Adam missed out on turns in June the past two years, so when I asked if he wanted to come get some in July I didn't need to twist his arm at all. We hit the boat rental place at about 9:30 and quickly ran into a snag. The agreement said docking was forbidden due to Parks regulations about bears. We opted to ignore this policy and see what the dock personnel would say when we showed up with our rental slip and gear. They were stoked to see us - "you're going snowboarding?" I didn't even bother correcting them - "actually it's splitboarding" - as I wanted to be in the boat and out of there before anyone else showed up or they changed their mind. We had a slight delay after Nel (Adam's dog out for her first splitboarding tour ever) opted to jump into the lake after getting into the boat. She quickly learned that the lake water was very cold, got back into the boat and we were off.

The walk across the frozen lake often seems to take forever in the winter. We quickly learned that the same voyage by row boat is also quite slow. An hour later we violated Parks policy (although at this point we were in the American park, so maybe no policies were violated?) and pulled the boat up onto shore. We climbed up a relatively dry creek before heading off into the shrubs. Travel was slow and difficult, but we soon found some snow. Not enough to skin on, but it was quite supportive for boot packing. We soon gained Grizzly Pass and headed up diagonally to the slope below Indecision and Big Decision. This was mostly scree so travel was fairly easy. I'd hoped there would be a ribbon of snow left in the Herbst Hallway to climb directly to the glacier, but it was a full on waterfall. No dice. We roped up and traversed across a slightly sketchy section of snow between two waterfalls. From there we headed to the ramp that provides access to the Herbst Glacier.

This is only my third time up here - once I skinned all the way up the ramp via many switchbacks and the other time we kicked steps in the upper section. Today we scratched, crawled and fought our way up through trees, cliffs and creeks. It's amazing the difference between winter and summer. Soon enough we felt a chill in the air - the glacier was near! We were disappointed to see that the upper sections were completely isolated from each other due to melting and the couloir was also lacking continuous snow but the lower section promised many turns. We toured up and Nel had a blast playing on the snow. Soon enough it was time to drop and to see if Nel was as proficient at the down as she was at the up. She'd been used to running circles around us on the climb and seemed a bit confused when Adam went flying past her. She took up the chase right away and was clearly stoked to be out playing in the snow in July. So were we. Fun turns were had down to the top of the ramp.

We had to down climb a short section before riding again for several hundred feet. After running out of snow, we traversed over and tried to find a lower route across the Herbst Hallway but were forced lower. A short climb back up the other side towards Grizzly Pass soon brought us to the final descent. This time we found a ribbon of snow in another creek bed that went 3/4 of the way down to the boat. It included a couple of tricky sections where the water had won, but we made it through unscathed. A short walk down to the boat, followed by some coaxing to get Nel out of the snowy wonderland and into the boat and we were off again. Our rowing technique was not optimal and we watched with frustration as several boats made it back to the dock way ahead of us. They hadn't spent the day up on a glacier getting turns though.

It's the first time ever for both of us to get turns in July. The southern hemisphere is looking like it's unlikely for this summer again, so I will have to settle for an attempt at turns again in August.

I've gone back to edit each and every post ever made to make it use LightBox2 functionality. While doing that I also replaced the images with higher resolution versions. There were some older posts where I no longer had the originals to resize off of, but I would estimate that 90% of the images online are now approximately 1024x768.

While editing each post, I also assigned them to categories. The category for each post is just beneath the title. On the right navigation menu there is a heading called Categories. All available categories are listed beneath that heading, making it quick and easy to only view posts related to say, Rogers Pass. The number in the brackets is the number of posts in that category.

Page links have also been added. These are visible when viewing all posts or when browsing by category (but only if there's more than one page available). Each page will show ten posts and a link to change pages is at the top and bottom of each page: (1 2 3 ... 20 21 22 Older Postsť)

When viewing an individual post, rather than a page of ten of them, there are now navigation links top and bottom to go to the next or previous post: (Newer Post - Archives - Older Post)

With the recent work on the blog, I'd found some inspiration to head back into the mountains to finish off the 50x 5,000 foot day goal and also to continue what's now become an annual tradition of riding in June. All the usual suspects were unavailable, so I was solo for the mission. I'd contemplated heading towards the Herbst since I knew I wouldn't want to be making laps in slush in the trees. I'd wondered if I'd be able to rent a canoe to make the trip to the end of the lake easier, but when I arrived, I learned that the lake was still partially covered in ice. Not thick enough to skin on, but far too thick to paddle through.

