Mt Macpherson (almost)

Traditionally Caroline and I try to celebrate our anniversary on the summit of something.  Something impressive.  I'm not sure we have ever actually succeeded (I'll blame typical late January BC weather), but we definitely have good stories from each attempt.

We had a great day out on Mt Macpherson this past weekend, heading up towards the Burnt knob and then continuing towards the summit.  We ended up turning back on the final bench when we started seeing some reactive slabs, but the ski down was untouched and some of the best powder I've had all winter.  With current conditions, I highly recommend this route - I'm not sure The Fingers will be in great shape with their exposure until there is more snow.

Mt MacPherson / Burnt Knob

Revelstoke this weekend, with a first attempt on Mt MacPherson in mind.   We ran into Gavin on the way to the Fingers, which it turned out was very lucky - his friend had tried our intended route a few days ago and the description was not appealing.  We went the long way around instead, and found some great mellow skiing areas (although they would be better with real snow, I think).

Conditions were firm (like really firm) on the way up.



We ended up topping out on the Burnt Knob for a 1200m climb, switching between skinning and bootpacking on the way up.



By the time we headed down the warm day had melted the top few centimeters.  Skiing was surprisingly great.

Revelstoke Backcountry

Delayed post again this week.  But I also just worked 50 hours in 4 days, so cut me a little slack.

Last weekend we headed up to Revelstoke to meet Mike and give him a quick introduction to the Shangri-La that is backcountry skiing.  We could not have asked for a better day.

I think as soon as this happened our case was made and we could have gone home.  But we pressed onwards, and slightly upwards.

Shrew Mountain is what we are looking at.  I would have been able to chalk it down as a first ascent, except for an extremely inconsiderate set of footprints that went right up to the top.  You can see that the top is a little overhanging and cornice-y... we couldn't tell if there was a set of footprints coming back from the ledge.  So I will chalk it up as a first ascent with successful descent.  Unless he had a parachute, I guess.  I suppose that's almost likely around these parts.  In any case, a very successful day.  Hopefully this is the first of many more this season.

(as always, clicking on any of the pictures will take you to Flickr for the rest)