowl and into the sunshine with the named peak at the far end of the ridge and the highest point on the upper right.

A very brief clearing on our way up the glacier.

October 23, 2010

We went back up onto the Wesech Glacier on Saturday expecting to find some great snow after all the cool weather and rain we had during the week. All the way up the Kalum valley on the drive out the skies were blue and the sun was out. This all changed when we got to the headwaters of the Douglas River and were enveloped in thick fog.

We were able to start skinning about a third of the way up the Stairway to Heaven where we found difficult breakable crust. Great! Up onto the glacier the weather closed in for the most part and aside from a few very brief clearings we were in it. Once at the top though it all changed when we emerged from the clouds to tremendous sunshine which just begged us to go a little bit higher and take in the amazing views in all directions but north.

The first 10 turns or so of skiing were pretty good under a blue sky aside from a few rock grazes, however into the milk bottle we went and with visibility less than a few metres. The snow was alright though so we plugged along. Near the bottom of skiable snow though it became a bit desperate with the crust. But it was all fun and after a quick walk, berry feast and mud wallow we were back at the truck after 6 hours.

Wesach Mountain: 2010/2011 Season Opener

2010-10-18T16:02:00.005-07:00

Brad getting the goods up high in the chute.

The only time I pulled out in front throughout the day. Brad was a machine and broke trail all day long.

We started out in early fall, traversed into late fall and then at the top was in the deep of winter.

One of many areas needing some road-cleaning. Around the corner a hidden chest high cottonwood was across the road as well.

October 17, 2010

The ski season is under way and the turns I made might be some of the best first turns of the season ever. Early season snow is easy to get to up in the Wesach Mtn area however getting to it was made a whole lot more difficult following the hurricane force winds that hit the area about 10 days ago. The Rosswood area was hit particularly hard with loads of trees coming down. Most of the residents didn't have power for about a week following the storm. Most of the backcountry skiers in the area find their early and late season snow up on the Wesach Glacier which is reach via the South Douglas FSR. This road was made impassible by the storm so a group got together and had a little road clearing party. I got involved on the 3rd and final day of the clearing when there was 5 of us to get the job finished. Some of the blowdowns were amazing involving dozens of trees of all sizes.

With the road passable on Saturday and a view up into the alpine to see the fresh snow, Brad and I wanted to get out and see what we could find. We were hiking up the muddy ATV trail at the end of the logging road around 9:30 Sunday morning and were quickly into the back of the basin where we boulder hopped our way steeply up what Brad calls "Stairway to heaven" The snow increased as we got higher however it wasn't until we'd climbed up the second steep slope that we found snow that might be skiable. We booted up onto the glacier and from there were able to skin to the very back of the bowl. All that was left was a boot up a steep chute and then a final skin to the summit. The wind was howling up on the ridge and we didn't linger for too long. Its not like we could see too much anyways. The entire way on the snow I had been following Brad as he layed in the bootpack and skintrack. The guy is a machine.

The ski for being October 17th was amazing! Dense easily skiable snow had us quickly to the bottom making for a good 700m fall-line ski. The final section was a bit sketch but I just did a big long power slide for a while which was pretty fun. Unfortanately on the very last section of skiable snow, Roy somehow split one of his pads open and was gushing blood all over the place. We couldn't really do too much though so just hiked out. I think I will invest in some booties so that I'd at least be able to wrap it up and then protect a paw when this happens again. I'll just have to keep one in my first aid kit. He didn't seem to be in any discomfort and by the time we were in the muddy forest it had stopped bleeding. Maybe because the wound was packed full of dirt though. My experience with Roy when he gets cut badly is that he doesn't show any pain and his wounds seem to stop gushing after while. This is the 3rd big cut he has had out in the bush with the first being his leg with a ski edge, then his nose from an animal and now his pad from a sharp rock. He is such a little trooper.

We arrived back at Brad's truck 5.5 hours after leaving it having skied 700m and hiked about 400m. I had a great time and it was fun getting out with somebody that is passionate about skiing in the mountains. Hopefully there will be some more snow next weekend to make for an even longer descent.

Shames: Winter is On It's Way

2010-10-13T16:00:00.002-07:00

October 11, 2010

I sort of wish I'd persevered on my last hike as the weather has gone to complete crap since then. Not exactly crap I guess as the picture shows but it has been raining with thick clouds almost everyday since. I needed to get out for a walk so headed up to the top of the ski hill in a brief lull in the rain. I hit snow at the top of the chair and then found 10cms of nice slop at the top of the t-bar. Can't wait to get out and ski.

Maroon Mountain

2010-10-04T09:06:00.003-07:00

Maroon Mountain still 600m above and 4km away after having already gained 1000m. Just not today.

Just a sampling of the views. Mount Treston left of centre, Alice Peak left of on the same ridge and Mount Neilson the glaciated summit with the horns.

Wesach Mountain's south face.

October 3, 2010

I'd tried to get up Maroon Mountain a few weeks previous however became stuck in a deep muddy crossditch on what we thought was the way to the trailhead. Back again for another try we easily made it through the ditch however after climbing to almost 1000m on a logging road realized we were in the wrong area. Returned to an un-marked spur road near the bottom where we were quickly at the new trail-head which was easily 2wd. For some reason the bridge across Hall Creek has been replaced with a footbridge adding 1.5km and 200m to the trail. But we headed up gaining elevation quickly. Maybe too quick though because when we broke out into the alpine 90 minutes after leaving the truck we'd gained 1000m and were done for the day. I feel that it was I who didn't want to go much further because I was experiencing abdominal pains however seeing how much further away the peak was Michel felt it best that we take in the amazing views from our highpoint. To reach the summit we'd have to climb another 600m and hike overland about 4km. The views to the north and west were amazing though. Lots of mountains that I'm slowly learning the names of.

After taking it in for long enough we turned tail and quickly made our way back down the steep trail to the truck below. I'm glad we did turn around because the jossling of my stomach on the descent was rather painful and annoying.

Mount Clague

2010-10-04T08:27:00.003-07:00

My only view during the day out in the mountains was of Kitimat. Not a bad one though I was hoping to see some mountains.

A Kitimat trail marker.

One of many areas destroyed by ATVs. Now designated by the ministry as non-motorized in the non-snow months this area will hopefully be able to regrow.

October 2, 2010

I worked through the nice part of the week so was pretty excited to get out on the weekend even if the weather wasn't going to be the bluebird I'd missed out on. I wanted to check out another snowmobile area that could offer easy access in the winter and spring if I was able to get up there mid-week to avoid the fumes and sounds of the sleds. Mount Clague on the north side of Kitimat offered what I needed and with a trail that starts at 100m elevation topping out at 1349m I was promised some good exercise.

Saturday morning found me following a bulldozer up the access road to the trailhead. Turns out the Kitimat Snowmobile and Hiking Club was going to be doing some work in the area on the old mining road. The bulldozer was making a turnaround for their groomer and further up the steep mining road a small backhoe was doing some work to make for easier sled travel. Even though I was hiking through deep mud because of this the end result will hopefully be much better with a smoother trail. What I did learn though is that the area has now been designated non-motorized in the summer which should help out with the huge mud holes in the sub-alpine that have been caused by ATVs sneeking up into the area. The club is planning on putting a gate in at the bottom to stop this from happening.

I marched up the trail and got a bit turned around where the ATVs have created a huge mess in the sub-alpine meadows. They follow a trail (now a large mud bog) to the sledders cabin while I wanted to be heading straight up a steep slope following a creek. I had to use my GPS to find the trail as it is not used very often and easily missed (incredibally obvious now. Leave the ATV mess where there is obvious flagging on a large tree). Glad I brought the guide book. So far my beautiful blue sky had vanished and was replaced with some drizzle. There were patches of blue all around though so I decided I'd keep heading up hoping for some good weather.

Back on the trail I passed the remains of an old miners shack and from there the old road ended and the trail went straight up a very steep slope. Further up and into another basin the views opened up and the meadows became much larger. I saw what I thought was the summit above and headed up a steep scree slope onto the ridge above. It wasn't the summit but there was a bump in the clouds just a bit higher. As I arrived on the top of this one another appeared just beyond. This process was repeated many times until finally I saw in the distance through the clouds two small cairns that announced I was getting close. 3 hours and 15 minutes from the car I arrived on the cloudy summit of 1349m Mount Clague. I didn't spend much time on the summit as there wasn't much to see and quickly turned around taking a much more direct route back down. I took advantage of a lengthy mellow snow slope that avoided most of the false summits and was soon floundering down the trail in the mud.

A few conversations with the trail workers as I descended and soon I was back at my car and heading home to relax before the Banff Mountain Film Festival. I was out for 6 hours with an elevation gain of around 1300m.

Thornhill: A Wet Morning in the Hills

2010-09-25T16:32:00.004-07:00

September 25, 2010

With a rainfall warning in effect I needed to get out and walk off some pent up steam. I'd worked a few days during the week when it was sunny, spent a very wet afternoon picking mushrooms with friends and lounged around a bit too much since the previous weekend. After walking a mountain biking trails of Copper Mountain I figured the road would be Subaru passable so headed up there Saturday morning. There was a rainfall warning for the area however it was only drizzling when I awoke in the morning. Roy, Kita and I started up the trail at 9:30 with no set plan other than getting some exercise, and not becoming too wet. The trail starts at 400m and we arrived at the 1200m elevation at 11:00 welcomed by heavy sideways falling rain with a brisk wind. We were above the trees, just below the clouds and ready to turn around. I quickly swapped my sweat soaked t-shirt and quickly turned tail arriving back at my car some 2.5 hours after leaving it. A fun morning out in the mountains.

Robinson Ridge Overnight Trip

2010-09-20T17:15:00.005-07:00

Roy and Kita enjoyed the muddy trail with all its bogs, tarns and stinky ponds.

Mount Elizabeth to the northeast with the Robinson Ridge cabin.

The north and west faces of Atna Peak on the right.

The Kitimat Arm of the Douglas Channel.

Looking west towards the town of Kitimat, Mount Carthew, Madden and Holt.

September 18, 2010

The Robinson Ridge Trail was cut into the forest about 40 years ago by backcountry skiers wanting to access the alpine ridges on the east side the Kitimat valley. Sledders realizing how great the access was decided they wanted in on the fun and widened the trail in the 80s. They built a cabin near a sub-alpine lake and have since I am sure enjoyed the area much more than the few backcountry skiers in the area. The long approach of 12km from the highway just to the trailhead probably keeps most skiers out anyways. But we wanted to check it out anyways to see a new area and potentially get some information (I'd use the word beta but might get a few sighs, chuckles or confusing glances from readers) for the upcoming winter.

We got a late start because we didn't have far to hike anyways (3km with 500m gain) and after driving my car to the 8km mark piled into the 4Runner for a rough 4km section to the trailhead. 5 adults, 3 dogs and overnight bags made for a stuffed ride. We started up the trail just after 2:00pm and with larger than day bags managed to all make it to the lake by 4:30. The trail was a bit overgrown and sometimes resembled hiking through a slash pile with all the cut logs. I quickly got my tent set up in the best spot available and decided I still had some energy so set off to the top of the bump above the lake some 200m higher.

The views were amazing up top. The Douglas Channel to the north, and the Coast Mtn Ranges all around with many peaks, glaciers, icefields and numerous valleys. I was back to the lake for dinner around 6:30 and with full bellies we quickly went about getting a fire going and making a dent in the bottle of Fireball I brought along.

Hikers midnight came all too early and without a book I was sure I'd have a difficult time getting to sleep. All it took though was closing my eyes and it was quickly 8:30am with the sun just touching my tent and drying it out from the heavy condensation of the cold night. It had dropped to nearly zero inside the tent during the night. The plush carpet of alpine fauna kept me comfortable and I slept really well.

We lounged around for most of the morning finally getting started around noon so that we'd be able to get down to Kitimat for some midafternoon poutine and rootbeer at the A&W. A fun weekend out in the mtns with a casual hike and great views.

Treasure Mountain Attempt

2010-09-14T20:43:00.006-07:00

Treasure Mountain`s NE ridge which I didn`t want to climb.

The Howson Range from the west. The big icefields that make the place famous in the ski touring community are on the east side.

Treasure Mountain`s NW ridge with the north Howsons behind.

My route from the bottom of the cut heading up the treed valley to the pass on the left. I then traversed the ridge to the far right right under the snow band. I didn`t get to summit though.

September 14, 2010

I needed something to hike with all the clear weather we've been getting but its hard to find things that I can get to with my car. Looking through the book "Trails to Timberline" though I found something interesting that would get me up high with some fantastic views.

I waited around until 8:30 for a phone call to work and then headed out to Kleanza River FSR. I drove this for 26.5km turning onto an unnamed spur road that soon crossed Kleanza River. I managed to get my car over a few shallow water bars before being stopped by a monster tank trap at the bottom of the cut. I pushed my bike to the top of the cut, stashed it near a brush pile and then headed into the bush. I managed to find open meadows and easy travel through the forest eventually picking up a flagged route that paralleled South Kleanza Creek. There wasn't a trail at all but it was good to know I was on the right track. With a heavy dew during the night my legs were quickly wet but my boots stayed perfectly dry. I've never had a pair of boots keep my feet dry until now. I've not even treated them yet either which is strange. Good job Scarpa.

Within 2 hours from the car I was in the alpine and nearing the pass and starting to get some great views north to the Seven Sisters area. At the pass I was able to see into the rugged Howson Range which holds the Bernie Glacier Hut and what is supposed to be some fantastic ski touring.

I headed up the ridge and at a high point decided I still wanted to see if I could get to the summit. The northeast ridge that the guidebook recommends to ascend was looking really steep, loose, slimy, exposed and was guarded by some steep snow. I certainly didn't want to try that, however the higher I went I found that just maybe I could traverse the north face and get onto the northwest ridge and see if that went a little easier. I found a way across the steep face that traversed a nice ledge and had some steep scrambling to get onto. Roy was a superstar on this and didn't even pause. He just hopped up the thing before I even had a chance to make sure he was going the right way. On the northwest side of the mountain now I found the same conditions as the northeast side minus the exposure. It was not dog or solo hiker friendly so after lunch on a high bump about 50 metres shy of the summit I turned tail and headed back the same way I'd gotten into the area.

The hiking was much faster on the return and I was able to do a fair bit of scree and mud sliding which is always fun. I was quickly back at the cut, pausing only to see a bear and cub below the road chowing on some blueberries. Roy was interested and I really hoped he didn't bark as they seemed very content to just keep eating without ever knowing we were there. I grabbed my bike at a landing and was quickly back at my car 6 hours after leaving. A great day out in mountains and I'm sort of starting to get some familiar views in this area.

Mount De Boer and Gunsight Lake

2010-09-09T19:45:00.005-07:00

Mount De Boer with Kitimat Channel beyond.

Kitimat and the channel.

Gunsight Lake, the ridge I traversed and Lakelse Lake where I started in the distance.

Looking north towards Lakelse Lake, Terrace and the Coast Mountains north of the Skeena River.

Sept 8, 2010

Sunny weather and I had to get out so I set my sights on Gunsight Lake with the summits of De Boers and Gunsight above. I set off at 8:30 after not getting a call to work making my way up the 6km trail with 1000m of elevation in 2 hours pausing a few times to feast on blueberries. I probably shouldn't have pushed myself as hard as I did but I wanted to see how much time I could knock off the guide book allotment of 3-4 hours. Once in the basin with the lake I punched my way up the steep slope above using my arms in places to pull myself through the thick blueberry and alder bushes periodically taking a second or two to feast on the delicious berries.

I was soon on the ridge looking over at De Boer a km or so away with a gap in the ridge which would have me dropping 100m. I left my bag on the ridge and made my way down to the saddle and then up the steep heather to the 1419m summit overlooking the Kitimat River and Inlet. I didn't spend any time on the summit more than taking a picture or two before turning tail and heading back to my bag and the water and food it held.

4 hours after leaving the car I set off along the ridge with a belly full of trail-mix however I didn't have much left. I didn't want to go back down the same way though and in the back of my head really wanted to get on to the summit of Gunsight Mountain. So I trudged along the ridge trying my hardest to avoid the ups and downs. Try as I might though I eventually found the easiest travel to be along the ridge crest and made my way east towards Gunsight Col. I really wanted to find myself up on this summit however just didn't have it in my to cover the last km with 200m of gain. I had so far gained about 1600m covering about 10km. I was done after being out for over 5 hours and still had just about 3 hours to go with all that elevation to lose.

I ate the rest of my sandwich and then headed down the valley travelling under the large cliffs I had been walking on above towards Gunsight Lake. Getting more tired by the hour I used gravity as best I could having to hold back on the steep trail down to Hatchery Creek 700m below. The last 3km along the creek was the worst of it all and I arrived at my car tired and spent after just about 8 hours out in the mountains. What an amazing day out in the mountains under blue sky with great views of all these mountains.

