It's pretty late in the year to be training, but local conditions lately haven't inspired much else. A date with the cable couch led to Adam and I heading out a day early. Things snapped cold the cable couch day, so it was really a moot point anyway. Some soft turns above a noise producing crust. Howling winds and no light. An uptrack where one is rarely seen - it soon became apparent they didn't know where they were going anyway. Tired of the shallow up and multiple switchbacks, we both decided to break trail. At the same time. Side by side. No hand holding though. Turns out Adam hadn't been up in these parts before, showed him the highlights and the benchmark - was surprised there's as much accumulation as there is. The evidence is buried - under both snow and crusts. No hucking today, so we continued on, cleared the cache and ridged out. On the way up I fell in love with a piece of wood that was resting in a dead tree. Turns out the straps on the pack work for boards, skis and pieces of dead wood. A little dead weight only furthered the training feel of the day. The extra swing weight on the descent was bearable and reminded me of camping trips. I wimped out, dropped the wood at the cache and we grabbed another lap. The second climb involved more trail breaking as the wind had completely obliterated the first one. Down and out to hammered road. Rinse, repeat. Off to the land of the sun for a week, so enjoy the storms, they're likely plentiful in my absence and will likely cease upon my return.
Bank robber Willie Sutton was famously associated with the quote, "That's where they keep the money" when asked why he robbed banks. In a winter which has offered up extended droughts and marginal conditions to vast areas of North America, the obvious answer as to why Canuck Splitfest is held in Rogers Pass is quite simply "that's where they keep the snow". In addition to coming through yet again with very reliable snowfall, the area is home to world famous terrain suitable to shred on in virtually all types of weather patterns and avalanche cycles.
Some of the lower elevations did exhibit a nasty ice crust in the forest, but one didn't need to climb too high before encountering hazard snow - hazardous because it was the type that offered up second hand white rooms as the cold Selkirk blower lingered in the air. Ullr had delivered the goods and nary a splitboarder could be found without a smile on their faces.
The date was shifted from last year's inaugural event to avoid industry trade shows and permit better participation from sponsors. The success of the previous event coupled with the improved date led to an immediate influx in sponsors. Virtually every sponsor from last year announced they'd be back on board again, with most of them upping the ante significantly with more donations. In the end, there was over $10,000 in prizes up for grabs in a fundraising raffle for the Canadian Avalanche Foundation.
Many participants chose to arrive early enough on Friday to take in the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival screening. About 70 people enjoyed the screening which was highlighted by "Solitaire", a film by Sweetgrass Productions which was introduced in person by splitboarder Kyle Miller, one of the athletes featured in it.
Saturday evening's raffle was once again preceded by presentations. Kyle Miller was a presenter last year, but this time he brought his new film, titled FreeRider, with him for the North American premiere. Whistler based photographer and splitboarder Andrew Strain showed off his Deep Winter entry from the past year. Revelstoke splitboarder Mark Hartley was back by popular demand and did not disappoint with an updated presentation. Mark's frequent partner, Greg Hill, was up next and he inspired the crowd with the tale of his 2 million foot season, big lines and quite a bit of splitboard footage. Greg even got caught up in the spirit of the weekend and opted to slide sideways down the mountain. According to the rumours, he was actually pretty good at splitboarding!
Participants responded to the huge pool of prizes from the sponsors and by the time the dust settled, over $4,500 in raffle tickets were sold. It was standing room only with well in excess of 100 people crammed into the dining room. Seven people, drawn from the raffle, competed for the grand prizes by way of a timed board to ski to board changeover contest. Coupled with admission charged for Friday night's film festival and money that Prior Snowboards donated from commemorative Canuck Splitfest soft goods, gross revenue for the weekend was over $5,200
After covering event expenses such as insurance, the film festival fee, and some shipping charges, I'm very proud to announce that we more than doubled last year's net benefit to the Canadian Avalanche Foundation - the precise numbers are still being tallied, but about $4,500 was raised.
I would like to thank all those who attended. This event wouldn't be the success that it is without you. A huge thank you to all of the sponsors who donated product for the raffle, Prior Snowboards for being the presenting sponsor and bringing demo splitboards, and the members of the Parks Canada team who worked behind the scenes to help coordinate this event.
I would also like to express my gratitude to everyone at the Canadian Avalanche Centre and Canadian Avalanche Foundation, including Ken Little, Gordon Ritchie, Ian Tomm and Jennifer George for their assistance with the event, to Mark Hartley, Kyle Miller, Greg Hill and Andrew Strain for their presentations, to Adam Warkentin for the stainless steel keychains, to John Cocci for the projector and A/V assistance, to the staff at the Glacier Park Lodge and to everyone else who helped out.
Should the Mayan calendar be incorrect, we'll see you all again in 2013.... but just in case, I recommend getting out as often as you can! Keep your skins warm and may all your turns be powder.
Some of the lower elevations did exhibit a nasty ice crust in the forest, but one didn't need to climb too high before encountering hazard snow - hazardous because it was the type that offered up second hand white rooms as the cold Selkirk blower lingered in the air. Ullr had delivered the goods and nary a splitboarder could be found without a smile on their faces.
The date was shifted from last year's inaugural event to avoid industry trade shows and permit better participation from sponsors. The success of the previous event coupled with the improved date led to an immediate influx in sponsors. Virtually every sponsor from last year announced they'd be back on board again, with most of them upping the ante significantly with more donations. In the end, there was over $10,000 in prizes up for grabs in a fundraising raffle for the Canadian Avalanche Foundation.
Many participants chose to arrive early enough on Friday to take in the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival screening. About 70 people enjoyed the screening which was highlighted by "Solitaire", a film by Sweetgrass Productions which was introduced in person by splitboarder Kyle Miller, one of the athletes featured in it.
Saturday evening's raffle was once again preceded by presentations. Kyle Miller was a presenter last year, but this time he brought his new film, titled FreeRider, with him for the North American premiere. Whistler based photographer and splitboarder Andrew Strain showed off his Deep Winter entry from the past year. Revelstoke splitboarder Mark Hartley was back by popular demand and did not disappoint with an updated presentation. Mark's frequent partner, Greg Hill, was up next and he inspired the crowd with the tale of his 2 million foot season, big lines and quite a bit of splitboard footage. Greg even got caught up in the spirit of the weekend and opted to slide sideways down the mountain. According to the rumours, he was actually pretty good at splitboarding!
Participants responded to the huge pool of prizes from the sponsors and by the time the dust settled, over $4,500 in raffle tickets were sold. It was standing room only with well in excess of 100 people crammed into the dining room. Seven people, drawn from the raffle, competed for the grand prizes by way of a timed board to ski to board changeover contest. Coupled with admission charged for Friday night's film festival and money that Prior Snowboards donated from commemorative Canuck Splitfest soft goods, gross revenue for the weekend was over $5,200
After covering event expenses such as insurance, the film festival fee, and some shipping charges, I'm very proud to announce that we more than doubled last year's net benefit to the Canadian Avalanche Foundation - the precise numbers are still being tallied, but about $4,500 was raised.
I would like to thank all those who attended. This event wouldn't be the success that it is without you. A huge thank you to all of the sponsors who donated product for the raffle, Prior Snowboards for being the presenting sponsor and bringing demo splitboards, and the members of the Parks Canada team who worked behind the scenes to help coordinate this event.
I would also like to express my gratitude to everyone at the Canadian Avalanche Centre and Canadian Avalanche Foundation, including Ken Little, Gordon Ritchie, Ian Tomm and Jennifer George for their assistance with the event, to Mark Hartley, Kyle Miller, Greg Hill and Andrew Strain for their presentations, to Adam Warkentin for the stainless steel keychains, to John Cocci for the projector and A/V assistance, to the staff at the Glacier Park Lodge and to everyone else who helped out.
Should the Mayan calendar be incorrect, we'll see you all again in 2013.... but just in case, I recommend getting out as often as you can! Keep your skins warm and may all your turns be powder.
