Seems there's a drought of massive proportions going on throughout the west - most places haven't seen new in over a week. There's spring like conditions.... in the middle ofwhat should be powder season. So there was no riding this weekend :(
There's a new quarterly cat/heli ski magazine that's coming out. $19.95 per year although they're using PayPal to accept payments? Seems a little weird...but I still sent them the money anyway. There's a very complete listing of cat and heli operations across north america on that site that'll give you something to plan next year's trip with.
I think I might have found another excuse for a road trip. What better way to get more into split-boarding then to head here?
And finally, the video of Blair and I doing the infamous covered stair case in Trail, BC. It's been in lots of videos over the years. It's just too bad the snow wasn't powder - it was a little sketchy with the crust and the overgrown tree branches.
My CD still hasn't arrived in the mail even though everyone else has gotten their's. It's almost like there's a crooked Canada Post person thwarting me?
Anyhow, I've been able to obtain a copy of the images via ftp (thanks CVG) and here they are. All of them. 60+ images, so click the read more link if you want to see them all.
A handful of great shots, some good ones and some filler. I guess pros suffer from the same ratios as the rest of us. A bit disappointing as I was hoping the cornice drop would turn out better. There's some group shots that we'd never have gotten on our own and some closeups of people in the cat or standing around that wouldn't be the type of picture I'd have taken on my own.
I am forever immortalized with the double goggle setup though which looks pretty goofy. The helmet cam attachment is on one set of googles (it's sewn on) and they were several problems that day 1) the wrong lense type 2) fogged up because I forgot to take them out over night and 3) scratched to hell (from charging the trees) So the only way to run the helmet cam was to wear them backwards and put another set of googles on the right way.
The much anticipated Valhalla trip finally arrived. As a birthday present to myself, to my friends and also as an "investment" towards making something like this an annual trip, I'd offered a buy one day, get one day free trip. In the end, we needed to bring in 3 friends of friends to get the cat full (and the price down), but I think that there's a good chance we'll be doing it again next year. It was a fairly expensive day of cat for me, but it was worth it. A once in a lifetime thing, so if you want in next year, I hope you're putting the money aside already. Riding a resort will never be the same again.
Valhalla and surrounding areas were in a bit of a snow drought, but that's why you pay the big bucks. There was freshies to be had - it wasn't blower fresh - but still great snow. The downside with Valhalla is that it's a day operation. We were staying at Blair's house, which was a 45 minute drive to the Valhalla office (a former hydroponics supply shop - seems hard to believe they closed - I'm guessing they moved to a larger location!), then another 45 minute bus ride to the cat, then another 20 minute ride up the cat to the weather station area. Here on day one they take you through a safety briefing, then it's off to go ride. It all adds up to a long day, which is why next year's trip I'm pushing for a place with a lodge. Wake up, eat, get in the cat and go...
Day one was cloudy with light snowfall. I ran the helmet cam every run this day and highlights included a couple good tumbles (look before you leap), a couple good drops and me getting caught in an avalanche.
Day two was looking better and better as we drove in the bus. Wound up being a complete blue bird day. This was also the day that we hired local photographer Peter Moynes (publisher and photo editor of Kootenay Mountain Culture) to capture the events. I'm still awaiting the CD with these images to arrive in the mail, but I'll post them up when they do. For now, there's some edited helmet cam footage (no music as my video editing software won't import MP3s!) and some photos shot by myself and others from our group.
6 minutes of footage from both days. No tunes. Press pause, load up your own on iTunes, then watch it.
I flew out to Kamloops and decided to get a day of riding in with Peter. Packed the new split and thankfully there was some new snow that'd fallen. Not much, but a few inches of fresh in the past few days. Road the split inbounds for a couple runs. It's a bit sloppy, but once you get used to it, not that bad.
Peter and I headed out towards the Sunpeaks backcountry area known as the gils. It's a very easy hike along a cat track to get into the general area. Picked a ridge and up I went on the split/skin setup. Damn was it easy. Took some getting used to the technique, but wow - floats like crazy, grips like crazy and slides like nothing. I haven't been on skis in a long time - I think once about 10 years ago and it's been 15 or more since I actually skied on a regular basis. Having a heel that doesn't lock down made for some interesting descents in the rolling terrain. I was expecting it to be easier than bootpacking, but I still can't believe how efficiently the split goes uphill.
Peter and I wound up taking a bit of a wrong turn - because he was bootpacking, it turned into a long ordeal (about 3 hours). Had we both been on splits with skins, it'd have been nothing - just part of exploring and earning your turns. The snow back there was great though and it just goes to prove the whole split value. If you're on the fence about getting one... DO IT!
Peter's definitely pumped to get one. I'm trying to talk him into making his existing swallow tail powder board into a splitter.
Literally the first time I'd ever skinned. I struggle a bit with technique, but it didn't take long to catch on...