Thornhill Mountain

2010-09-06T21:15:00.004-07:00

Mount Thornhill the following day with a clear sky. The trail gently switchbacked up the face shown.

Sept 7, 2010

I planned to take it easy on Labour Day due to the weather getting better the following day however my roommate wanted to get out for a hike and couldn't say no to that. We headed up Thornhill Mountain which at 1420m sits proudly above Terrace. The mountain is covered heavily by towers with two rocket ship styles on the summit we reached and 4 or 5 large towers further to the north on lower sub summits.

The trail was an easy hike as it was built properly by miners many years ago hence the gentle grade which had us gaining 1000metres over 5km of length. We were on the summit within 2 hours where we proceeded right back down not getting to see any views. On the walk back down though we did get below the clouds and had some views of Terrace far below.

Sleeping Beauty Provincial Park

2010-09-06T20:51:00.002-07:00

Sept 5, 2010

August was a write off for hiking with only a few trips out. Way too much relaxing that involved car hunting, swimming, tv watching and wisdom teeth removing. With a new area to explore now that I live in Terrace, after a week of relaxing here I finally got out to check things out.

My first hike was into Sleeping Beauty Provincial Park which I was able to see really close due to the weather. I was able to get a few sights over to Mount Remo and Sleeping Beauty itself but other than that it was lots of small tarns, murky trees and gorging on blueberries.

Trip time with a little extra road walking was 2 hours and 1000metres of gain to the 1420 metre summit NE of the true Sleeping Beauty Summit some 7km away.

Few Hikes Through August

2010-08-24T09:33:00.004-07:00

Needle Peak behind on our way up the Flat Iron.

Alpaca, Vicuna and Guanaco from the summit of The Flatiron.

From the summit of Frosty Mountain looking south into Washington State. I started the second leg of my big summer hike from Rainy Pass way back behind the furthest point on the far right.

Aug 5, 2010 - Flat Iron

Roy isn't much of a fan of Needle Peak and Kim had never been up the Flat Iron so we made plans to finally get after it. We had originally planned to get out on a multi-day trip however driving out to Manning Park a few days prior the engine blew in my van going up the Hope Slide hill. But we wanted to get out hiking and headed out so that I could bug Kim about her humming and hawing with her dog rescue plans. The hike was great and we made plans the following day to finally go get her new best friend Mable from the Vancouver SPCA.

Aug 21, 2010 - Frosty Mountain

A good friend was in town by chance so I pushed out a plan to thrash up to the Lucky 4 Mine and instead decided to hike the Mount Frosty trail because I didn't want to return her home all scratched up. We hiked as fast as we could to the summit in 3 hours under a nice sky. The company was great and the views spectacular. I especially enjoyed the view south from the summit. I could see many of the mountains that I hiked past on my big hike earlier in the summer.

Aug 22, 2010 - Trail Clearing on Lucky 4 Mine Trail

The rain started in earnest Sunday morning but I wanted to get some exercise for both Roy as I would be out of commission for a few days while I healed from my wisdom teeth removal the following day. I drove my new car (1997 Subaru Legacy) up to the trailhead being sure to edge very slowly through the many water bars. I was pruning away for 3 hours from the washout to the first switchback before I called it because I was soaked and cold from the heavy rain. The trail needs a lot more work though.

Map of My Route

2010-08-03T18:54:00.002-07:00

Due to popular demand I have rigged up this map showing the route I followed on my section hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. The lower highway is Highway 2 and the middle highway is Highway 20.

Red - Hitchhiking

Green - Hiking

Burgundy? - Boat Ride

Pacific Crest Trail - Rainy Pass to Manning Park

2010-08-01T13:05:00.005-07:00

Clean clothes and a shower in Concrete and we were ready to start the second section of my hike. My parents drove down from Vancouver with my next batch of food and drove me up to Rainy Pass to start me off.

I carried Roy's bag in the afternoon because of the heat so he was free to run wherever while I slogged around one foot in front of the other.

The final section of trail on my first day out. Tower Mtn on the right with Golden Horn behind and to the left. We spent our first night in the small bowl most of the way across the face.

The flowers were out in the alpine and Roy was always ready to pose for some pictures.

A few days in and now looking south to The Tower which I camped below on my first night on this section.

The Rainy Pass to Manning Park section of trail traverses the eastern section of the North Cascades. Much drier than further west with lots of burned over sections.

Roy again posing in the flowers.

And again with Shull Mountain behind.

Mount Frosty from the south. This section of the hike was even more fun because I could pick out my familiar mountains but from the south. At one point I was even able to see Mount Slesse way in the distance through a gap.

And across the border and back into Canada. Only 12km to the lodge and buffet breakfast.

July 26-30

With the adventure of the previous section of trail it was nice to start out this section with all the bugs worked out and ready to get down to business of covering some ground and seeing the sites. I found that I didn't have enough snack food on the last bit so splurged on some junk planning for 7 days to cover the 70 miles. The only thing though is that the PCT is so well designed that covering 15-20 miles in a day is not too much work. The trail doesn't go up and over every mountain and when you are climbing is so well graded that you barely notice you're actually gaining elevation. I ended up covering the 70 miles in 5 days. That turned into 2 short days on either end with 3 longer days in the middle. Just like the previous section the sun was out and shining and we were lucky in that the wind started to blow in the afternoons which helped out a bit with the temperature. Roy and I really got the travel down to a system getting up early to cover 10 miles in the morning before it got really hot. We'd then find somewhere to settle down for a few hours to read and nap. We had a great experience and even made it across the border without having any problems at all. I had been so nervous that we pushed it the last 6 miles to get across without seeing anybody at all. Roy and I had such a good time over the 12 days we were out in the mountains. No worries about day to day trouble with all to stress about being how far I'd get that night.

Roy and I hiked out to Manning Park friday morning arriving at the lodge early enough to get some of the all I could eat breakfast buffet. I stuffed myself with a load of bacon, sausage, eggs and hashbrowns. It was great!

Over the 12 days Roy and I hiked 230km which is the most I've ever done. Such a good experience.

Pacific Crest Trail - Steven's Pass to Rainy Pass

2010-08-01T10:03:00.002-07:00

The first leg of my trip turned into a 7 day hitchhiking adventure. I first hitched up to Steven's Pass followed by a hitching to Chelan in the dessert and lastly from Rainy Pass to Concrete.

Roy early on in the journey still full of energy.

Beautifully constructed Pacific Crest Trail.

Glacier Peak from the south and the reasons for my detour. The PCT goes around the west side of the mountain with the detour going around the east.

Hitching through the dessert with Roy.

Room with a view in Chelan.

The dogs had to stay on the deck in the blazing sun on the 5 hour boat ride up the length of 55 mile Lake Chelan. The heat was intense and I tried to give Roy as much shade as possible.

July 19th - 25th

My trip on the PCT turned into a real adventure when after hiking north for 3 days I found that there was a huge detour around the east side of Glacier Peak. The trail is supposed to go around the west side of the peak however there have been a load of bridge washouts on some of the major rivers. It wasn't just a little detour of a few miles though, the trail around the east side would be into an area I had no idea of for 40 miles of unknown. So with 60 miles (100km) of walking under my belt I bailed out to Highway 2 for a hitchhiking adventure into the desert where I would regain the trail to the north of Glacier Peak.

Four rides later I found myself in the busy and incredibly hot town of Chelan. This town is at the south end of 100km long Lake Chelan. No dog friendly rooms available, I spent my day sitting in the shade reading my book. Was actually a really nice day if not for the stink I was exuding after 4 days of hot weather hiking in my one pair of clothes. As the sun went down I found a great, quiet place to camp on the beach. The following day Roy and I took a ferry up the length of the lake traveling from hot dry desert into the heart of the cascade mountains. All that was left was 2 days of hiking north to Rainy Pass where I'd get a refill of food for the final leg of hiking to Canada.

Over the 7 days of this section Roy and I walked 77 miles which is just about 125km.

Enderby Cliffs

2010-07-15T17:36:00.002-07:00

July 13, 2010

Finding myself in Enderby for a visit we decided it would be nice to head up the cliffs trail. The weather was great for the little hike with clouds at the start followed by some nice cooling drizzly rain. A great few hours out with a relaxing beer after.

Shuswap: Pukeashun Area

2010-07-15T17:15:00.005-07:00

My summit on the left and Pukeshun still a ways off on the far right.