Stumbled across this photo by Jaime Vedres
The winds whipping up those waves pushed temperatures to plus 5C at elevation today - must mean it's time to find a new zone.
The winds whipping up those waves pushed temperatures to plus 5C at elevation today - must mean it's time to find a new zone.
I added a new carbon fibre Prior Khyber to the quiver earlier this year. Weight savings is 17% over the regular model. It's been setup with Dynafit toes via the Spark adapters and the taller heel risers from Voile. The good folks at G3 also sent me a pair of their new Alpinist Splitboard Climbing Skins. They are lighter than the Voile skins and come with integrated tail clips. They offered up better glide on the 5 km round trip cross country snowboard that precedes the fun here locally and despite their shallower pile, did not seem to impede up hill performance. I've seen many times where it's been a two man job pulling apart new Voile skins, but the G3 skins did not require this Herculean effort. The glue was well behaved - came apart easily and stuck to the board without any issues. The tail clips are a breeze to use and sped up changeovers a bit.
Continuing with the New Year's Day tradition, I headed to the park to get some turns. Sadly, the party was smaller than normal given the continued dog ban. The Moose, Vitamin C and the Jackelope all headed to places where dogs aren't discriminated against. Seems the folks in charge even found money to buy a new sign for the road, though it shows a dog on leash with a red line through it, which can only mean that dogs are now permitted off leash?!?! Coming out at the end of the day, the road was pounded - no one had obeyed the sign with regards to keeping skiers, snowshoers and boot packers separate. I wonder if the wardens will be threatening these people or if that honour is reserved only for splitboarders with dogs?
I was joined by new splitter Jesse, out for only his 5th day ever. With blue skies and the weather station showing over a foot of fresh in the past couple of days, I briefly considered the Rowe bowl, but opted for Moose Peak. Jesse was looking for a bit of an orientation and there's no better spot to take it all in than Moose Peak. We had scare crossing little Akamina Lake as the ice settled with a great amount of noise and sloshing - we scampered to the shore as quickly as we could, then toured up to the base of the Moose Chute, dropped some cache and headed up the more direct route. I was without gps today and was pleased to be able to navigate the route up through the cliff bands. Jesse was kind enough to cut about a quarter of the track today and we soon topped out, took in the views and switched over.
The protected zone up high offered up soft turns that got better was went lower. I'd never ridden with him before and was stoked to find he could shred the trees at speed. Things are still thin and consequently tighter than usual with alder and Christmas trees. We stopped for lunch at the cache, loaded up and ascended again to the ridge. A short descending traverse, then down through some rocks to the Piggot Chute. The upper section was a bit tight, but the middle part was full speed powder turns. Felt great to be back shredding. No action photos as we opted to just shred it and thanks to a dead battery, no Suunto either. Those two runs are around 4,400 feet though, which more than doubled Jesse's biggest day.
Continuing with the New Year's Day tradition, I headed to the park to get some turns. Sadly, the party was smaller than normal given the continued dog ban. The Moose, Vitamin C and the Jackelope all headed to places where dogs aren't discriminated against. Seems the folks in charge even found money to buy a new sign for the road, though it shows a dog on leash with a red line through it, which can only mean that dogs are now permitted off leash?!?! Coming out at the end of the day, the road was pounded - no one had obeyed the sign with regards to keeping skiers, snowshoers and boot packers separate. I wonder if the wardens will be threatening these people or if that honour is reserved only for splitboarders with dogs?
I was joined by new splitter Jesse, out for only his 5th day ever. With blue skies and the weather station showing over a foot of fresh in the past couple of days, I briefly considered the Rowe bowl, but opted for Moose Peak. Jesse was looking for a bit of an orientation and there's no better spot to take it all in than Moose Peak. We had scare crossing little Akamina Lake as the ice settled with a great amount of noise and sloshing - we scampered to the shore as quickly as we could, then toured up to the base of the Moose Chute, dropped some cache and headed up the more direct route. I was without gps today and was pleased to be able to navigate the route up through the cliff bands. Jesse was kind enough to cut about a quarter of the track today and we soon topped out, took in the views and switched over.