After ordering a month or so ago, my split board finally arrived. I picked up a set of bindings in gunmetal grey to go along with them. Next thing you know, it's a $1500 setup and I don't have poles yet either. Now to get out there and use it!
I headed to the Nelson area a few days early to take care of a few things and get warmed up for the Valhalla weekend - before I could even arrive, I found myself on the side of the Salmo-Creston pass with a blown tranny. No cell coverage and after flagging down a good samaritan, I waited an hour or so in ever colder temperatures for Blair and the tow truck. The sled deck (and sled) complicated the tow and it was another 90 minutes before we were on our way.
The next day, I found myself outside the Bank of Montreal in Nelson with some "free" money in my hands. I had to sign something, so I can't tell you why, but if you've been here in the past or know how the google cache works (it seems archive.org never got around to archiving this site), there's a good chance you'll know that the money wasn't really "free". Cash in hand, I went and filled up by pack with those backcountry essentials, first aid kit, snow saw, snow kit, thermometer, etc. etc.
On Thursday, we woke up to COLD temperatures, but decided to go to Red anyway. No new snow in almost a week and I thought there'd still be some good stuff in the trees. Damn locals were pretty thorough and left us just about nothing, so we started exploring. I love this mountain more and more each time I go. We found some really nice chutes, some with mandatory air exits or entries, but with the lack of fresh, we didn't ride many of them.
After a couple chutes, we scoped another line and headed down it. Remember those thorough locals? When everything else is tracked out, and suddenly you're riding fresh... something's up! A couple turns later and the fresh went from great, to crusty junk on rock. This was followed shortly by even less snow and more rock, most of it vertical. We picked our way down, the best we could, but eventually both Blair and I faced mandatory air exits. I had about 20 feet down with about 10-15 out needed to an unknown landing. Blair faced a more vertical drop, but closer to 30 or 40 feet. Any other day (ie. not before a cat trip with friends that we'd looked forward to for quite a while) and I'm sure we both would have done it. Neither of us wanted a blown knee or something stupid, so we turned around and climbed. It proved to be quite the challenge due to the lack of snow. As luck would have it, I found a rope tied to a tree, used it to pull myself up, then helped Blair up and over. A few minutes later and we were on the traverse that the locals use.
That was enough for one day of riding, off to the chalet to warm up, then I took a drive by "my" condo that I've had my eye on for a while. Still for sale and looking much nicer with all the snow on it compared to the summer time look the last time I'd seen it. Real estate seems slow - lots of the same listings for quite a few months now. Might be time to throw out the lowball sooner or later....
On the way back to Blair's, I stopped at the transmission shop. $2400 later and they were almost done - truck was out on the road test, so we had some time to kill in Trail. On the way up, we'd noticed a covered staircase (they're all over Trail) that looked very familiar as it's been in numerous snowboarding videos. We climbed up it to check the access - super easy from a fence, then walked down and back up again with boards. The snow in Trail was pretty crusty, so we didn't get the big powder sprays like in the videos, but it was still a pretty interesting ride. There'll be video once I finish editing the Valhalla footage, so check back soon
Here's a teaser from day one at Valhalla too - more photos and video coming soon once I sort through all of it. Peter and I had just traded boards and I was riding his Prior swallow tail - we were "buddied" up despite the fact that it was a mostly open face - typically at cat/heli you only pair up in tighter trees for treewell dangers. We were dropped off above a cat road and warned to keep the speed low due to the 3 to 4 foot drop to the cat road. I dropped in, made a few turns, got used to Peter's board and found a small rock to air off, landed it, made a turn or two, then, um, what, that was pretty disorientating.
Guide called it a size 1.5 - only about a 30cm crown, but fairly wide as you can see from the pic. Caused by a slight convex rollover onto unsupported slope (the cat road) That same cat road also absorbed a lot of the momentum and kept it from progressing past the cat road. After all that, my tree buddy Peter was still pretty clueless as to what went down. He later told me, yeah, I was riding down, then it went all hardpack and the cat road was covered up - no drop... great, thanks Peter!
I'd been running the helmet cam on every run and this is what the avalanche looked like from my perspective
The drive up to Castle was hairy because it was snowing and blowing so hard. Attended an evening seminar only 6 people? and 2 of them were staff members?), then went to bed. Woke up to 45 cms of fresh. Ugh. It was everything I could do to keep from bailing on the course. There was almost no one up there either. Classic Castle - big dump and no one to enjoy it. Ended up going to the course and off we went to dig snow pits. Was agonizing watching everyone else track things up while we "worked". All the course was inbounds, so we went around the mountain looking at start zones, tracks, outruns, evidence of slides (broken trees, no trees, etc). This helped ease the powder itch somewhat. They gave us 45 minutes for lunch, so we all ate on the chair and got a couple runs in. Best snow of the year so far!
Another seminar that evening followed by some beers with David, Adam and Jeff. They're all strong riders and seem to have some disposable income, there's already talk of a cat or heli trip and things are looking good for David/Adam to pick up a sled. Seems I've found some backcountry partners!
Day 2 of the course was all beacon and searches. They say you can never have too much practice, but it gets old pretty quick. Wind was howling and it was snowed all day. The top (red) chair was closed because of sustained wind of 100km/h with gusts to 150! The course ended early and I made about 8 to 10 runs in the trees before last chair.
Overall, I'm less than impressed with the course. It seemed to focus heavily on the "avalator" card, which requires "rated" terrain - of which, there's none around Castle. They also spent significant time on the beacon searches. I'd rather be strong at evaluating snow pack and picking routes for ascent/descent than at fishing someone out. The digital beacons these days are super user friendly - and the odds of a successful self rescue aren't that great to begin with - so you'd think the focus would be on preventing the avalanche in the first place? I guess what do you expect when the CAA won't allow the instructors to actually take you into the backcountry for the course.... um, I'm taking this to learn about avalanches inside the ropes? There's an advanced 7 day long course that's offered (not around here) where you're actually in the backcountry. Might have to look into that.
Three more days, then it's off to Nelson for a warm up day at Red or Whitewater and finally, the much awaited Valhalla trip. Seems just about everyone is planning on arriving on Friday afternoon or evening - which doesn't leave much wiggle room for bad weather or vehicle problems. I hope everyone makes it in time.
Some footage spliced together mostly from the runs on Sunday afternoon. At one point, I was even chasing rabbits...
Seems no one was interested in coming to take this avalanche class at Castle with me, so I'm flying solo. There's supposed to be 16 people in the class, so I'm hoping to find some new backcountry partners for splitboarding/sled assisted touring. Looking to be a good weekend for snow too, although it doesn't look like the itinerary will leave much time for freeriding.
The countdown to Valhalla is getting close to zero - one week from today, I'll be in the Nelson area warming up at Red or Whitewater. Then on the 13th and 14th, it's cat time! I'm really looking forward to riding with everyone again. It'll be the first time we've all ridden together in over an decade and it promises to be classic kootenay powder conditions.
An anonymous visitor asked me to pass along this message:
"I'm putting together the first ever snowboard only film festival in toronto canada, all the info as well as trailers and such are on our website"
If you're in the area, sounds like an interesting event to check out.
We headed up to Jasper for New Years. It holds a bit of sentimental value to me. Used to vacation there as a kid when I still skied. As I got older and starting bringing friends along, it was the first place I tried snowboarding. That was back in '91 and I've been on skis once since then. Back in '92 Blair, Kristjan and I spent a 2 or 3 days there over spring break. Coming up the knob chair, you're greeted by this cliff band. We'd met up with a local ripper (back then there was literally only dozens on snowboarders on the hill...) who was doing some pretty big airs off it. We all made the short hike and took turns freaking ourselves out. On the last day Blair wound up dropping it and Kristjan and I backed away again. It's bugged me ever since. Thing is, as we got older, we realized that Jasper wasn't an overly good mountain. Sure, it was better than the small hills we rode in Manitoba, but compared to other mountains in BC and Alberta, it didn't have much terrain and it didn't get much snow. It's also a bit of a drive from where we all wound up. Fast forward to now and I came up with the excuse of actually using my season tickets to the Oilers and getting a few days riding in at Jasper.
Snow conditions were "epic" for Marmot Basin (the actual name of the resort) - 14 cm in the past 7 days. This translated into ugly just about everywhere. Crusty, icy and just a bit of dust on top here and there. Up the knob chair I went and realized the cliff was a lot smaller than I'd remembered - maybe 10-15 feet. As I hiked up the snow, I could feel my toes hitting rock under the snow. The snow quickly disappeared and I was soon hiking on shale and loose rocks. The top of the cliff had maybe 3 or 4 inches of snow on it. The landing zone looked suspect - no bomb holes from anyone else dropping it and the few tracks beneath it looked very shallow. I scoped the landing the best I could and decided to take no speed and hope for drifting right under the cliff with no hidden surprises. With the Valhalla trip so close, the last thing I wanted was an injury from a drop to hardpack.
It was pretty anti-climatic - dropped it, blew the landing and went back to riding icy hardpack. There was pockets of good snow to be found in the trees, but they were few and far between and mixed in was lots of rocks. It reminds me of Lake Louise - beautiful scenery, some really good looking terrain, but never enough snow.
As we'd brought Beacon along for the trip, there was frequent stops required to feed/water/walk her. The one really nice thing is the ride in/out access to the parking lots. The last run on the last day I took her down the hill and back up the t-bar. She handled it really well. Coming downhill, not so much, as the leash was too short to allow her to run. Since she's still just a puppy - I don't trust her off leash. She'd be very easy to catch if she ran downhill, but if she ran uphill, I'd never catch her. Ended up carrying her down alot of the run. By next winter I hope to have her trained for offleash activities in the backcountry.