Roy trying out his new bag for our big upcoming trip. A lot nicer than his last bag with what I hope are waterproof pouches.

July 8, 2010

I was back up Pukeashun Mountain heading all the way to the top of the 2250m summit to the northwest. I still want to get to the summit of Pukeashun but from the trail I've been using it will have to be an overnight trip. I was 7.5 hours car to car which in the summer with the heat and bugs is a bit much. Near the end I was really feeling the day and was slightly dehydrated with a headache and aching muscles.

I approached the mountain via a horse/sled trail starting at the the 1km mark near the head of Kwikoit River. I drove up the FSR from Scotch Creek. The spur road is nearly overgrown for those with 2wd or those not wanting to scratch their paint.

Elk Mountain: Start of Summer

2010-07-05T13:47:00.002-07:00

This seems to be my start of summer hike. I thought I did really well in this 2010 trip getting to the summit in 52:30 and was thinking that I might have knocked off a few minutes. But looking back in the records it seems that I am just a bit faster than I was before. Maybe if I'm in Chilliwack later in the summer I'll see how I do after a few months of regular hikes. To get much lower I'm going to have to start running sections of the trail.

-August 2006 - around 60 minutes
-August 2007 - 60 minutes
-July 2008 - 53 minutes
-July 2009 - 53 minutes

-July 2010 - 52 minutes, 30 seconds

Various Trips Through June

2010-06-27T20:01:00.004-07:00

June 26, 2010 - Gnat Pass East - Peak 2089 - Roy swimming across Gnat Creek. Without any hesitation he jumped in and was across right away. He didn't even look around for the shallower part I used or act sheepish because he knew I'd toss him across.
Looking south from Peak 2089. It was a great little hike with us reaching the summit in 2 hours 15 minutes. Everything was green and flowering.

June 19, 2010 - The Dome - Headed south to Terrace for dental and went for a quick hike at the ski hill saturday morning. In the afternoon I was off to Kitimat to look around and see the ocean.

June 13, 2010 - Tuya Canyon - Hiked back to the mouth of the Tuya Canyon with Anna and Amy for some views. We didn't see any goats but had a fun time out under grey skies. Even spotted a new forest fire in Edziza Provincial Park that I reported the following day.

June 5, 2010 - Hike to Jim Town - Jenn and I tried to make it to "Jim Town" on the Tahltan River. We went the wrong way and ended up following an old trail high up above the Tahltan River. It became difficult to follow after about 90 minutes so we called it. Turns out we should have taken the much more obvious looking trail up in to the hills right from the Marion's Ranch. Fun day out under a hot sun.

Gnat Pass: Thenatlodi and Three Others

2010-06-01T18:06:00.005-07:00

My Friday night in the tent. Reading at 8:30pm with the sun still high on the horizon. Roy is obviously still wide awake with only 4 hours of running around in the mountains so far.

10:30pm and the sun is starting to set.

Nearing the summit of Thenatlodi on Saturday.

Roy and I on the summit of Thenatlodi

While it looks like there is still loads of snow, for the most part I was easily able to hike avoiding most of it. The sections I did have to travel often had me punching up to my thighs or waste they were so isothermic.

Wolverine on the summit of peak 1950 with the highways tower on top.

6:30 in the morning on Sunday with Thenatlodi to the west.

Roy tired after a day of chasing ground squirrels and marmots.

May 28 - Friday

Really wanting to get up Thenatlodi and not be exhausted from a one day push I decided to do a two nighter, which would make my weekend seem like a long one. I was hiking up the mining road at 5:00pm arriving on the summit of Cenagalodi (The first one) at 6:30 where upon I spent some time looking for the best place to put my tent. With that set I got to making dinner, drinking red wine and relaxing while Roy terrorized the local creeks and shadows for all they were worth.

May 29 - Saturday

I was up and away at 8:00am heading west into the basin beyond. At the bottom after jumping a creek I had the best breakfast ever: cheese wrap, cheese and farmers sausage. Yummy. With my full belly I headed west gaining a little elevation to cross over the south shoulder of Peak 1876 (Northwest Tel Tower Mountain). Once over the shoulder I saw my destination still two basins away. Some caribou decided to check us out for a bit and when they got really close bolted with Roy in the chase. My voice went hoarse from yelling at him however after a few minutes he came back looking tired. I was not happy. He's been doing so well lately. Across the next basin and onto the south shoulder of peak 1950 (Forestry or Highways Tower Mountain) I ditched my bag and with some essentials in my jacket pockets set out across the final basin. I was on the summit 90 minutes later having climbed up the steep face via a gully on the north end. There was a bit of snow on a narrow part of ridge but overall it was an easy scramble. I'd climbed the mountain and I was stoked to have done it.

An hour later I was back at my bag making for just about 3 hours of detour. The weather was turning a bit foul but I still wanted to camp up high so headed slowly up the southeast ridge of Peak 1950. Most of the way up I was getting tired and found a nice place to camp that would offer some great views and had fresh water. I napped in the tent for an hour or so and then as I was getting cold decided I'd head for the summit of my 3rd mountain. This was only my second time to the summit of Peak 1950 with the 1st time being in really thick clouds just about 3 years ago. As Roy and I were heading from the cairned summit to the radio tower we saw some movement about 100m away, which turned out to be a wolverine. Luckily it was running away from us and not towards. I feel so lucky to have witnessed this as they are really rare. With that extra bit of wildlife for the day we headed back to my tent, made another great dinner (lentils, onion soup and tuna) drank the rest of my red wine (thanks Santa, the wine platypus is the best stocking stuffer ever) and fell asleep. We'd been hiking for 7 hours.

May 30 - Sunday

Up even earlier and down the southeast ridge for home at 7:00am Roy and I had another great breakfast in the valley below. We traversed up the west side of Peak 1876 to the north ridge, where I ditched my bag and quickly headed to the summit of my 4th mountain on this trip so far. I've hiked and skied this summit quite a few times though so I didn't really spend much time looking around. Over the east face and across to the south shoulder of Cenegalodi which had me just about finishing my trip. I had a long break at the weather station (seems like there is a load of towers in this area) and then headed back down to the van doing some ditch work along the way to help stop erosion. I was back at the van at 11:00 making for 4 hours of hiking. I was tired but not exactly spent which was nice. A great few days out in the mountains, four mountains climbed, 2 nights in the tent and loads of wildlife spotted.

Tanzilla Gap

2010-05-25T19:11:00.006-07:00

The gap is just out of site below and the Tanzilla River joins the Stikine on the left

Some cool river rocks I hounded for at 16-mile on the Tanzilla River.

May 16, 2010

I've always wanted to see the Tanzilla Gap, however without knowing of the trail and there being a few km of featureless forest I didn't really think setting out on my own would be a good idea. So Katherine and I enlisted the help of Orest (who had been there a few times sans le trail) and set out from the Rousseau property in the burn along the Telegraph Creek Road. We had a waypoint in my GPS and set off into the brush hiking overland towards where we thought we'd get the best view of the Gap.

The gap is at the confluence of the Tanzilla and Stikine Rivers and just downstream of this location the entire Stikine River squeezes through a gap just 1 metre wide. This is pretty amazing as the Stikine is not a small river by any means. The hiking was well over 2 hours of raspberry needles and low buck brush making it not so difficult however a bit monotonous without much for views. We were lucky that there were not any leaves out as we could at least see where our feet were stepping.

We soon reached the edge of the canyon and descended about 200m to a lookout just above the gap. Being just above the gap we couldn't see it as the walls were quite steep but at least we were kept entertained by a canyon goat hanging out nearby.

The way back we went a different way following the Tanzilla along it river left rim on game trails. We eventually picked up a trail taking us into the forest and from there an ATV trail which took us back to the old Telegraph Highway. It took us a bit out of our way but was much easier walking than whacking through the brush. If you are wanting to find this trail, walk or drive in on the old Telegraph Road finding a well used road leaving south. Its right before a giant of a car with huge fins abandoned just off the road about 50 years ago. The ATV track could easily be biked.

Cassiar: Up Limestone and Troubles in Reverse

2010-05-20T19:23:00.003-07:00

Roy doing what he does best. Headwaters of Marble Creek.

Gaining elevation on firm snow near the back of Marble Creek.

What was I thinking? Stuck and stuck bad. This happened while in reverse. I wasn't even going that fast.

Many hours later and this nice young man was pulling us out. Live and learn. Thanks for being so patient Katherine.