I briefly debated bush whacking along the shore or heading up the summer trail to gain Summit Knob. It didn't take long to decide that walking along the summer trail would be easier. I had to follow it all the way up to the top before there was enough snow to be able to skin. I soon gained the Knob and had my first good view of the Herbst. It looked good - there was snow all the way down to Grizzly Pass meadows and Warden's Knob still had good coverage too. So did the Galloway Bowl. Lots of options to consider as I made a couple of short down climbs along with some split skiing descents as I headed south along Summit Ridge towards Grizzly Pass.

I was now at the decision point, go left to the Herbst or play on the head wall. The head wall was right there and the one upside with it was that I would be able to see my tracks from the parking lot. If I didn't make it to the very upper portions of the Herbst, there would be no parking lot views. With temperatures in mid 20's (Celsius), I opted for the closer option. I soon topped out, switched over, put an ice axe in one hand and headed down. It wasn't icy, but it was pretty steep. It turned out that the axe wasn't needed. The snow was slightly grabby, but still fun to carve. I stopped above a cliff band and switched over. Mid way through the switch over, I heard what turned out to be a large cornice falling, then watched it slowly work it's way down. I was in a safe spot and this wet slide wound up a few hundred meters to the left of me. I decided to forget about making tracks that were visible from the parking lot and skinned back up towards the entrance to Big Decision.

There was virtually nothing above this location and by riding down Grizzly Pass to the lake, I was able to avoid any other avalanche terrain. A few more laps in the slightly flat, but still reasonably fun zone and the goal had been hit. It was very difficult to keep the motivation today. Riding snow like this would not inspire me on a daily basis. It just reminds me how much I love powder.

I was now faced with the same decision as this morning. Climb back up to the top of Summit Knob, get a few turns, then down climb the summer trail, or side hill and bush whack along the lake. I took the low option and slowly but surely made my way back to the parking lot. I was able to skin to the peninsula, but soon after ran out of continuous snow patches. The snow was usually supportive, but I often fell into voids created by dead fall. Several creek crossings later I found the summer trail which quickly led me to the parking lot. Total up today was 5,270 which brings the season grand total to 359,640 feet in 71 days.

Looking at the calendar, I've now had turns each month since October 2009. The southern hemisphere continues to be on my list, but I don't know yet if this will be the year. If it isn't, I think I'd like to try getting out for some turns in July, August and September in this hemisphere. I know they'll be marginal, but at least I won't have to bang out 5,000 feet!

I've been tweaking the site over the past week or so. Quite a bit of behind the scenes stuff, but you'll find some noticeable improvements such as a most popular post function and a captcha for the comments section. One of the more noticeable changes is that the title now loads randomly from over 150 images from the past 4 years.... let me know what you think of them! The other big change is an increase in width of the site. Back in 2006 when I started this blog, I was worried about the little guy with a slow internet connection and small monitor, along with my own costs associated with server storage space and bandwidth.

I kept the original images small at mostly 800x600, and scaled them to 700 pixels wide so that they would work with the layout to get everything to fit on a 1024x768 screen setting. Times have changed.... online storage space is now immense and virtually free. Bandwidth restrictions are a thing of the past. Slow internet speeds are still out there, but small monitors are soon to be found only in museums.

The more recent posts (from mid-March 2010 or so) forward were all uploaded at 1024x768ish. Those posts have been converted to show the whole image. The older posts are now showing at their native resolution of generally about 800x600ish. Going forward all new trip reports will contain images of 1024x768ish. The site displays without horizontal scroll bars for screen resolutions with a width of greater than 1280. For those on small screens, you'll only need to scroll sideways to get to the menu on the right side of the screen, but it's not essential for navigation.

I've also added Lightbox2 which I plan on using to quickly and easily add additional photos. It'll let me quickly add lots of "extra" photos that normally wouldn't have made the cut.

