Thursday, January 30, 2014

Whistler Reacharound

Friend Ross Berg and I did a handy little link up in the Spearhead Zone which we gave the working title of 'the whistler reacharound', the other working title was 'two Ross' don't make a right', the tour went up to Spearhead col, down to guides notch, down Cham chute 3, over to vista zone, down vista chute, over and up decker, down the chisel couloir, back up Decker and down 9th hole. Good times! RB put together a sweet web edit here!

The Whistler Reach Around

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Low Tide Skiing

During the low tide we are still heading out skiing and enjoying ourselves. After all, there is snow on the mountains and travel is fast and efficient, perfect for climbing and skiing peaks and enjoying the beautiful sunshine and the company of friends in the mountains. Such a trip was had recently based out of the nicely appointed Coquihala Lakes Lodge where Mark, a great guy and owner of the facility welcomes ski tourers with open arms and smiles as in his words; 'they don't spray whiskey on the walls, wreck rooms or throw bones off the deck', indeed we did none of those things but we did have a great time nonetheless. But seriously, check out the lodge, its a great base for ski touring and you can ski more if you don't have to drive to Van/Squamish after..
Looking towards snowy summits, Coquihala range.

John, happy camper and coast range intimate.

Wonderful terrain and great travel.

Chris and Ryan, stoked to be out.
Nearing the summit, we actually had a great fun run down from here, jumping off little windlips and whipping down the soft windpressed lee side of the ridge proper.

The omnipresent trucks on the Coquihalla


Headlamp finish.

Gaining Mt. Thar in corn conditions.

T-Shirt lunch, pretty nice.


Some 'edge deep' turns down the N Side of Yak/Thar col.
Thanks to linda, Ellie, John, Chris and Ryan for a great trip!

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

times they are a changing.

Well finally the thumb of so called 'dirty high pressure' has dissolved and the first big storms of the year are on the horizon, a meter of snow may fall between now and Saturday morning..This is great news for snow riders as the mountains are a bit 'thirsty' right now. Alders, crevasses and the like lurking around...
Boom! The 40-50mm (water equiv.) expected for Friday. as you can see, the bulk of this is expected along the Southern reaches of the coast mountains. Duffey area has less snow forecasted then Garibaldi Park and the Vancouver mountains.
There has been skiing though, if one watches freezing levels and times outings with military precision, the goods can be obtained. The windows have been short, with freeing levels all over the map as this spell of high pressure fought to establish itself.  It has been good though, quite good in fact.
Some local skiing lately in Garibaldi Park. Photo courtesy Julian Stoddart.

Don't worry though, we will all be out there soon, reveling in the mystery of the slide across snow, soaking up the energy from a winters storm, chasing friends down tree runs and enjoying a coastal winter.

Below is a web edit from a couple of recent days of skiing, I hope you enjoy.

Happy New Year!

Ross