May 14, 2010

Katherine didn't think there would be enough snow to ski but I was determined to show her otherwise. We headed up Marble Creek to a high bump in the back of the basin finding firm snow most of the way up. The views were great and we found skin-able snow right from the airport turnoff with one very short bare section. The ski was fast on firm snow with just the final section giving me that failing sensation. It was a fun time out.

After a noon nap we decided Boya Lake would be nice for Happy Hour. A cooler with refreshments and we set off. I thought it would be fun to check out the ranch on the Dease River right near the lake and turned right just a few hundred metres from the beach. Oh how this decision would change our afternoon/evening. A few km up the road and we encountered remnant overflow ice, this however didn't stop me. Nope I foolishly drove on. Most of the way across we encountered an open section that I wasn't comfortable crossing in the van so we stopped and went in reverse back to bare gravel. The only problem being that we never found bare gravel but instead found a giant hole on the side of the road that the van fell into. We were stuck and stuck bad. Not only were we stuck but we were stuck in the middle of nowhere.

So the afternoon took a spin that neither of us thought possible. We walked back to the lake, hitched a ride to the highway from some nice Germans and from there immediately found a ride to Watson Lake. An hour sitting in front of the Super A and we were heading south in a tow-truck (Thanks BCAA) where we were pulled from the icy hole I'd driven us into. We were back having our happy hour at the Green Shack some 6 hours after leaving. This write-up in no way does the stresses we were both feeling over what might have been, had any of the kind deeds that people did for us did not happen. We both saw the kindness of strangers and I only hope that these nice people experience kindness in return.

Cassiar: Dogsitting up Marble Creek and a Trip into the Needlepoint area

2010-05-09T16:09:00.003-07:00

Rugged ridge of Limestone Peak

Roy and Dempster at the top of our second run.

Roy at the top of our run Sunday in the Needlepoint area.

May 8, 2010

I had an extra dog over Saturday so headed up to Cassiar with Dempster from across the street. He often accompanies me on walks and bike rides so I knew he'd be alright out in the mountains. I had him because the rest of the teachers in SD#87 were off in Telegraph for our AGM. Knowing my ski days in the north are limited I chose to skip and hoping that the forcasted weather didn't appear decided to head north. I was up early at 4:50 in the hopes of getting some firm snow and that is exactly what I found along with of course crystal blue skies with not a cloud in sight.

We made good time on frozen corn getting a start at 7:00am to the back of Marble Creek arriving at the base of Limestone Peak after 2.5 hours. I skied nice corn snow down my first run and after a good break decided to head back up onto the ridge for another lap. My second run was a bit firmer than the first being northwest facing and all but the ski out down the road was great corn and we were back at the van making for 4 hours out. Even though I had been roasting in the sun all morning as I arrived at the van the building clouds started to let loose sending a volly of graupal, snow and rain which stayed with me for parts of the drive home.

May 9, 2010

Even though gas is selling for $1.28 a litre I had to get back to the Cassiars for another go at the quickly melting snow. I would once again head up onto Needlepoint hoping to ski the east face of peak 1860m just to the east of Needlepoint itself. I was on the summit of this fair mountain after 2.5 hours of quick skinning with a little booting for the final bit to reach the top. As the face had been baking in the sun for most of the morning (Sun rises at 5:30 and it was now 9:30) I didn't play "Name that Peak". The top few metres was a dusting of powder but below that was beautiful corn which I love. My run was just about 300m of big, fast turns.

I vedged out for a good bit having an early lunch and then skied the rest out to the highway below. I foolishly skied the big north facing basin below treeline to avoid bare spots on the broad ridge finding great corn however this left me way skiers right of my uptrack and in tight trees. The traversing was annoying getting back to the trail and I found every bit of isothermic snow. I had one good fall when my fully locked ski released sending me tumbling head first into the prickly, stiff branches of a dead tree. It hurt and I'm glad I wasn't going that fast. The forces to lose a fully locked out ski though I don't even want to think about. Isothermic snow is scary. I finally made it back to the mining road thankfully finding it still firm. I was back at the van 4.5 hours after leaving it at 11:30am.

Once home I mopped the basement hall, cleaned and mopped my bathroom and took the garbage to the dump. All done before 2:00pm.

Tuya Canyon Hike

2010-05-02T19:28:00.004-07:00

May 2, 2010

I tried to ski on Saturday, getting suckered into a massive sucker hole that was sitting directly over Needlepoint. The view was amazing and the 90 minutes I'd spent previously humming and hawing (snowing heavily in Cassiar) was put at ease looking up at the dusting of snow in the sunlight. The skinning was alright but at the top of the road I knew I was late and the clouds had closed in. Just that little ski down was difficult for me and nearly too much for Roy with an snowpack quickly turning isothermic. Just not enough of a freeze overnight nor a clear sky to really solidify the snow. I was out for an hour.

Sunday I knew I'd be best to hedge my bets with a hiking trip. I'd at least get some exercise and if I headed west hopefully some sun. I stopped for some hiking info and 90 minutes later and full of tea headed along the Telegraph Road towards the Tuya Crossing where I was told there was a trail of interest. I easily found the trail and (On the east side of the Tuya at the top of the steep hill. It heads south with a small diversion through a large clearing) an hour later was on the edge of a large ravine overlooking the Tuya River. I went upriver first to have a look and then down finally deciding that upriver would be best. Mostly open walking mixed in with some dried stiff brush had me seeing two canyon goats in the distance.

As I got closer, the goats trotted off however didn't seem too scared. I was able to get within 10 metres of one of them before it dashed over the cliff and into safety. Some lunch and then I turned around to return. I should have spent some more time looking around as I believe where I was hiking was very close to Terror Bridge which the Tahltans built to cross the Tuya River. From the quote below though maybe I was not near. I didn't see the mouth as I was about 1km away but below where I was hiking looked like an obvious place and there was an old and very obvious switchbacking trail leading into the trees above the river. The hike out didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would and 90 minutes later I was back at the van right before the weather turned with a long hail storm. I was out for nearly 4 hours.

R. Campbell described the Bridge at the mouth of the Tuya River in his ca. 1890 autobiography:

Here we came to 'Terror Bridge', whence Mr. J. McLeod and exploring party turned back in 1834... It was a rude, rickety structure of pine poles spliced together with withes and stretched high above a foaming torrent; the ends of the poles were loaded down with stones, to prevent the bridge from collapsing. This primitive support looked so frail and so unstable, and the rushing waters below so formidable, that it seemed well nigh impossible to cross it. It inclined to one side, which did not tend to strengthen the appearance for safety. On reaching the bridge we saw an Indian standing in front of the hut and we beckoned him to come to us. This he had apparently no intention of doing, so the two Indian lads and myself attempted the crossing which we succeeded in making; the flimsy bridge swaying and bending with our weight and threatening to precipitate up into the boiling waters beneath. [Campbell in Buckham 1950:175]

Northwest Bridge Construction. Royal BC Museum. www.livinglandscapes.bc.ca. May 2, 2010

Cassiars: Mount Johnny Haskins

2010-04-28T21:08:00.006-07:00

Mount Johnny Haskins (thanks JR!) that I skied up. You can just make out the road near the top cutting across the start zone.

Looking south with Blackfox on the left, Needlepoint right of centre, and way in the back just faintly Mount McLeod.

North onto the Liard Plain and what might be the Logan Mountains way in the distance.

A fixer upper left in the alpine.

April 25, 2010

I was up and into a new area on Sunday. I had planned on doing a hike and even waxed my boots but with so much fun the day before I had to get out again. I drove up to Centerville to ski up a Northwest Tel access road which heads up Mount Johnny Haskins. I started skiing at 7:00am straight from the highway on about 10cms of very frozen snow. The forest was bare but I was lucky in that the road was covered. At a fork I foolishly went left and followed this road for a good 3 or 4km. When I hadn't gained much elevation at 8:00am I turned around and coasted back to the junction where I'd gone wrong. Along the way I followed a somewhat fresh set of bear tracks.

From the junction I made my way now gaining elevation and at 10:00am arrived in the alpine where I had a break with my boots and socks off. From there the views were great and with my boots back on I made my way to the summit deciding to bypass the giant start zone that the road switchbacks through and went around to the north side of the mountain. I was on the summit at 11:15 making for more than 4 hours to the top with a bit of a diversion at the bottom.

