Showing posts with label Ski Backcountry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ski Backcountry. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

New Years on Mount Baldy

Mt Baldy (east of Oliver) is closed for the season, has the same elevation as big white, and has plowed road access and cabins available for rent.

Bam.

Mt Baldy

New Years with the Lillooet crew round two (plus some other people).  I hope this trend continues, and hopefully we will have a little less sickness and a little more stable temperatures next year.

Mt Baldy

Mt Baldy

Monday, March 9, 2015

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.


Monday, February 16, 2015

Finding Some Snow - Yak Peak, Coquihalla

Desperate for some snow in this winter-that-isn't, we headed to the Coquihalla this weekend prepared for spring skiing conditions.  Turns out, we missed spring as well and seem to be right into early summer.



Skiing conditions were....challenging.



We did manage to find some skiiable snow at about 500-600m up from the highway.  Quality made up for quantity, and skiing in short sleeves is hard to complain about.



Recommendations would be: crampons, avoiding the spruce traps at the bottom, and sunscreen.  And get out there quick.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Lillooet

An Ode to the Snowmobile



I followed up a good New Years party with three days of sled access skiing on the Duffy.  Having locals show you around is the best.  

Day One was Blowdown North, where rapid warming scared us off the open slopes and into some mini tree laps:







Day Two was a more conservative area in Blowdown South:





And our final day was in Steep Creek, with one big and awesome lap.





Thanks Jen and Mike, along with the rest of the LPC.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Needle Peak: Tree Skiing

Hands down, our favourite backcountry ski route is Needle Peak on the Coquihalla.  We don't have that many to choose between so far, of course.  But it has never let us down.  This last weekend Tracey was here to visit Caroline, so I thought it would be a good idea to get out of town.   Obviously, Caroline was unavailable.  Dan was patrolling.  So I sent the following email to Andy:

--------
Earlier this week, the Coquihalla received approximately a metre and a half of fresh snow.
Read: there is a ___-ton of snow up there.

Since then, temperatures have remained cold throughout the day.
Read: it is still light and fluffy.

Snowfall has tapered off, with little expected over the next few days.
Read: avalanche conditions are favourable.

Caroline cannot make it this weekend.
Read: I have two sets of beacon/probe/shovel available.

I was thinking of skiing the trees at Needle.
Read: 1. low avalanche risk. 2. it is straight up / straight down, so snowshoes are more than adequate (also available from my store). No splitboard required.

This doesn't happen very often. Whatever you have planned for Saturday, this will be better.
--------

Apparently, this was such a convincing argument that two other guys from work came along as well.

2012.12.08 Needle (7)

It turned out that I was right in almost every aspect of that email. I took off my skis at the top, and fell in to my armpits.  I have never had snow that deep before.  I had also borrowed Mike's AT setup, so instead of trying to learn how to telemark in armpit deep powder, I could ski it normally.  Just fantastic.

2012.12.08 Needle (2)

The one aspect that I got wrong was snowshoes being adequate. They were not.  With all the postholing and slipping backwards, I think Jake and Andy climbed 5 times the elevation that I did.  Next time, with skis or splitboards, we can hopefully do a few more laps.

2012.12.08 Needle (10)

2012.12.08 Needle (12)

Full set here.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Zoa Peak: A Dog Experience

We went to the Coquihalla today for the first ski tour of the season.  The weather was pretty dodgy on the way there, but about half a kilometer before our pull off, the snain switched to proper snow.  It hovered around zero at the low elevations for the rest of the day, with wet snow off and on.  We only had to bootpack for about 50 meters before we could put on our skis, so it was definitely acceptable.

It was the dog's first ski tour ever.  First, he had issues with the rope:

2012.12.01 Zoa (2)

Then, he spent the majority of the ascent trying to hitch a ride on our tails:

2012.12.01 Zoa (11)

And when we finally reached the top, he required a restart:

2012.12.01 Zoa (13)

All in all though, a good way to start the season.  I think the dog is hooked.

