Parks finally got the road open. I made a few calls and found a willing partner in a treepilot reader named Aubrey. He happens to have an Atomic board. Other than some skin adhesion issues it seemed to work pretty well. It is nice to see someone challenging Voile's system.

It was 3pm before we started skinning. We were able to reuse the skin track that Troy and I had set during the storm of the season. Still some heavy breaking in places, but much easier. The meter plus had settled down to the 60 cm range making for amazing turns. Made a couple laps with the last drop coming at 8 pm. Skinned out via head lamp.

Total up for the day was 3,210. Pretty solid for starting at 3 pm.


We didn't take any action photos, but here's a quick video showing how good the snow was

Short report. 6,420 up. Needed a snorkel on the way down. I always thought that was just a joke, but I was choking on the way down. Troy and I broke the same up track 4 times! Forecast was calling for up to 30 cm, we found over 120 cm by the end of the day. Probably snowed 80 to 100 during the day while we were there. Unreal. Best snow of the year. Parks managed to get their grader and snow plow stuck, meaning the road is going to be closed for tomorrow :(

Slept in a bit, had breakfast at the restaurant and decided to check out the hourglass. I'd never been up that side of Connaught before. A good chunk of the up track is southerly before it finally wraps around near the top of the climb. I have crampons for the split, but didn't bring them. I should have. A very icy and frustrating up made worse by the fatigue from the day before. I stuck with it and fought my way up 2,160 feet. We climbed higher than the hourglass proper and found a nice little bowl feature up top. It only had a few tracks on it which we followed down and to the left from the bottom of the bowl.

There is a really nice steep section with small intermittent trees before it gullies out. Troy and I missed the tracks traversing out and picked our way through a small chute at the bottom. It was about wide enough to turn a snowboard sideways and had a dogleg in the middle, which kept me from seeing the bottom. Could have been a mandatory around the bend, but wasn't. Definitely would be a fun place on a fresh dump if you knew what was around the bend. Ricky and Marty weren't comfortable with the gully, tried their luck skiers right and didn't like what they found there either, so they booted back up.

We said our goodbyes in the parking lot and headed home.

Sometime during the winter season of 06/07, I happened across Greg Hill's website. I don't remember exactly how or where I found the link, but I do recall my impression that this wasn't your average website about backcountry touring. Greg's accomplishments boggle the mind. 50,000 feet in 24 hours. A goal to bag 100 ten thousand foot days - a million vertical feet self powered.

On my visit to Wiegele a year previous, I saw the somewhat famous silver buckle presented to a guest who'd logged a million feet. Applause and envious looks were the norm from the customers. 1,000,000 feet of powder is lot of turns and even more money. I'm not sure what impressed the customers more - the turns or the means that provided them. It requires a healthy bank account and moderate fitness.

A million self powered requires super human fitness and unrelenting tenacity focused on the goal. It's safe to say Greg has a lot more fun on the way down compared to the silver buckle club member. While the heli guest was stacking turns and following the instructions of a guide, Greg is a guide. Having followed his exploits via his blog over the past few seasons, he goes where few dream of treading.

Prior to a trip to the Revelstoke area in the late winter of 2007, I emailed him and asked if I could join him on a lap. I knew I lacked the stamina for one of his by now routine 10,000 foot outings, but I thought that I could try to keep up for a 2-3,000 foot lap. Being a small footnote in his push for a million would have been neat. Greg was kind enough to accept my self invite, but I chickened out. I still regret it.

I did set a goal of doing a 10,000 foot day. It kept me pushing in the winter, running in the summer and hitting the gym three times a week. It even got me into a couple of Pilates classes. It's hard to find people committed to big days and it's often too easy to quit because your touring partners are quitting. Recently through this blog and splitboardlife.com I've come across a couple of people who have pushed me this season. Thank you to Eric (7,000 feet in Hakuba Japan), Shane (7,500 feet in Roger's Pass) and Troy (a weak showing on my part in the early season - 3,500 feet in the Crowsnest Pass)

Shane, Troy and I made plans for Tuesday, March 24th for an attempt on 10K. It was only after I got the idea of inviting Greg Hill along, that I realized the 24th was 2 years to the day after I'd bailed on a lap with him. I was bummed when Shane bailed for a job interview and stoked when Greg replied that he was considering making a lap, or maybe even hanging out for the whole day. In the end he didn't make it, but his influence was all over this day. I've been on quite a few skin tracks this winter with over 50 days in now, and everywhere I go, I seem to hear about Greg's exploits. They might not always know his name, or the full story, but the legend is out there. He continues to motivate and inspire myself and everyone else in the snow sliding community that walk up to slide down.