The snow was already getting soft so I didn't wait long on the top. It was windy anyways but a bit saddening in that I didn't really spend that long. The view onto the flats of southeast Yukon were great and I could faintly see to what I think was the Richardson Mountains. To the south I was just able to make out Mount McLeod on Dease Lake through a gap between Needlepoint and Blackfox. I skied the same way down as I had come up getting some really nice turns. For the most part though I was doing a long traverse back to the road I'd come in on. Back into the forest I made turns where I didn't have to keeping Roy in front of me so that I could monitor his speed and make sure he wasn't pushing himself in the softening snow. We were lucky though and only found a few isothermic spots. We were back at the van after 30minutes of skiing which seems silly for how far back we had gone. A good 5 hours out and a new place that was fun to see.

Cassiars: Needlepoint Area Again

2010-04-26T20:19:00.009-07:00

Holding the camera in my hand on the ski out along the alpine flats. Not sure why it cuts off the side. View in full screen to see the entire shot I guess.

Highways converging.

Needlepoint from north. I skied from the summit of the mountain on the right.

April 24, 2010

With the mashed potatoes of the weekend before I figured that that the snow had had enough time to get a corn cycle going and if I started early travel should be fast. I left Dease Lake at 5:30 starting my ski up the Needlepoint trail at 6:45am. The skinning was incredibly fast on firm snow and it was only 2 hours for me to reach our highpoint of the weekend before. I wanted to go higher though so with skis on my bag booted up grass, frozen snow and across scree to the highest point above. The views were amazing. Over to the west side of Needlepoint that was my original destination still in the shade and probably rock hard until early afternoon, to the north Jade City, Table Mountain and Cassiar area, west into the Cottonwood River area and south to the Dease and Eagle River confluence.

The ski down was dust on crust and I had a fun time on steep snow. With an early lunch in a meadow I decided to ski up to the top of the run Orest and I skied the weekend before. The snow was much better this time around and as I'm an impatient guy, Roy and I skied firm snow all the way back to the van below. A fun day out and 5 hours. A bit early in the day to get the good corn but much better than the mashed potatoes of the weekend before. The only soft snow was at the trailhead.

Cassiars: Needlepoint Area

2010-04-26T18:10:00.004-07:00

The west face of Needlepoint under an afternoon sun. The shot right of the summit had me thinking for next weekend.

April 17, 2010 - Needlepoint Area

A late start (11:00am) up into the Needlepoint area had us getting a huge amount of whumps of the sort I've never heard before. The surface of the snow was dropping a good 10cms and in a few places a few small slides let loose for a very short distance. Good thing the trees were tight and we felt safe. Up high things firmed up and we made a highpoint of 1800m on Needlepoints western neighbor at the top of a fun little north facing bowl. We ended up skiing fast snow up high and then very isothermic snow for the rest of the ski down. I'm not sure if starting earlier would have helped much as it was sort of the transition between winter and spring.

A good thing about the trip is that we found a well blazed trail through the trees. From Twin Lakes cross the highway following the road for a few hundred metres, crossing 3 ditches before picking up an exploration road on the right. Follow this to it's end (pretty steep at that point and at 1130m) and pick up a well flagged and blazed route that takes one to treeline. The route goes up the middle ridge of the north facing terrain.

April 22, 2010 - Gnat Pass Evening Ski

Snow most of the Thursday had me wondering what I'd find at Gnat Pass after work. Well I found minimal snow at the trailhead that had a great breakable crust. I floundered my way to treeline encountering a few bare spots in the trees. I found myself in a blizzard and promptly turned around. The skiing reminded me of the movie 2012 when they are taking off in the plane and the ground is collapsing all around. My tips stayed on top but the crust was dramatically cracking under my bindings making for an interesting ski. Roy had the worst of it though as he was punching in all over the place on the downhill.

Gnat Pass: West Sides - 3 Days of Keeping it Local

2010-04-16T19:07:00.007-07:00

Friday night on the summit.

Roy Saturday on the south ridge of the Microwave Mtn with Ediza behind.

And the northeast facing diagonal run that I got to know well over the weekend. One track layed down on Saturday and then added to it with two more on Sunday.

Orest skinning up with the Microwave beyond on Sunday.

April 9, 2010

Headed up the west side of the pass after work on Friday finding 10-15cm of dry snow that had not been touched by any wind. Bonus. I was up and on the summit within 90 minutes and down to the van in 120. From there it was off to watch a documentary at the community hall of Ali Howard's Skeena River swim to protest Royal Dutch Shell's proposed coal bed methane mining at the headwaters of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers. Good watch and a good end to my "work" day.

April 10, 2010

With some powder the day before I figured I may as well stay local and headed over to the Microwave Tower, another mountain over on the west side of the pass. The skinning was easy with a fun run off the west side of Cenegalode followed by a skin up the south side of Microwave Mtn. From there I traversed the mountain eventually skiing the northeast facing diagonal run. The skiing was great. All that was left was putting in a skin track back to the summit of Cenegalode. I ended up near the summit and thought may as well tag it before heading to the van after getting 1500m of elevation over five and a half hours.

April 11, 2010

Orest and I debated a few minutes about where to go but in the end thought it would be fun to head back to the zone I was at the day before. May as well stay local with the good snow. We were quickly in the alpine and soon after skiing down the backside. The snow was a bit crusty here and there from the previous days warmth but was fun skiing. We decided to skin up a different route and Orest put a track in on the northern part of Microwave Mtn. For the most part I spent the day trying to keep up to Orest who was on fresh legs. On the summit we had a look at the direct east facing run. Its a steep 45 degreeish pictch that looked like an amazing ski. I foolishly skied it solo my first winter in the north. I wasn't feeling it this time though, something about the pointy rocks at the bottom, and all that snow blown in there waiting for a trigger. My days previous run was beckoning anyways and we had great turns down to the valley bottom. The return skin up to the summit of Cenegalode was a bit more exhausting but we made it to the summit 400m above in one push. The rest of the ski out was fun making for another 1500metres over six hours. My face was roasted and after 3800m of vert over the weekend my legs were spent.

Cassiar: Annual Meeting of the McDame Mountain Ski Club - Easter

2010-04-06T18:22:00.002-07:00

April 2, Day I

Had us sledding up to the Mariah Lakes to do some skiing. I spent the sled ride hanging onto Roy in the skimmer behind Orest's sled. It was sort of fun and Roy was even alright with it although was a bit shaken up when we flipped. At the head of the lakes we skinned up into the alpine on mellow slopes getting some good views down Troutline and Limestone Creeks. The skiing was pretty good a northern aspect but we had to cut the day short with approaching storms.

April 3, Day II

I came up with a plan to get a sled ride up the Mine Valley to head through the col above the Matterhorn. This would drop me into the basin way up the valley from the old Cross Country Ski Club trails. I convinced Orest and Katherine to join me and we made it up to the top of the Matterhorn and then turned around for a few good turns back to Shovel 3. I didn't want to ride the skimmer all the way out so skied out to the bottom with ease only having to pole the very bottom stretch. Roy even managed to keep up most of the way.

April 4, Day III

Orest and I headed up onto the Chiera Plateau for some views. I borrowed a sled for the journey and held Roy in front which was strange. He wasn't too pleased with it and at the creek crossing we decided it would be best if he just ran up behind the sleds. This worked well and we parked at the switchback to get at least a bit of exercise. We summited our first mountain two hours later and then after some views traversed to the top of another for some turns. The skiing was great and we had some fun turns to the sleds waiting below. A great 4 hours out and Roy felt much more comfortable riding in the box at the back of the sled.

April 5, Day IV

I was back into Dease and after sitting around for an hour or two in the morning decided a long walk with Roy just wouldn't cut it. I headed to Gnat Pass surprisingly finding 5-10cms of powder. I was on the summit 90 minutes from the car and back down again after 2 hours. The light was incredibly flat but I'm stoked that the season is looking average and I'll get some good turns over the next few months.

Wapta Traverse: Day V - Bow Hut to Icefields Parkway

2010-03-30T14:27:00.002-07:00

Dinner at the Bow Hut.

Pushing out the canyon along the Bow River

From the parkway looking up towards Olive, St. Nic, Vulture Glacier and if you look closely enough the Bow Hut.

March 19, 2010

Wapta Traverse Day V

All that was left was a ski out to the highway below. Started with a few fun turns and then ended up being a skate, pole, side-step and luge run through the canyon and forest below before having to skin across Bow Lake. I think it took us about 2.5 hours or something like that. It all seemed anti-climatic to me as it is such an easy exit and the second time I’ve done it.

A great trip into the mountains and it has sparked something in me for future years. Hopefully a bigger traverse next year. Just have to figure out what to do with my feet while skinning across a flat glacier.

