Not All Rainbow's

Not all rainbow's end in a pot of gold... this one over Mt. Mackenzie in Revelstoke ended in a bunch of isothermic snow/slop in the middle of February! arrg.

Go North, Stay North!

When the high pressure refuses to go away and fresh snow refuses to fall, you either stay at the hill and ski hard pack or you find some friends, who know friends, who own sleds! In this particular case the only direction to head was north, too a well kept secret called Powder King. Unfortunatly even PK could not escape the sun and warm temps and the only thing that wasn't baked was the north facing aspects. So that's all we skied.

When we arrived we bumped into Leo, a well known local and self made man who,at the age of 50 something is always looking for an adventure. He loves his turns and his sleds, and he doesn't mind towing a bunch of people up the mountain if it means good turns.

 

The secret of PK is so well kept, that there aren't enough people to run the lift mid week. This can be a problem, unless you know someone like Leo. Thirty minutes after arriving we were on our way to the top, thanks to Leo's sled. 

 

Traveling south east from the resort you hit PK's slack country area, known as the camel humps. Fortunately for us many people don't believe in leaving the resort and we pretty much made fresh turns in this area for two day.

Joel mounting the humps.

 

Joel adding some turns to a blank face.

 

Marry and Joel plan the next line.

Day two rolled around and the lift was spinning. Fog was heavy in the valley but it looked promising up top. This time we were going to have to work for our turns, as there would be no sled support. We headed back towards the humps and pushed a bit farther to a drainage called the hidden valley. Again the snow was untouched and stability was moderate, allowing us to put some great tracks into the drainage.

  

The fog looked like water filling a lake.

Joel finds the sun/money shot.

He then decides it would look better in the air.

 

Without a sled, we push the daylight hours.

That night at Leo's place we decided to explore an area west of the ski hill called Mt. West the following day. You could see the slope from the top of the humps, it looked big and juicy but the current stability of the snow pack on such a large slope worried me. After a grueling two hour tow behind the sled up a narrow bumpy trail, I felt like I had just preformed a thousand squats, and we hadn't even started skiing yet. We looked at the slope and decided it would be a bad decision to ski it, so instead we headed to a sweet north facing slope with some sexy cliffs, a much safer alternative. 

 

Joel and Leo burn for the top.

  

Sweet air.

Joel finds the sun.

Joel goes big of a sexy cliff.

I don't go as big.

But I make it look deeper.

The man with the machine!

 

Leo, having just as much fun watching as we are having hucking.

Worlds ugliest dog.

Worlds ugliest dog getting cozy with Joel.

Some scenic shots of the area:

 Always looking for some fun.

  

 

The true hard cores live here.

Another great trip ended with a long ass drive back to Calgary. But in the end, it was worth every bit of the 12 hour drive, because we skied fresh while those in the south skied hard pack or sketchy avy hazard snow.

830 3464 

High Pressures Suck!

Just rippin in powder king. The backcountry is pretty good out here but this is what piss's me off!!!

Whitemans Falls, Highwood Pass

Another day of ice climbing! I have always wanted to climb this route, and thanks to Ben's mad skills it happened. We decided to turn the trip into a combined event and cross country skied the approach. What a difference it made on our time, we crushed the 5 km slog down the closed highway in 30 minutes. Unfortunatly we had to move out of the warm sun and into a cold narrow canyon, but the cold helped preserve the ice and by the afternoon we were in the sun. This route is one of the coolest routes I have seen, its almost like gravity doesn't exist in the canyon! I took the first lead and found myself weaving through ice caves and over crazy mushrooms. Ben took the hard lead and picked his way through steep overhanging ice blobs! Crazy stuff! We skied out in the dark.

Skiing are way up the road.

Ben, always dressing to hit the club.

Some crazy surface hoar on the way in.

In all its glory!

Taking first lead.

Working a way through the jaws of the beast.

Ben moving out of the cave.

Dre moving into the sweet belay cave.

Water flowing behind the wall of ice.

Dre looking good at the  belay.

Me chasing Dre up the final pitch.

Getting ready to head down.

Heading down.

Ben looking pretty epic.

Heading home after a wicked day!

Lacy Gibit, South Ghost River

Its been a few weeks since we have seen any new snow! The resorts are hard as rock and the backcountry is turning into a giant mogel field... well not all of it but the popular areas. So I decided to take advantage of some good weather and good climbers in the Calgary area and get a few days of ice in. I ended up slogging my big camera and my wide angle lens the full two and a half hours to the base, I think it really payed off! A beautiful day, and an amazing climb! This is how ice climbing should be all the time.

Dre on the approach.

We weren't the only thing in the valley.

Ben takes the first pitch as the sun begins to warm us up.

Dre looking strong.

Dre, feeling so strong she has time to goof off.

Sponser shot

I found myself on the WI4 pitch

The last pitch, a full free standing pillar.

Ben Takes the hard Ice, and I snap some sweet pics

A good day with a solid crew.