what’s going on?

Just a quick answer to Stewarts question. I am finally done work and spending a bit of family time on Saltspring Island before I return home and start getting out there on a daily basis. Life is about balance and I am balancing family time before ski time.

Also looking into video cameras so i can provide a better window into the mountains.

Back on skis by the 25 of Nov.

and yes things are going off in the pass, great early season skiing.

Love the life you live

Live the life you love. I can’t remember who sang that but the underlying statement rang true.

First day of the year felt great.Part way up the skin track we ran into these two ski tourers, two small ptarmigans walking up the skin track. Trekking up towards Video-Ursusminor col the mountains greeted us with deep powder and flat light. Skinning up I began to dream about skiing off Video peak, I figured it would be a great start to a season. Getting some decent footage, of us all shredding our first turns off the summit would have been amazing. I say “would” have because after assessing the conditions and feeling out the mountains we came to the conclusion that the time was not right.

Instead we toured up to a col east of Video. The col places you in a great situation where you can sit and stare at the NW Face of Ursus minor, and dream of shredding the multitude of chutes tearing down its face. The wind blew strong so we busted out the guides tarp and sat out the wind until we hoped a clearing would develop. Finally we grew bored of waiting and dropped into the line.

I stood at the top and enjoyed the build up to my first turns of the year. Slowly easing forward onto my skis and letting gravity take hold of me. That feeling of speeding up and the freedom that comes with it. All six of us enjoyed that feeling and let it take hold of us for the entire run. We all skied near each other and hooped and hollered our way to the valley bottom. Endless fun. Well almost endless…….

So great to be out there and have to deal with whatever nature throws at us. So amazing to feel the wind and hear the excitement of friends having a great time. So exciting to have a full season ahead of us… what will we acomplish this year?

Getting ever closer

The snow line is very defined in the Selkirks right now, with over 100+ cm in the alpine. If I didn’t need to work a little more I could be out shredding some powder. But I still have some work to do.

But the psych is there. 10 cm/4 inches fell in Revelstoke on Friday and the Gondola towers were flown in on Tuesday. Things are happening in this sleepy little town, opening is Dec 22 and will be epic.

I am looking at my first ski day this weekend. Probably a little sled mission up to Mt-English in the Monashees. The road will take us to 5500 feet and then 3500 feet to the summit and some great glacial skiing. Definitely looking forward to it.