Wapta Traverse: Day IV - Balfour Hut to Bow Hut

2010-03-30T14:20:00.002-07:00

Skiing up the mellow Vulture Glacier

Mount Gordon with a clearing sky.

Tara skiing good snow on the snout of the glacier above Bow Hut.

March 18, 2010

Wapta Traverse Day IV

With uncertainty in the weather, high alpine avalanche conditions and reportedly weak snow bridges over the many open crevasses we decided it would be best to abort our trip over the Balfour High Col and ski out to the Bow Hut. No parties had yet completed the trip since the last avy cycle had begun. We left the hut slowly making our way up to the top of the Vulture Glacier. My feet on day III had taken a hatred to me and were quite raw from all the flat touring I had been doing so far. No blisters just raw skin. It hurt a lot. I had taped them up and by keeping the 3 lower buckles on my boots tight my feet stayed somewhat comfortable for the day if I took it easy. The weather was in and out for the morning with the worst being near the top of the Vulture when we couldn’t even see Olive Mountain. But just waiting a few minutes had the sky clearing off for the rest of the day. The views were amazing with all the new snow. I really wanted to get up Gordon but my feet were starting to hurt a bit. So instead we skied a great run down to the snout of the glacier above Bow Hut. The snow was great and we all enjoyed it. My legs were burning by the bottom having not skied a run like that very often this season.
In the hut we relaxed for many hours with myself being incredibly bored and a little annoyed having not wanted to push on towards Gordon or even do another lap on the glacier. At least we had some good views off the deck of the hut down the valley towards bow lake and up onto the icefall at the top of the Vulture Glacier. The rest did wonders for my feet however and they were quickly on the mend.

Wapta Traverse: Day III - Peyto Hut to Balfour

2010-03-30T14:02:00.005-07:00

Skiing up the Peyto Glacier in whiteout conditions.

Nearing the Olive/St. Nic col

The sky cleared on the Vulture Glacier and we had a fun ski down to the Balfour Hut.

March 17, 2010

Wapta Traverse Day III

During the night the pressure dropped and a storm came in complete with blowing snow and whiteout conditions. We wanted to get to Balfour Hut though so using the map inserted 6 or 7 waypoints into Ryan’s gps which would hopefully get us to the hut safely. Leaving the safety of the cabin for the milk bottle like ski touring was sort of strange but if you really concentrated you could just make out the gentle ridges of the Peyto Glacier and the rocky ridgeline to the east. We used both as handrails however still had trouble when the person in front would easily get turned around with no definition to follow. Near the top of the glacier we decided to rope up as we knew there were slots ahead and started to use the gps more often. What an amazing tool to use in the mountains. It easily took us to our waypoints and soon enough we found ourselves in a really windy area that we quickly deduced was the continental divide on the heart of the Wapta Icefield. We had somehow avoided a rocky ridge at the foot of Rhonda not shown on the map and were a little confused about where we were because it showed glacier. Glacial recession has had its way on the Wapta. A few km from the Olive St. Nic col and the clouds parted for a few minutes allowing us to see the mountains we were headed towards. I took the lead here because I recognized the mountains we were heading towards and tentatively skinned towards them. A few times I had to stop because I couldn’t see any definition on the ground at my feet. Near the col we stopped for a much needed lunch and miraculously the clouds began to part and we hurried on to the Vulture Glacier which would take us down to the Balfour Hut. The ski from the top of this glacier was great. The clouds had parted, the sun was shining, the snow was light and in a few places the pitch steep enough to get some fun turns. Nothing like in the movies at all but probably the sort of skiing rich people do from helicopters.
Once at the hut the weather returned to its milk bottle likeness and we talked to Skye and Tara who didn’t know if we would show. We spent the rest of the day vedging in the comfort of the hut reading various magizines and books. I quite enjoyed the ACC journals which have loads of trips from people far more talented than myself.

Wapta Traverse: Day II - Mount Rhonda

2010-03-30T11:32:00.002-07:00

Skye and Tara skinning up the Peyto Glacier on their way to Balfour Hut.

Katherine and Ryan on their way to Mount Rhonda.

Looking east across the Wapta Icefield and down the Bow Valley.

South across the Wapta Icefield from the Mount Rhonda ridge.

March 16, 2010

Wapta Traverse Day II

This would be a rest day for 4 of the party while two of us had to move on to Balfour Hut. After they left breaking a trail up on to the divide for us, Katherine, Ryan and I set off to ski up Rhonda around 11:00am. The weather was holding for us and there didn’t appear to be anything bad about it at all aside from some wind higher up. With a track to follow we decided to skin un-roped with the rope stashed in my bag. We made good time up onto the top of the Peyto Glacier were we skinned up the south ridge of Rhonda and then back north along its long undulating ridge. The mountains were spectacular and anything remotely steep had evidence of past avalanches.
The descent didn’t have us feeling very comfortable skiing down our chosen route due to all the recent slide activity so we just skied our up-track. It was a great 600m run back to the hut on firm wind slab like sastrugi. All in all we were out for 4 hours and it was a great rest day.

Wapta Traverse: Day I - Peyto Lake to Peyto Hut

2010-03-30T11:26:00.001-07:00

March 15, 2010

Wapta Traverse Day I

I last tried to complete the Wapta Traverse in March 2006 with my Kootenay friends Dave and Joel. We were weathered off the route on the day we would cross the Balfour High Col by high winds, deep fresh snow and poor visibility. I’ve wanted to try the route again ever since. Katherine came up with the idea this fall and with interest from some of her friends we got a group of 6 together and set off on March 15, 2010. We were smart enough to leave a car at West Louise Lodge the night before thus saving us a bit of time. With the time zone change and as well Day Light Savings the BC residents had lost 2 hours to their mornings which made things a bit difficult. A 7am start would have us getting up at 5am. Ouch. After some last minute errands that was mainly Katherine and I driving around we finally found ourselves at the Peyto Lake Trail Head sometime around 10 where the friggin of the gear began. It wasn’t until nearly 11 that we finally got underway following a very faint skin track through the forest to the edge of the lake. From lake edge we could finally see our destination in the distance. We had so far seen loads of evidence of the past avalanche cycle which had put the alpine danger at high. Something we had to think about on our way up into the high country.
Skinning across Peyto Lake was great under the sun with a nice breeze but the real work started once we neared the glacier and had to gain elevation quickly getting ourselves up onto the moraine. I was breaking trail in about 10-15cms of sometimes heavy snow and it was a bit tricky to keep going with sunscreen pouring into my eyes. Once onto the moraine we booted up to the top of a knoll which was exhausting because of the very facetted snow. One step just to slide back a bit. Once over the top we then had to descend down to Peyto glacier. Because the weather was nice we roped up for the practice making our way to the hut still some km away.
We eventually made it to the hut after 7 hours. The last km or so really had me tired after 5 hours of breaking trail. The views from the hut were excellent and we were all stoked to be in the mountains.

Roger's Pass: Cheops Slide Path

2010-03-29T20:56:00.001-07:00

March 9, 2010

Headed up into the unknown on horribly difficult skinning conditions. Frozen sludge and heavy mank. Up into the slide path I started with fun skiing but then dropped below the freezing line and had sludge over-top of a breakable crust which wasn't much fun. Into the trees to rattle my teeth out. A few hours out in the mountains of Roger's Pass.

Cassiars: Valley X

2010-02-28T19:12:00.006-08:00

Feb 27, 2010

With Orest back in town we set ourselves up for something big on our first trip out. We headed into what I'm going to call Valley X south of Jade City. The snow was excellent and considering that it is a low snow year we actually found some really good skiing on treed northish facing slopes. I'd venture to say that the trees were some of the best I've skied in the Cassiars. Why did it take so long for me to agree to go into this area. The views were excellent under cloudy skies with the sun appearing every now and then. We ended up being out for 7 hours which tired us both out enough that climbing up the plow debris to the highway was excruciatingly difficult.

Gnat Pass: West Side - Sun Tanning

2010-02-22T19:31:00.003-08:00

Roy posing with Edziza behind and to the south.

Feb 21, 2010

Up to the west side of the pass with big plans of heading over to summit the microwave tower mountain. The skinning was easy under the hot sun however once in the alpine the firm snow I was hoping for was actually somewhat isothermic. A quick change in plans had me booting up the south ridge of Cenegalode to the summit where I vedged for half an hour in the sun. It was great.