Here's an example of what Lightbox2 does, using the 10 images from the "Ten biggest days" post. It automatically creates the thumbnails and offers the link to the full size image. Once viewing the full size images, you can navigate to the next picture by using the arrow keys or your mouse.

I'd been holding off on putting up a season summary as I'd hoped to get out once more to cross the 50x 5,000 foot days off the goal list. The calendar has steadily slipped away while the local snow pack has all but vanished. A June outing has become a tradition the past few years, but the chances of it being 5,000 feet are very, very slim.

As it stands, I'm at 49 days and am ok with not achieving the goal. There were many opportunities to do it, including days cut short by my own laziness, both of my dogs on separate occasions, and various touring partners. Ultimately I have to make sure I see the forest (whole winter) and not just focus on the tree (goal). For what it's worth, some people have suggested that I count the 10,000 foot days (I have three of them) as two 5,000 foot days. Sounds like a bit of an asterisk to me?

Despite many challenges with weather, it was an amazing winter overall. There were certainly some disappointments, but looking at the big picture I can't help but be stoked. I explored new areas, met new friends, pushed myself and my partners, rode a lot of powder, and thoroughly enjoyed my time in the mountains.

Last season's ten biggest days list

This year's list of biggest days:

1) March 13, Rogers Pass,Greg Hill and Moose 11,050
2) February 20, Waterton, Moose and Vitamin C 10,460
3) February 13, Ymir Yurts, Moose 10,270
4) April 11, Rogers Pass, Solo 9,130
5) January 2, Waterton, Moose, Jackelope 7,760
6) February 19, Waterton, Solo 7,010
7) May 5, Waterton, Solo 6,720
8) January 3, Waterton, Moose, Jackelope, Blair, David, then Solo 6,420
9) January 4, Waterton, Solo 6,420
10) January 28, Waterton, Solo 6,270

Total: 81,510, Average: 8,151

Season total of 354,370 in 70 days total for an average of 5,033 feet each and every day.

How much more am I capable of? I'd like to make a run at being the first splitter and maybe only the second person to do 7 digits in a winter, but I'm not sure if a three fold increase is realistic for next winter. One must walk faster before they run.... so how about 80 days, 1/2 million feet (6,250 per day average), with 10x 10,000 foot days and at least one 15,000 foot day? We'll see how the off season training goes!

With about 40% of the days solo I didn't get many action photos this season. On the days I wasn't solo, I didn't take the big camera very often. It takes time to setup for shots and the camera adds weight to the pack. The the push for more vertical usual won. Here are ten photos, in no particular order that I like from Winter 2009-10

Erich en-route to Young's Peak/Forever Young.


John took this photo of me with Mt. Baker in the distance.


Mt. Rogers/Swiss Peaks.


An almost full moon in the early dawn from the Asulkan hut


A wedge of sunbeam illuminates snow crystals at my park.


The forbidden fruit always looks sweeter. Agassiz Glacier will occupy my thoughts until I put tracks on it.


Self portrait in gale force winds atop Cornice Ridge.


The Moose enjoying the only 5 minutes of sunshine on a dreary 10,000 foot day (#3 above)


Early bird gets the worm.


Later bird gets the fog.

No pictures today as the battery died without warning. The lesson for today was to never rely on a weather forecast. I skipped yesterday based on a forecast that turned out to be wrong - the fat lady did not sing - completely anyway. Today I went back to make up for it and was joined by Adam and Jeff, who I hadn't ridden with yet this season. It was only his second time out on the splitter - the first being way back in December.

We left the parking lot and recycled the up to Moose Peak. I thought that the upper tree triangle would be the best hope of getting some left over powder. The lower portions had been nuked by the sun, but the cool temperatures made for easy travel up the existing track. The sky was overcast and light snow fell most of the day. We topped out and found some ok turns on the upper portion in the tree triangle above the cliff bands. They weren't superb and we decided to descend lower, traversing over to the entrance of Zander's Zip. The very tight trees on the traverse offered up soft snow, but were too tight to enjoy. The open areas like Zander's were a mixed bag of powder, dust on crust and death cookies.