We'd been hoping to make laps in the Connaught drainage. It's got big laps available and is the perfect staircase. Up, up and up without much in the way of benches. It's also a non-permitted, always open area, so an early start would be easy. Around the time that Troy and I were driving through Golden and the temperature gauge on the truck said something like +12C, we got a bad feeling. Driving up to Roger's from Golden saw dust in the air from vehicle traffic, remnants of big wet slides and all the other signs of spring. Connaught is largely south facing and making your way up the drainage involves tip toeing under massive slide paths. We went to bed with plans of Loop Brook if the permit was available or Asulkan if it wasn't. Loop Brook is an much shorter walk in and although it passes under some slide paths, generally feels a bit safer to me than the walk through the mouse trap.

We were in the info centre when it opened. Permits came in a bit late, but Loop Brook was open. We were joined by a couple of Troy's old mountain biking friends - Ricky and Marty. Troy had previously mentioned that he used to be a "competitive cross country mountain biker", but I didn't really realize the significance of what this meant until the three old friends started talking. World cups, shaved legs, races in Europe, winters off work to ride bikes every day, single digit body fat and VO2 maxes approaching 3 digits....

We were geared up and skinning by 7:30 am. I carried close to 10lbs in fluids with me. I don't think my pack has ever been this heavy. Nearing the notch, we came across the remnants of a massive wet slide. It filled the gully and required a boot pack to get around it. Once above the notch and on the uphill side of the slide, we were greeted with a nice northerly aspect. The skin track works its way through a forest before topping out on a moraine. Visibility was poor and snow fell for most of the day. There are a couple benches on the way up, but it's a pretty good pitch overall. The ride down varied from terrific powder up top in the open parts, to decent powder in the trees, to icy/crusty/crap from the tree bombs in the trees. Today wasn't about the down though, it was about the up and crossing a goal off the list. That we had some good turns was just icing on the cake.

The trio of mountain bikers frequently fell into their habit of forming a breakaway pack. Each time they tried, I persevered and kept slogging away. Sooner or later, I'd always look up and there they were..... waiting for me. Ricky and Marty are training for the upcoming bike racing season. The day before they went for a 4 hour cross country skate ski and covered 60km and something like 4,000 feet up. I think they and Troy probably had a lot more than 10K in them. Having a group of much stronger climbers to chase certainly helped. I stuck with my game plan and plugged away.

10,000 is a big number, requiring a combination of determination and fitness. Depending on whether you trust the Suunto watch or the Garmin GPS, I wound up with 10,250 (Suunto) or 10,867 (Garmin). Google Earth data from the GPS is here. Watching the number on the Suunto flip over from 9990 to 10000 was an emotional moment for me. It's the culmination of every day I spent on the skin track this winter. Every lunge or squat in the gym, every mindless mile running with the dog in the off season.

So now what? Winter is winding down around here. Without the luxury of mountains and snow in my backyard, I have a hard time making the daily 3-4 hour drive for corn. Slush just doesn't inspire me. Call me a powder snob, but I prefer powder connoisseur. I have 51 days on the splitter and 166,190 feet up. 10,000 is just a number and now that I've done it once, will I do it again? Yes I will! I would love to have a 10K day on one of those bottomless days. I will train harder this summer. Run more. Start biking (look for me on the world cup tour? haha) Geography is my enemy and an accommodating family my ally. I would love 100+ days on the snow, but I don't think it's feasible. I do believe that I can get the daily average up though. 5,000 now seems easy. What could I do if 5,000 was easy in December? 50 x 5 = quarter million. It's a nice big round number. If I wind up in South America and/or New Zealand this summer, does that count towards this season or next season?

Adam has a friend with a splitter who'd never used it. We headed to Castle slack country to give him a tour. Took a ride up the Huckleberry chair (ugh) to top of Haig ridge. I'd heard that they'd run cat skiing from this point earlier in the month - the formerly nice up through the trees was replaced with clear cut. The climb to the "usual" drop was comically short. It's funny how perspective changes things. We kept going past the usual spot to just above the entrance to Chimos. It's looking very bony and thin. Haig itself was stuck in a cloud, but I would assume it's also hurting.

We dropped the right hand ridge and enjoyed(?) some corn turns for the first 1,000 feet or so. The bottom 1,000 turned to slop and the pain in the ass traverse was worse than normal because of it. The walk along the x-country ski trail also sucked due to warm temps and lots of boot pen. Had lunch, made a single lap on blue and red chairs(ugh), shook our heads at the lemmings and went home early.

Wound up attempting to summit Mt. Macpherson, but came up way short. Scott didn't like the three buried layers of surface hoar. Made 3 laps totaling 5,520 feet. Good snow, but not quite as light as yesterday.

Headed up to Rogers and into the Connaught drainage. Low visibility, wind, and snow meant tamer terrain. Toured up into the Ursus trees with Scott breaking trail. Made a single lap down, then took the escalator up for a second lap into a more open exit for the second lap - largely flat with a steep chute like exit, which I believe is the waterfall.