The ski out was actually fun up high. I was surprised how well the snow kept in my little north facing wind deposit. The rest of the ski was interesting in that the road is really skied out from all my days up in this area. Back to Dease to watch Canada lose to the Americans in hockey.

Gnat Pass: East - Almost Lost a Ski

2010-02-22T18:30:00.003-08:00

Panorama looking south. Some fresh caribou tracks going over the summit on the left.

Roy looking west to Gnat Pass and the Hotailuh Plateau.

Looking north to Dease Lake. The Tanzilla River at bottom right. Mount McLeod is above Dease Lake. The low gladed mountain to the left of Dease Lake is Tacho.

What could have been. My run from halfway down with the gully my ski finally stopped in and my trail down to find it.

Sundays view of Saturdays run. I skinned and walked up to the col at left, skinned around the backside and then skied most of the main snow patch in the middle.

Feb 21 - Gnat Pass East

I headed up the east side of the pass with the plan to traverse around the main peak exploring the north side which I've never been over to. From the highway it often looks like there are some nice runs. I was up to treeline in an hour which was nice with a smooth broken track. While it was -15 when I left Dease Lake it was well above zero into the alpine. I traversed up the south side to a col having to hike the final few hundred metres due to steep icy snow and bare alpine terrain. At the col I was able to skin up and around the north side of the mountain. I had to pick my way through big pointy rocks but was able to see a nice looking short run near the ridge-line and the impressive north face with a few steep shots. If only the railway penetrated a few more km up the Tanzilla River you could ski down this face with an easy exit.

After a rest I skinned to the ridge and had a good break in the sun with amazing views to the south. The ski out looked promising and started out great however the warm weather had my bindings icing up. Dynafits prematurely release when this happens and my ski did just this as the run steepened. It was amazing how fast it picked up speed, heading right into the main gully. I quickly lost site of it and resolved myself to walking down. A few hundred metres into the gully I found it having finally flipped over. What a waste of a good run. At least I still had about half of it to go. The skiing was just as good as I thought it'd be and I was quickly at treeline where I decided it would be best to ski out the steeper section of trees with my skins on. I'm not sure which one is more scary, the speed of regular skiing down a narrow skied out track or the lack of control with skins on. The skins do hold you back a bit however you lose almost any turning ability and I did nearly lose it in some shrubs. This ski out isn't usually so bad however the forest is quite thick and I've long since used any of the powder on the sides.

The rest of the skin back to the van was uneventful under the summer like sun and I was soon on my way home to make pizza for dinner.

Gnat Pass and Cassiar: East, West and Lunch Spot on Chaperel

2010-02-14T16:23:00.007-08:00

After the ski, Stuart McLean was just starting so I drove south to the Stikine so that I could listen. On the way back got this view of Microwave (my name) on the left and Cenagalode on the Right. The one on the right is my go to for a quick summit and ski.

The opposite view of the top picture. Near the summit with the wind moving some snow.

January 14, 2010

I woke up at 7:30 and looking outside it was dumping hard. Back to bed for a bit and when I walked Roy found that I must have looked outside the only minute it was snowing. There was about 1cm on the driveway. Very nice. At least the sky to the south was clearing up and it looked like I might get a nice run.

I headed up the West Side of the pass making good time to the summit. I even dilly dallied around circling the summit to look over the west side at Microwave Mountain. There are two nice looking blown in runs coming off its east face. The wind was blowing hard but it wasn't cold so I found a somewhat protected area near the summit and got ready for the ski. It was pretty good although there were a few snakes and slabby areas to keep me guessing. Back in town quickly enough to watch the Canadian gold in moguls.

Needs some snow still to cover up the rocks in the guts of her. But her apron is looking alright. Maybe again in the spring.

Where I was going. Nice touring area.

Wind blasted section.

January 13, 2010

I headed out on the east side of Gnat Pass hoping to beat the forcasted poor weather that was approaching. For the most part I was in the sun but once in the alpine the clouds started coming in and blocking the rays. The wind was howling but it wasn't that cold unless you stopped for a while. My plan was to check out a bowl on the east side of the hill for some future skiing if Orest every comes back. I was hoping that the wind would blow some snow onto the north facing runs. It has indeed however there are also some large cornices as well. I skied to the top of the gentle hill in 3 hours getting a very leisurely ski back to treeline where it was a horribly scary ride back to the valley bottom. Overall a fun 4 hours out and tired me out.

Ridge above Chiera looking nice

February 7, 2010

JR and I headed up to Cassiar to check out the snowpack. It's not nearly as bad as it was in early January and I found it was actually supportable with fairly easy skinning and trail breaking. We worked our way up to the lunch spot on Chaperel taking a break to skin across the north facing trees where we found a whopping 80-90cms of snow. My probe went to the ground under it's own weight.

The ski out from the lunch rocks was fairly fun getting some low angle powder down the survey cuts. A fun 3 or 4 hours out in the hills under the sun. I spent the rest of the week drenching my lips in balm because they got a bit roasted.

Gnat Pass: West - Finally Powder.

2010-02-01T18:32:00.004-08:00

And I spooned these little turns on my next lap.

Jan 31, 2010

Saturday a storm was raging "Dease Lake style" so I stuck around town getting out for a walk in the hopes that Sunday would be clear and I could ski some powder. Well Sunday wasn't clear but it did snow most of the night and I woke up to about 5cms or so of snow to shovel off the driveway. It was cloudy though so I headed up the west side of the pass to see what there was. The clouds parted as I gained elevation and I saw that there had been no wind so I skinned to the top finding about 10-15cms of nice fresh snow. Excellent. The light was good, wind calm and skiing great. I did two laps up top and then headed down making for nearly 4 hours out. Fun time!

Gnat Pass: West and East Sides

2010-01-24T16:32:00.006-08:00

Jan 24, 2010

Up the East Side of Gnat Pass on Sunday to put a skin track in for future trips. What I've found this winter is that if you put one track in, it'll be there for the rest of the season. Stupid high pressure system thats stalled over the north. Putting the track in was easier than I thought it would be because I was able to use an established caribou and later a wolverine track.

Once into the alpine the windchill dropped the temperature but it was such a beautiful day that I got my jack and thick gloves on and headed up to one of the rock knobs in the alpine at around 1700m. Thankfully it was out of the wind. As I was getting my bag off I saw some movement to the west and noticed 4 wolves just 500m away making their way south. Roy was interested but with some coaxing stayed with me. I'm not sure if they were trying to get close to us to get Roy but as soon as I saw them they were headed south and were moving fast through the alpine to get away. What an amazing wilderness experience.

Jan 23, 2010

Getting a bit bored of always heading up Gnat Pass West I decided I'd try the Jade-Boulder Road for a a cross country tour. Last weekends warm weather got all the ground water and creeks flowing which made for interesting travel, in that large sections of the road were covered in sloping blue ice bulges. It was maybe the most technical journey I've been on so far this season. I skied up the road for 3 hours getting to the highpoint between the Jade-Boulder and Goldpan Roads. The view over to the Hotailuh Plateau was fantastic.

Jan 17, 2010

JR and I headed up to tree-line on the west side of the pass for a bit of exercise. We started the journey 600m down the highway at the pullout and decided that instead of walking the highway we'd head through the bush to intersect the road further along. With the low amount of snow we bashed a lot of brush making our way to the mining road. I have wondered whether it would be an easy journey and now I know I don't need to try that again. Fun few hours out in the mountains.

Jan 16, 2010

Headed up the west side of the pass hoping to find soft snow. I was lucky in that the wind had not completly hammered it into submission and found somewhat soft sastrugi up high and facets down low. Yippee!!!

Gnat Pass: West Side - Not Much Has Changed

2010-01-13T19:53:00.003-08:00

January 9, 2010

Back from my holiday experience in the south and I had to check out my local stashes here and there. Saturday had me expecting a big storm to move in. This kept me local with a tour up to the summit area of Gnat Pass on the west side. Nothing special and I really took my time getting to the summit once I reached tree-line. There were loads of fresh caribou tracks, the wind was blowing and the light was flat. The storm never did show while I was out. I even saw my old ski tracks near the summit which is amazing considering its been at least 4 weekends since I was last in this area. Oh well. I just have to admit that this season El Nino is going to be the mean lady she is and I`m going to get a lot of touring in.

Sunday wasn`t a ski day at all. Just an hour long tour through the village area of Cassiar. Found faceted snow, a storm that was dumping and deep trail breaking. I expected the facets and deep trail breaking. The storm was an added bonus which I`m hoping brings a change things up here.