At the bottom we thought we'd try heading over to the Knob, since it has trees that are enjoyable to ride and hopefully still enough canopy to have protected the snow. Once on the saddle, we headed south and found very soft snow on the way to the knob. Things were looking good! We took Knob North, just beside Christmas Tree Hell and found some fun turns including many legitimate powder turns. Invigorated by the result, the only option was another lap, but this meant a brand new trail to cut. I put it into low gear and we soon topped out. This time we stopped just shy of the top of the Knob with the theory that North/North-West would be better than North-West/West.... it was. Faceshots were the norm for the bulk of the descent.

It was only 4:00PM, but we were done. I was beat from breaking trail and 3 big days after 3 weeks off, Adam was fighting a cold and Jeff had never had a 5,000 foot day - until today. With 5,350 feet he officially joined the mile high club. The fat lady was once again held at bay. It snowed all day and the forecast (never rely on them!) is calling for 5-10cm overnight in the town, which could mean 20-30cms up high for Mother's Day.

One more day left to get my 50x 5,000 foot days. Will it be tomorrow? My feet hurt from another day in the hard boots and my body is protesting. I'll see what the weather is doing in the morning.... and how I'm feeling.

The forecast looked good for today but I arrived to find the big yellow ball in the sky conspiring with the fat lady. It thankfully disappeared behind some clouds within an hour or so. The snow near lake elevation was a bit compromised the stuff up higher was still blower.

I opted for some variety and headed east across the bridge, picked up the summer trail, dropped a feed bag at the first switchback and headed up. Trail breaking was heavy and got worse as I climbed. I found a new route that avoids the side hill rocky section and is a bit more direct.

Once I hit the Moose crossing I was stoked. Things looked amazing! Another 500 feet of hard work and I was getting ready to enter the white room. Repeatedly! Its been too long since I've had to time my breathing to coincide with my turns. I floated down the Moose Chute and was surprised to find the lower choke had turned into a small mandatory. It might be epic powder, but its still early May and the pack has been busy shrinking to expose some hazards.

I headed back up to the feed bag, topped up and enjoyed an easier climb on the second lap. Three weeks off, coupled with breaking a couple thousand feet of knee deep trench along with yesterdays four laps were wearing on me. I slowed the pace and topped out again. I debated Piggot or Zander's Zip but wasn't sure what the cliffed entrances would look like. There's easily room for two tracks in the Moose so I returned for more deep light powder.

Once more up to the feed bag, this time taking it with me. I hit the ridge as the watch flipped over the quota number. I debated completing the lap all the way to the top but opted out due to fatigue.

I returned to the truck with 5,070 feet of late season powder in the bag. Temperature at the truck was -2C. The weather station at 6,000 feet never went over -2C, but the forecast for tomorrow is a high of +6C. That fat bitch looks like she's going to sing :(

My park is famous for late season dumps. They sometimes come in wet and heavy, but every once in a while they're light and dry. Parks doesn't always like to plow the road either, which creates a significant access issue. I missed out on 70+ cm's last week that only stuck around for a day because they opted to let the sun clear the road.

With more snow in the forecast and temperatures looking good at the weather station, I called to confirm that the road would be open. It didn't sound promising, so I lounged around dejected and watched the Price is Right. Soon enough the phone rang, they're plowing it now and hope to have it open around noon. I made the drive and found the gate down, but the road was partially plowed.

I waited until about 1:30PM before the grader returned and opened the gate. Things were a bit wet and heavy in the town site, but they steadily dried up as I drove up and past the usual barricade. May 1 is the date that the upper gate is unlocked and I couldn't help but smile as I drove the 2.5 km's to the edge of the lake. It was 2:00PM by the time I was skinning along the edge of the lake towards the base of Lemming Lane.

I dropped a food and water cache and headed up. Trail breaking was moderate to heavy with 30-40 cms of light snow down at the lake. The depth increased as I gained elevation and up high there was probably in excess of 50 cms. It was pretty much a permanent face shot on the way down. Light and dry snow tried it's best to choke me and cloud my vision as I floated down to the bottom. The second lap up was quicker and easier, but still required some extra effort to pack down the track. Back down to the bottom, I can't believe it's May 5th. This might be the best snow of the season!