The protected zone up high offered up soft turns that got better was went lower. I'd never ridden with him before and was stoked to find he could shred the trees at speed. Things are still thin and consequently tighter than usual with alder and Christmas trees. We stopped for lunch at the cache, loaded up and ascended again to the ridge. A short descending traverse, then down through some rocks to the Piggot Chute. The upper section was a bit tight, but the middle part was full speed powder turns. Felt great to be back shredding. No action photos as we opted to just shred it and thanks to a dead battery, no Suunto either. Those two runs are around 4,400 feet though, which more than doubled Jesse's biggest day.
I am very stoked to see myself and fellow Canadian MacKenzie Wilson in the latest issue of Jackson Hole Snowboarder Magazine. The photo was taken by Duane Nardi during my trip to Scrubfest last winter.
Check out the whole issue.
Check out the whole issue.
Bigger, badder and better? Come find out...
Adam and I headed to the park to get some spring turns. We discovered the Red Rock road was open and decided to drive up and take a look. There were some options on Blakiston, but looked to involve quite a bit of off trail bush whacking before you'd reach the snow. An appealing couloir held our attention for a while, but we opted to head up to the usual spot.
We were surprised to the find the road unplowed and the barricade still in place - 2 weeks later than usual - this winter has seen heavy accumulation, but think of the tourists! Those poor folks have to walk 2.5 kms (on snow nonetheless!!!) to see the lake. We opted to head up into Rowe bowl and as I followed the usual up I couldn't help but notice there were no alders. With spring well under way the abundant pack still hadn't melted enough to reveal them.
Only a few hundred feet up from the parking lot, I heard some rustling from a tree and soon saw a large black bear climb out. Adam was a few switchbacks behind me and he had the bear spray. I'd left my guns and dogs at home, since national parks have silly regulations on both, leaving me with no option but to scream like a girl. It worked and the bear scampered off into the bush before I could snap a photo. Adam wondered what the commotion was and didn't believe me until he saw the prints....
We stopped well short of the usual drop zone, stopped to take in the views, then grabbed some slushy turns back down to the road.
We were surprised to the find the road unplowed and the barricade still in place - 2 weeks later than usual - this winter has seen heavy accumulation, but think of the tourists! Those poor folks have to walk 2.5 kms (on snow nonetheless!!!) to see the lake. We opted to head up into Rowe bowl and as I followed the usual up I couldn't help but notice there were no alders. With spring well under way the abundant pack still hadn't melted enough to reveal them.
Only a few hundred feet up from the parking lot, I heard some rustling from a tree and soon saw a large black bear climb out. Adam was a few switchbacks behind me and he had the bear spray. I'd left my guns and dogs at home, since national parks have silly regulations on both, leaving me with no option but to scream like a girl. It worked and the bear scampered off into the bush before I could snap a photo. Adam wondered what the commotion was and didn't believe me until he saw the prints....
We stopped well short of the usual drop zone, stopped to take in the views, then grabbed some slushy turns back down to the road.
Three dogs plus four owners found mid winter conditions yesterday in a place that doesn't have government employees....
Light fluffy over the handle bars type of stuff was the cure I needed for spring depression. Ullr had problems negotiating the deep stuff and caught a ride on the second lap. He was surprisingly calm but carrying a dog, even one that's not squirming, isn't the best way down a mountain.
Zero action photos because who wants to stop when you're shredding powder in April?
Light fluffy over the handle bars type of stuff was the cure I needed for spring depression. Ullr had problems negotiating the deep stuff and caught a ride on the second lap. He was surprisingly calm but carrying a dog, even one that's not squirming, isn't the best way down a mountain.
Zero action photos because who wants to stop when you're shredding powder in April?
