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March 27, 2006: Rental sleds

After adding up what 2 weeks of heli/cat skiing cost me, I realized I could have bought, well, lots of things, but the comparison I was thinking was a mountain sled. I haven't been on a sled since way back when I lived where the world was flat. Sledding looks pretty easy, even the mountain stuff I'd seen. We were about to learn just how hard it is. Luckily, I decided to rent before I bought, so my last days on the mountain for the year were spent with Blair at Kootenay Mountain Adventures on their rental sleds.

Located in the tiny village of Ymir, which makes places like Benito look normal, we were sure to pay cash and provide fake names. Insurance? Nah, we won't be needing it.

It was definitely a learning experience. The weather cooperated, snow was good, and the sketchy dude from KMA was nice enough to point us in the direction of a cat ski operation that was closed for the season. In other words, we could trespass on it. This was a huge bonus - someone else had figured out access and even laid down these nice cat roads for us to sled on.

Trail head - after driving in the truck for a few miles, we unloaded here.

Blair's ready. Time to hit the trail. Driving a sled on a trail is easy. And boring. I can't imagine people who do nothing but trail ride on their sleds.

Top of the trail and entering the Wild Horse cat ski area. You can just see the top of the cat, where they presumably park it for the summer?

OK, so riding off trail in powder is a bit harder. Lesson #1 - digging out your sled sucks

Playing with my pilot toy. It makes for a really expensive altimeter...that's 6762 feet ASL +/- 5.4meters

You'd think I'd have learned after the last crash? Nope. Blair and I were settled in, shuttling each other down this short run. Rather than taking the route back down with the sled that we'd been using, I figured I'd straight line it. Lesson #2: Sleds can't turn very well going down hill, especially not when driven by a novice.Lesson #3: Sleds are heavy. Getting them un-stuck off a tree is way harder than digging them out. After a lot of heavy lifting we managed to upright it.

And push it downhill, where it sat here for an hour or two until it unflooded itself and finally started. Lesson #4: Buy a sled with electric start

Here's what it looks like when it's not crashed or stuck. Speaking of stuck, lesson #5: Reverse isn't for backing up, it's for getting stuck worse!

Just look at all that terrain. The Nelson area is amazing. Some day I will retire here and ride every day. Maybe sooner than you think - Freedom 37 is the current plan

We got about 3 runs in on this face. Some really good snow and trees here. Made up for the headaches of earlier in the day. Lesson 6: Doubling up steep hills takes huge balls, balance, and brawn

I think that the peak behind us is the same one you see from Whitewater's parking lot

Here's a couple videos from that face. Really good snow for the time of year. Blair:

Wade:

March 19, 2006: The Lake

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Late in the season, Kristjan, Connor, Tyler and myself hit the lake. We got pinched for not having a park pass. Luckily the penalty is just buying one. What a dumb system. Typical late season conditions - it was good to spend the day on the hill with friends. It was Tyler's first day out and I think he enjoyed it the most out of any of us.

Somewhere in here is the cliff that Kristjan and I dropped back in 94 or 95. There was pictures taken back then, but it seems no one could find them. We ventured in there, but late season snowpack wasn't very hot so there was no drops. We think we might have found the cliff, but with so many lines and cliffs, it's hard to know. Hard to remember 10+ years ago too.

Kristjan, Connor and Tyler scoping lines.

It might not get the snow of other places, but the scenery from Lake Louise is amazing. There's the town, the actual lake, the saddleback, etc.

March 10, 2006: Wiegele trip #2

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Working the connection I'd made at Wiegele, I called up the reservations manager and socially engineered my way into a 3 day "elite" package at standby pricing under the guise of wanting to check out their elite package so I knew where I'd book next season. Normally, if you're lucky enough to get on standby, you're in a group of 10 and god knows their skill level. The elite package is supposed to cater to expert skiers/boarders who want to ride a lot of vertical. So they say anyway, read on and you'll learn why I doubt I'll be going back to Wiegele anytime soon.

Day 1 was a write off. A down day due to weather, so we went a tree avalanche tour. A once in a lifetime slide had started up thousands of feet above. And this is what it looked like when it hit the tree line!

Day 2 was looking way better. Great looking weather and I'm getting pumped

Nice pants. Father daughter combo (both snowboarders) and a skier. Dad and daughter turn out to be mediocre snowboarders

Looking back onto the town of Blue River, BC. That ski hill looking cut in the mountain? That's where you go when the weather is marginal. It's called the saddle and it licks balls if you have to spend the whole day there. We did once on my first trip. The plan calls for them to put chairlifts in. Private resort for down days when the weather is so bad the helis can't fly at all.

After a few runs, I'm learning that the Elite package has issues too. It turns out some rich people just like it because it's a smaller group (4 vs. 10). Wiegele won't screen skill level. If you got the cash? Welcome to Elite! You're still at the whim of 2 other groups, so not only do the people in your own group matter, the other 2 groups also drive the type of terrain. These jackasses were from Austria. They liked to ski alpine. So did the other group. No one in our group did, but guess where we spent a lot of our time?

Me sharing my thoughts on the alpine. I've yet to have a good alpine experience. The snow always is worse than you find in the trees

This is Mikael from Sweden. He was my powder 1's buddy. The Austrians would lay down their gay powder 8's and Mikael and I would straightline it. He was one of the best skiers I rode with all year. Charged the trees almost fast enough to keep up with me...

I love helicopters. I'd love to learn to fly one someday.

Mikael and I were very vocal with our guide about the terrain selection. The Austrians were pissing us off with the alpine runs. Our guide did try to accomodate, but the tree runs were limited by having to keep us in close proximity to the Austrians and their Alpine. For Day #3, they demoted me to the regular birds from the Elite. I couldn't find my connection in the morning to get un-demoted. I think they'd likely have demoted Mikael if they could have too, but he had paid full pop (and was even more pissed about Day #2 than I was because of it - can' t say I'd blame him - I'd be livid too for that kinda cash!) So here I am on Day #3 with these people. That guy is old enough to be my grandfather. Probably skis about as well too.

At least the weather was nice for Day 3. Powder is like sex, right? Even if it's bad, it's still pretty good? Well, not when your group is as lame as mine. Again, not just your group, but the other 2 groups too. Now that's 30 people and you're riding terrain that's inline with the skill level of the lowest common denominator. That'd be the grandfather types and fuck, were there a lot of them at Wiegele this day.

Fuck you guys. Flat, boring terrain and condescending guides. We had one amazing run. Nice tight trees, just the way I like 'em, complete with some nice drops. I bombed through it then waited 15 to 20 minutes for the rest of the group to come out. Needless to say, that was the end of the trees.

Oooh, a glacier. Yes, it's beautiful, but if I wanted pretty scenery, I'd buy photo book. If you look closely, you can see the Grizzy Hut. Some rich dude from Europe was a regular (maybe still is) at Wiegele, and he got cold when skiing. So he spent millions to build a

A-star coming in to land

March 05, 2006: Castle Trip #2

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The weekend of March 4/5 Derek, Neil and I headed to Castle for the second time of the season. We spent the night in Pincher Creek and rode for two days. Earlier that week, they'd gotten over 100 cm of new. There was good stuff to be had just about everywhere, but we found the best stuff on the front over by the saddle back areas. It reminds me of my cat/heli trips over there. Trees that are decently open and lots of untracked pockets of snow. You just gotta know when to start to traverse out - Derek and Neil missed it, said fuck it and rode to the bottom. In classic Neil style, he managed to catch a ride from some lady. Pimp.