2012.12.01 Zoa (8)

2012.12.01 Zoa (12)

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Duffy Lakes: Equinox

I think I'll let the pictures tell most of the story on this one.  Lillooet was amazing.  One of our better backcountry days so far.

There are lots of pictures, and I have not included them all in this post.

If you click here, you will go to the beginning of the skiing pictures. (go "left" to see the rest in order)

We started skiing from the Maintenance shed, and angled up and to the left, finding our way through cut blocks.

2012.01.18 - Lillooet (40)
(Snowy roads)

2012.01.18 - Lillooet (41)
(The beginning)

2012.01.18 - Lillooet (65)
(Starting the descent.  We skiied the bowl that is farthest away in the picture, and you can see the entire run - "Equinox" - down to almost the highway.  Amazing.)

2012.01.18 - Lillooet (68)


Sunday, January 15, 2012

Elfin Lakes Hut Overnight

I'll start this post with saying we are a little bit behind on our posts... we are working to correct that.  For the next while, we will be writing a little bit in the past :)

A couple of weeks ago we decided to take a group of friends (some experienced and some with little backcountry/winter experience) to Elfin Lakes Shelter.  We figured it was the perfect place to introduce people to the backcountry - a beautiful snowshoe through the sub-alpine to a heated hut.

2012.01.14 Elfin (3)

We headed out from Vancouver at 5am to beat the rush to the hut - I've heard rumors of 100+ people in the 34 bed hut.  The weather was grey and dull and started snowing hard before we reached the parking lot.  At the lower parking lot we chained up and left the two Jettas to get to the top lot. We set off in the snow! First stop was the Red Heather day shelter where we rested up and had a snack. I love snacks.

2012.01.14 Elfin (6)

On the trail up to the Elfin shelter, we ran into this guy and couldn't resist asking him for a picture.

2012.01.14 Elfin (7)

  Even though it was grey and snowing, the terrain was still beautiful.

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  We got a little cold as the wind picked up on Paul's Ridge, so we pressed on for the hut.

2012.01.14 Elfin (19)

Finally we reached the hut and had snacks (snacks!) and grabbed bunks before the crowds showed up. We were lucky and got eight of the last ten or twelve spaces. By the end of the evening there were probably close to fifty people.

2012.01.14 Elfin (24)

After a fantastic dinner and a couple of games of Dutch Blitz (my new favourite game!) I got ready for bed and headed outside for a bit. It was starting to clear!

2012.01.14 Elfin (27)

When I got up in the morning, the fog was rolling in but the mountains looked perfect! We rounded up everyone to take a look before it got clouded in.

2012.01.14 Elfin (31)

2012.01.14 Elfin (34)

2012.01.14 Elfin (41)

It was cold (probably -15) but still and beautiful. Matt's knee had been bothering him the day before so Alex and I decided we would ski some laps on the way home while Matt hung out with the snowshoers. The powder was amazing! We ran 4 laps in two hours breaking trail the whole time, but oh was it worth it!

2012.01.14 Elfin (47)

We ended up running into the snowshoers at the top of one of our runs and Matt decided to join us for a few.  Alex's track is in the centre/rightish of the picture, Matt's are on the left and mine are to the right of Alex's.

2012.01.14 Elfin (62)

We all enjoyed perfect conditions on a wonderful day!

2012.01.14 Elfin (52)

Now that this has turned into a photo blog, one last one. Matt took this when we stopped to take off our chains on the way down.

2012.01.14 Elfin (64)
 
I hope everyone had a good time!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

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.

2011.12.09 Revvy (11)

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

2011.12.09 Revvy (31)

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.

2011.12.09 Revvy (36)

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

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Zoa Peak

This was our first successful winter ski summit.  It also was the first time I was able to lay down some good looking telemark turns in knee deep powder.

So all in all, an excellent trip.  Not quite the bluebird day we had been hoping for, but good temperatures and good snow.




Access route: