I hopped on the bus to Castle with the split board in tow. I haven't had a chance to replace the broken Malolo, but given that they'd gotten 35 cm in the past 48 hours, I had to go. I'm still a bit leary about riding the split in bounds. The creaks, squeaks and flexing leaves me a bit nervous and it results in me riding less aggressively.
I made a few runs in the secret trees and was happy to find them completely untracked as per usual. On the ride up I met up with Mike in the single line. He was down from Canmore with Trevor and Tristen. He was on skis but was asking about the split. Turns out he's a snowboarding returning to his skiing roots because his friends spend a lot of time touring. We shared a chair and it turned out that they'd brought their skins with them. Luckily I had my skins and poles in my pack, so we headed over to the new Huckleberry chair to check out Haig Ridge.
After departing the top of the Huckleberry chair from about 5,800 feet it was an hour later when we found ourselves at 7,150 feet looking down on a very nice wide open powder field. Normally I'm not a big fan of the alpine, but the snow was amazing. About boot deep and super light and fluffy. We weren't 100% certain where the traverse out was, but if you miss the traverse you just skin out on the cross country and/or snowmobile trails. At 5,000 feet, we realized we missed the normal traverse but we were still able to find our way through the trees and back to the base area without too much trouble.
It was 2 hours round trip, but well worth it. Skinning is a pretty demanding cardio workout, but so much more efficient than hiking. The Suunto reported a max heart rate of 189 (my max at my VO2 test was 187 - nothing like powder to keep you motivated!) with almost 20 minutes of time above 175. Tristen didn't have skins - he started boot packing while we were gearing up. We caught and passed him in a matter of minutes. He quickly tired and went back to riding the chair for a couple laps. On the skin up we passed the entrance to Chimo's - a line that I'd like to ride on a day with the right conditions.
I've had a few days to reflect on the trip and I've calmed down a bit. I'm a fairly negative person in general, but much of that can be attributed to a personality that always pushes for the best. If you can't assess the situation, it's hard to improve on it. I just happen to have a knack for pointing out the worst.
So, without further adieu... the worst of White Grizzly in no particular order.
Let's start with the website claims. Here's a screen shot from their Flash site. Key things to notice are a) 12,000 acres, b) open trees, bowls and chutes, and c) an average of 20,000 feet per day vertical. The most you'll find at any cat operation in the world.
a) 12,000 acres. That's the size of their tenure. I didn't measure it, but I trust them. The developed size of their tenure is a fraction of that. Maybe 1/4. The stuff we rode was all bounded by the blue "triangle" inside the red outline on this topo map. As you can tell, this is all on one face on one moutain. I've been to a handful of other cat operations and have never seen anything like it. 4 days and every single trip up the mountain was on the same cat road, with maybe 3 or 4 drop off points.
This leads us to b) open trees, bowls, and chutes. You can see them, but you won't ride them until they get around to putting in roads. Frankly, this isn't something that concerns me too much. I love tight trees and if you came to the kootenay's to ride "extreme" bowls and chutes, well, you didn't do your research.
Finally, c) and this is where I get my panties in a bunch. We ride hard and average 20,000 vert per day. So say's the marketing guy who made the website. The time we left the lodge was 8AM. Drive 20 minutes, load up the cat, ride in the cat for an hour or so to the first drop, and next thing you know it was close to 9:45 or 10AM before you made your first turn. Last drop of the day was 3:30 PM and each subsequent cat trip back up was 30 to 35 minutes.
There's obviously some things that slow you down. Day 1 includes the industry standard hide and seek lesson with beacons. Group ability and conditioning (or lack thereof) can play a role. So can snowpack, terrain selection and pacing set by the lead guide.
Yes, there was a weakest link in the group. Carrying around 40 to 50 lbs extra doesn't do much for technique or endurance. I know, because a few winters ago I was 240+. I whipped my ass into shape and have been sub 200lbs for almost 2 years. I now have 18% body fat (current goal is 14%), and a VO2 max of 52. I ride agressively and I will beat you down the mountain. Psssst... the weakest link wasn't me!
Yes, the snow stability was poor. There was some spots on some runs where we went one at a time. Terrain selection was what it was. There wasn't much in the way of variety - the "runs" had different names, but they all followed a similar profile with respect to steepness and benches.
Pacing was slow. Even on the runs where the weakest link was benched (toss up between bench and poop dollar for word of the week), the pace was quite slow. Frequent re-groups (4 to 6) per run (2 - 3,000 foot drop) were the norm.
All of this ends up here:
Day 1 - 12,168
Day 2 - 13,152
Day 3 - 15,095
Day 4 - 14,710
Total - 55,125
Average - 13,781
Buy 4 days, and get 3? So it would seem.
