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)
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.
Greg Hill famously climbed 1,000,000 feet in a season a few years ago. He skis big lines and climbs like a mountain goat, but now he's on a new quest.....
2,000,000 feet in a calendar year starting as of January 1st, 2010. The math is stunning - 365 days means if he skied every single day he'd need 5,480 each time. Even with a planned trip to the southern hemisphere, riding every single day isn't going to happen.
He is an inspiration to the entire touring community and some day, somewhere, in some hemisphere, I'd like to share a skin track with him. I know the Moose would as well. With a lofty goal like he has this year, I think we'll need to starting punching out 5 digit days on a fairly regular basis though before we get our shot...
While not quite as prestigious as a photo in backcountry magazine, I am still very stoked to see myself in the latest issue of Snow Action. It is distributed in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The photo was taken by Chris Hocking during my trip to Japan this past winter.
I'm quite confident the powder season is over. I'll be out a few times to enjoy some corn, but I think it's safe to say the biggest and best days are behind me.
I present the 10 biggest days of the season measured in vertical feet:
1)
March 24, Roger's Pass, Troy, Ricky, Marty 10,250
2)
March 5, Roger's Pass, Shane 7,500
3)
February 11, Hakuba Japan, Eric 7,020
4)
April 26, Waterton, Adam, Blair P., Troy 6,480
5)
March 29, Waterton, Troy 6,420
6)
April 2,Waterton, Dave H., Troy 5,620
7)
March 15, Revelstoke, Shane, Rob, Sean 5,520
8)
December 14, Rogers Pass Solo 5,260
9)
April 1, Waterton, Dave H. 5,230
10)
March 7, Roger's Pass, Shane, Matt, Rob 5,040
Total: 64,340, Average: 6,434
A good mix of different locations, people, and months. What a winter.
On a related note, here's what I think are the top 10 photos from this season. I split them out into the top 5 of me, and the top 5 by me. Some might be a bit biased as I know the story or trip associated with them, but hey, it's my list, I'll include whatever ones I want!
Top 5 by me
Shane silhouetted on the seven steps of Paradise. Blue skies and powder.
I sniped this pic of Blair shy of baldy rocks. I like the sparkle of the hoar and his look of determination.
Enroute to summit knob. You know how good the snow is just by looking. I like it even better knowing it was my uptrack before it snowed and it's still mine after.
There's a tree in the way, but I still like this shot. It's deep, light and paid for.
Galloway Bowl in Glacier National Park. I wanted this so bad the first time I saw it, but would I have been as driven if I didn't have this photo? Almost perfect lighting makes this photo. It's conquest is day #4 up top.
Top 5 of me
I went to Japan to ride Powder in Japanese trees. I came home with this amazing picture. Blue skies, big rooster. Wow! I'm not the only one who likes it - look for it in an upcoming issue of Snow Action. Photo by Chris Hocking. Location Hakuba Japan.
I love the pop of the colours, the feel of the snow with both hands, the blue sky and the white trees. Photo by Blair P. Location Kootenay Pass, BC
This one got taken with me knowing, which often results in better shots. Perfect sky, beautiful sunset light across the valley and so much left to explore. Photo by Shane. Location Waterton, AB
I like the sense of speed. Riding powder feels like you're flying, I think this captures that. Photo by Gary. Location Kootenay Pass, BC
The light could be better, but the snow couldn't be. A huge contrail tells you it's blower and I'm moving. This is Galloway Bowl (pic #5 above) and is a memorable first descent. Photo by Troy. Location Glacier National Park, MT
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!
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...