The day was cut short with just 4,370 feet up. I debated a solo lap, but decided it was probably for the best as it was a long drive home. I did note that daylight last until about 7:30 or so locally, meaning that there's tons of light available for the push for 10K. Who's in?

I spent the last week in Lake Louise getting my level one. Minimal climbing, marginal snow, and lots of snow science. Total of 5,900 feet up over 6 days on the splitter. Scored a 86.5% on the course.

Today after the course wrapped up I headed to rogers pass and bagged some sweet pow on grizzly shoulder with Erich from the course. Skier, but a good guy. Might do the Wapta with him this spring. Short lap of only 2,850 up.

Next few days I'm riding with the Calgary crew guided by Scott Newsome. Puking tonight. Should be epic!

Woke up to 3-4 inches of new snow at the hotel. Headed back to Loop Brook with Shane and a couple of his splitboard friends - Rob and Matt. Snow continued to fall throughout most of the day. Made a couple laps, bagged 5,040 feet of powder and managed to break the Spark bindings. Less than stoked. I'm now scrambling to find something to use tomorrow for my Level 1 course. Fuck.

Got started at the usual time - filed a report about yesterday's accidental and managed to make today's bulletin. We headed up the Asulkan drainage with the hope of making Young's Peak - a 6,000 foot climb. We fell a bit short due to extreme wind chill temperatures up top along with a fresh slide on the area we needed to pass through to gain the summit.

We still wound up with 5,030 feet up and had some amazing views thanks to the blue bird skies. Also checked out the Asulkan hut on the way up. It's very nice to have a place to stop and warm up. It's a place I think I should spend a night or two in...

Snow was very good again and the blue skies coupled with the surrounding peaks made for some very nice photos.

Headed to Roger's Pass in anticipation of the incoming storm with Shane. We were the first ones in for breakfast at 7AM, checked out options at the info centre and got a permit for Loop Brook. I'd never been before, but Shane had. We were skinning the long approach in by 8:30ish. A long relatively flat slog with incrementally more snow on the old up track. Snow continued to fall until the early afternoon. I'd say there was 10-12 inches of fresh storm snow up top.

The top of the climb, just shy of the Bonney Glacier was about 3,400 feet up from the parking lot. We had lunch, then dropped into some amazing snow. Pretty much bottomless on a largely north aspect. The light was a bit low, which prevented us from enjoying the pillows and taking photos.

We busted in a join to the main up track and we both commented on how much easier the up was on the existing up track. Back to the top for another run. We pushed over into a more pure fall line to the bottom, which is when I managed to kick off a pretty big slab. 150-200 meters wide with a 30 cm crown. I was traversing when it fractured, so I had some sideways momentum, but not enough to get clear of it. Luckily, the crown was more or less right where I'd been traversing, so I didn't have a lot of extra push from behind me. I made a turn, got onto the heel side edge and found a bed surface that was soft enough to enable me to stop. The bit of remaining slide went around me and thundered down to the valley - probably close to 1,200 or 1,400 feet below.

We picked our way down the balance of the run and I talked Shane into another lap. We kept a nice steady pace and made it up over 1,800 feet in just over an hour. Pretty good push for the time of the day, especially considering the breaking we did on the first lap. Total for the day was 7,500 feet. I remain convinced 10,000 is just a matter of the right place and time. Today could have been the day if we didn't have to break and if the approach into this drainage was shorter.

The exit out of Loop Brook isn't overly snowboard friendly - quite a bit of traversing, bootpacking, and a creek crossing. I managed to avoid falling in, but it was close. Shane did the right thing and took photos.

I've got two more days here - tomorrow might be a smaller day?

Yesterday was supposed to be warm and windy, so I skipped a day and hoped the forecast cooler temperatures for today would leave some goods. Forecast was revised up in temperature twice and was still wrong - rain greeted me in the parking lot.

I watched the rain fall from inside the vehicle for close to 30 minutes before it let up enough to motivate me out and onto the skin track. Decided I'd try to find some pure north aspect. Headed to the other side of the lake.

Found a new cliff, took a shit in the woods and quickly realized that even north wasn't going to help. Kept climbing all the way to the end of the ridge where we'd seen people dropping on Saturday. Rain had turned to graupel near the top of the climb. This coupled with a soaked snow pack resulted in 5lbs of crap sticking to the skins.

Dropped in, found ok snow for the first couple turns, then it quickly turned into wet sloppy heavy stuff that grabs at your base. Took the long walk back to the truck and went home early. If temperatures drop, there's enough snow there that things might dry out. I saw people on motor bikes today as it was +15C in the city today.

Total up was 2,190 feet.

The world's best snowboarder continues to motivate and inspire.

http://espn.go.com/action/news/story?id=3909319

I can't wait to see Deeper and can only hope to some day run into Jeremy at the trail head...