As I've mentioned, I picked up an altimeter watch. No, they're not 100% accurate. Yes, you need to set a known altitude into them or else they look like they're "wrong". Guess what. Every airplane I've ever flown and all the rest I haven't all have the same problem. The altimeter works on an assumed setting of 29.92" Hg, 15C and 0 ASL. As these things change, so does the accuracy of the altimeter. A common phrase in aviation is that your altimeter is lying to you. Suffice to say, there is some error in the numbers presented by the watch, but it won't be a significant amount. Maybe a couple % at most. It's not going to give me back the 25,000 feet I didn't get.
The new watch does make pretty charts though. Here's a pic of day 3. Time vs altitude and heart rate. Every time there's a flat spot on the altitude, that means you're standing around and re-grouping.
The "steepest" profile belongs to the second run. I've blown it up here. The flat spots now look alot bigger and longer. That's because they are. 500 foot descents in 30 to 40 seconds followed by waits of 1-2 minutes. Keep in mind, this is one of the quickest paces for a run from all 4 days! Check out the heart rate. A few peaks up to 140ish range, with one at about 145. I do interval cardio training. Full out for a period of time followed by a recovery period. My full out's are currently 4 minutes at their longest (although I think my personal trainer is upping those tomorrow!) and I have a sustained heart rate of 150 to 160 during these periods. All this means is that I wasn't working very hard, but hey I was on holidays, I shouldn't have to work, right?
Bottom line is that if you want 20,000 vertical, you should go to a heli operation. We asked for earlier starts to the day since it was light for a couple hours before we started. Ownership declined.
Rant over. Time to rave.
The snow was epic. Ullr broke the dry spell and deposited a badly needed foot of fresh the night we arrived. Over the next 3 days more snow fell. All told, there was about 2.5 to 3 feet of snow in 4 days. A couple of those days had that quintessential kootenay blower. Call it cold smoke, call it whatever you want. The snow was epic.
I've yet to experience bad dining at any cat or heli operation and this one was no different. Breakfast was great and so was the post riding meal. Snacks in the cat were plentiful and no one died from allergies, so that's always a plus.
Group ability was definitely above average, save the weakest link. Last year I rode with close to 150 different people at backcountry cat/heli operations, so I know a thing or two about weak groups. This wasn't one of them. Having a group that knows each other is always fun too.
Terrain. Yes I complained about it, but it had some upsides too. Pillow lines were relatively common. There was a profound shortage of cliffs, an excess of benches throughout the fall line and lots of flat traverses to the cat road, but there was luckily an abundance of steep, tight, trees. Treewells and partners be damned. I like going as fast as I possibly can with obstacles in the way.
That oughtta be enough words. Time for the photos. Video is still being edited, watch for it early next week.
Back from the White Grizzly trip. Full report coming soon. Highlights included a whack of new snow during the 4 days - about 30 to 35 inches, lowlights include a broken board. Tons of pics and helmet cam footage to sort through...
I picked up a new Suunto just before leaving too. Had it in the wrong mode the first day, but I have altitude profiles for days 2, 3, and 4.
Seems those global warming people are right. I was hoping changing weather patterns wouldn't mean the end of winter, but based on the lack of snow in the past 2 weeks, I think it's safe to say this will be the last winter with snow ever! Seems all across western Canada and the northwest states, there's been a drastic lack of snow for all of January and so far February isn't looking any better. Time to pack up and move... but where?
I grabbed Beacon and the splitboard and went exploring this weekend. She's still a pup - I don't trust her off leash and on-leash she's still a handful. Add in me on a splitboard and it sounds like a great recipe for fun. After quickly realizing that I couldn't hold the leash and a pole and try to skin at the same time, I tied her off to the waist buckle on my pack. Worked great, for the most part, atleast until she got distracted and went the wrong way. Untangling her when she got wound around me made for a lot of aggravation. Unbuckle, pass the leash around, re-buckle, etc. She was on a collar, but I'll need to get here a harness because I think she'd probably pull me right along.
At one point, I met up with some a couple on snowshoes and they had a two Border Collie's with them. Off leash of course. Beacon exchanged some barks and sniffs - all seemed well. Until we went our seperate ways. She sprinted to the end of her leash, the waist buckle flew apart and off she went. Luckily she went right for the other dogs and I was able to retrieve her. If she did get off leash and bolt, I know I could easily track her in the snow, but her cardio endurance is infinitely better than mine and she's also much smaller and nimbler. I like tight trees but chasing my dog uphill on skins through tight trees isn't on my list of things to do.
Anyhow, the drainage I skinned up is the outlet for a couple "runs" accessible off the backside of a ridge at Castle - Six Shooter which is basically an avalanche chute with rock on either side and an area known as "ugly face". Both are very do-able, but you'll want to pay attention to your line as there's significant cliffs on both. All in all it was a 3 hour round trip skin and I got a grand total of zero turns.