With the days getting longer, I headed out to join the Moose and Luke for an evening of exploration. For me anyway, as the Moose has been back here many times before. We doubled on the sled while Luke ran the 6-7 miles into the zone. From there, the Moose put on the rocket boots and headed up. Luke ran back and forth a bit between us, before eventually deciding I wasn't worth the walk back down hill.
I crested the big chute just as the other two were topping out on the ridge. Looking around, I quickly spotted my line. A nice northerly 500 foot shot that originated from the window in the mountain. I hung a left, put in some switchbacks and was getting ready to boot it when the Moose pulled up below me. Somehow he talked me into abandoning the line with the promise of better snow around the corner. Reluctantly I dropped, enjoyed some good turns before hitting the breakable crust on the big chute and went around the corner.
The slope in question was supposedly 1,000 feet. It sure didn't look like it and damn, what was with the flat up? Maybe I was just bitter over the losing the chance to ride through the window? Good turns were found and it did wind up being a 1,000 foot shot, but the sun had sank. Time for another 6-7 mile ride back to the vehicle.
I crested the big chute just as the other two were topping out on the ridge. Looking around, I quickly spotted my line. A nice northerly 500 foot shot that originated from the window in the mountain. I hung a left, put in some switchbacks and was getting ready to boot it when the Moose pulled up below me. Somehow he talked me into abandoning the line with the promise of better snow around the corner. Reluctantly I dropped, enjoyed some good turns before hitting the breakable crust on the big chute and went around the corner.
The slope in question was supposedly 1,000 feet. It sure didn't look like it and damn, what was with the flat up? Maybe I was just bitter over the losing the chance to ride through the window? Good turns were found and it did wind up being a 1,000 foot shot, but the sun had sank. Time for another 6-7 mile ride back to the vehicle.
Blair P. is the only person I know of who has skied the bowl before and from what he told me, it was a precarious traverse above exposure to a hallway near the ridge, followed by a flattish exit.
With the recon done from the plane, Adam and I headed into the bowl with the plan to hit the prominent rib/spine that runs through the exposure. We joined the Moose, Jackelope and Vitamin C and followed their up to the usual drop spot. Then we got high as we could, and dropped into the unknown. Sweet powder turns through the first chute, past a couple sharks, then into an open bowl. This north aspect was holding great snow!
A slight traverse and then into the rib/spine. We quickly lost board pen and soon were dealing with stuff approaching knife hardness. Good times. "Are we going to need ropes/harness today", Adam asked me this morning... "Nah..."
We improvised at one point with a 3 meter rope, a sling and a dog leash. Perhaps this is the reason for Park's "all dogs on leash, except on the access road policy". You never know when you'll need an extra 6 feet of cord?
Down and off the rider's right nostril of what we're calling the Moose Nose, we headed back up to the ridge. We found Piggot tracked, but luckily Piggot Left hadn't been hit. We caught back up with the others at the base and learned, much to my horror, that a group of four interlopers had been in the area. I've never seen tracks over here. I guess it explains why things were extra hammered in Piggot.
With the recon done from the plane, Adam and I headed into the bowl with the plan to hit the prominent rib/spine that runs through the exposure. We joined the Moose, Jackelope and Vitamin C and followed their up to the usual drop spot. Then we got high as we could, and dropped into the unknown. Sweet powder turns through the first chute, past a couple sharks, then into an open bowl. This north aspect was holding great snow!
A slight traverse and then into the rib/spine. We quickly lost board pen and soon were dealing with stuff approaching knife hardness. Good times. "Are we going to need ropes/harness today", Adam asked me this morning... "Nah..."
We improvised at one point with a 3 meter rope, a sling and a dog leash. Perhaps this is the reason for Park's "all dogs on leash, except on the access road policy". You never know when you'll need an extra 6 feet of cord?
Down and off the rider's right nostril of what we're calling the Moose Nose, we headed back up to the ridge. We found Piggot tracked, but luckily Piggot Left hadn't been hit. We caught back up with the others at the base and learned, much to my horror, that a group of four interlopers had been in the area. I've never seen tracks over here. I guess it explains why things were extra hammered in Piggot.