I boiled up some tea, took in some food and headed back up. About 3/4 of the way up, I nearly died of a heart attack when a voice called out from behind me! I wasn't expecting to see anyone so late in the day, but it seems I wasn't the only one chasing powder in May. I'd actually met Marc last winter at an Avalanche Awareness night - we'd traded contact information, but never got out together. He started work for Parks on May 1st and had come out hoping to get a lap in after work. Suffice to say he was happy to see me and my up track. We continued to the top, changed over and floated back down. Marc was bummed that he hadn't brought goggles, but he was very stoked that he hadn't forgotten his touring gear like some other Parks employees. I was pretty stoked they'd forgotten their gear too. I'm greedy, even in May.

Daylight lasts quite a while at this time of year, so we easily grabbed another lap. We were able to skin back to the vehicles by 9:15 which still left about 15 minutes of usable light. 6,720 feet and four laps of blower powder on May 5th? Wow!

Today I watched winter change into spring over a period of only a few hours. I'd headed back to the Bonney moraines on the soft boot setup at the request of my toes. I think the hard boots are almost broken in, but my feet needed a rest.

Blue bird and slightly warmer temperatures in the parking lot sent me higher than yesterday, near the Bonney glacier - about 4,000 feet up in a single climb. The descent was still winter - creamy powder.

Back up the connector for a second lap and I saw things were changing. The trees were bombing and it was quite warm on the climb. I trended left and as I gained elevation the snow was getting wet and heavy. I said my goodbyes to winter from the top of the easterly moraine, found a few dry turns that got heavier by the trees.

It got progressively worse with the exit turning into a slog. Plus 10C at the parking lot around 3PM and 5,500 feet up.

These may have been my last powder turns of the season. Its been challenging at times, but overall its been a great winter in the mountains with friends old and new. It's not time to hang up the splitboard yet, just time to pause, mourn the probable end of powder and change gears for some corn.

The sun is open for business long before the restaurant opens at 6:30. After waiting for Parks to issue the open permit areas, I arrived at the Loop parking lot to find one other group already gearing up. By 8:00 I was pointed up hill. The skin track was icy and I was glad to be on the hard setup for the side hill sections above the creek. Once through the notch, the icy up became an even bigger pain in the ass but soon enough it gained the ridge and flattened out.

Once I exited from the trees I found quite a few tracks on the Bonney moraines but there was still lots of untracked to be had.

I followed an existing up to the highest one just west of the trees. It was a lopsided up with probably twenty switchbacks along the ridge. I soon topped out, sat down and took in the views. It was nice to not hear a helicopter buzzing around. The group of four that I'd seen in the parking lot hadn't broken out of the trees yet so I had the whole place to myself. Conditions could best be described as hazy - there was thin cloud cover just higher than the surrounding peaks with sunlight being diffused through the ceiling.

This moraine had been heavily tracked, so I opted to go left, down my usual spot that leads to my Sa of last season. It was equally refreshing to pick my own line and to rely on myself to get down the mountain. This north aspect was just what I needed. Bottomless slightly creamy powder. I played it safe and followed the ridges. I put a couple cuts into some rolls and saw no results. Once down lower there were some tracks from others who'd gone rider's right of the cliffs.

I headed for the usual connector up, switched over, stashed my two water bottles and headed up for a second lap. Down a similar line, then back up again. This time over a bit further west onto a different moraine and down through some cliffs and pillows at the bottom.

Like G'n'R sang, all you need is a little patience. Keep focused, keep walking and wait. Soon the watch was showing my biggest solo day ever. I contemplated pushing out a five digit day. I also wondered if I would have the will to stop in the nines. I've never had a day in the nines before. The arbitrary five digit day has always taken precedence.

As I passed through about 8,500 feet I drank the last of my fluids. I had my usual load of a liter of water, a liter of Nuun water, and 591ml of vitamin P. I usually take more for big pushes but went into today with no goal other than some late season powder. I topped out on one of the middle moraines and opted to call it a day.... at shortly after 4:15.

I found a sweet run full of pillows and had a pretty good time floating down it, even in hard boots. The north aspect had protected the snow and things were still light and pretty dry. With some double pole action and some skooching I kicked in the final steps to gain the parking lot. 9,130 feet up and back to the hotel for 5pm. Its light out until 8pm or so... The biggest day ever was there for the taking. I could have willed the 10, but would have needed more fluids to make a push for 12 or more.