March 1st

Wow…day one over with. And hopefully the worst skiing for the month. It being Saturday and my kids with the weekend off I wondered how I could tie in my goal with their weekend. I woke up to minus 19’C and toured up for hours in the cold. I could not decide if it made sense to have the kids join me or not but I knew that I could not return another day so I had to try. I did a few fast runs in Kokanee bowl and had 10 000 feet in by noon. I toured back in bounds and met the family.

We have skied off the sub summit a few times and always talked about going to the main mackenzie summit. It wasn’t really the ideal day but I really wanted to start this month of madness off with a summit with my family. So with clif bar treats and some energy drink we boot packed to the summit. Many breaks, stops and crawling but finally we summitted. Charley had lagged behind for most of the climb but at the last step she rushed past and was first on top. Aiden at 7 and Charley 8, these kids are so lucky. It did stress Tracey out a little as she was slightly uncomfortable which made her even more hyper tuned into the slightly sketchy boot packI was 19 when I stood on my first summit. While lying starfished on the peak Charley asked me why I was rushing, why not hang out on the summit for awhile. Yah Charley enjoy the peak experience! photo by Bruno Long

It was cold and I wanted to get back at it so the sketchy south face side slip began. It was suncrusted, skied to shit and all around terrible skiing. But the experience of getting my kids to their first summit and then skiing off of it was priceless.

They headed home and I went up for another 2000 foot run.

As for how I did in terms of my goal, well 4220m, or 13900 ft, over 4% of the way there. It was an ok day but it will only get harder.

this is the day http://www.movescount.com/moves/move26776320

Nervous… for sure

I am most definitely nervous. It feels daunting, kinda intimidating. So much could go wrong. Avalanche hazard is high right now, but more than just being high its how sneaky the weakness is. You can easily sympathtically release a size 2-3 avalanche by skiing in the wrong spot.( that means triggering large avalanches from hundreds of meters away!!)

When I mentioned this goal to Charley, my eight year old daughter. The only thing she said was “Please don’t die” So I better not. There will be little change between now and when I start this. The compressive weight of the snowpack will bridge the weakness but only hide it till the next snowfall.

So terrain choices will be my goal, always thinking about working my way up the most structurally strong parts of the slope. Avoiding overhead hazards.

I had hopes to send some long journeys into the mountains and I will but.. they will be defined by a high level of safety. Constant vigilance.

That being said I cannot wait to get out and go.

In the meantime I am relaxing and getting ready by hanging out of a helicopter and filming russian billionaires heli ski.

March Madness

I have to be absent from my blog at times,for various reasons. Life is very busy and there have not been many bloggable adventures. For me, my blog is an expression of excitement and mountain adventures, and when those are not happening ….large blog voids appear. It is something I cannot help, as my life is full and busy.

My latest challenge is kind of scaring me right now.  I love knowing my personal potential, it has been my life long goal. To always push myself to my limits, live life to its limit. Ski mountaineering has  been easy to quantify how much I am doing with my life.  Vertical feet climbed  = how much you have lived that day.  add in some wild summits and steep descents and I know that I am lucky and living my dream.

In what feels like past lives I have climbed and skied 50 000 ft (15km) in 24 hours, as well as 2 million feet (609km) in the year 2010. So I know my daily potential, I know my yearly, but what about my monthly?  Up till now my biggest month was December 2010 where I toured 255 000 ft (77KM). That was also the final push.

If I knew I had one month to max out my vert  Could I ski tour a 100km, or 328000 feet? That’s what I wonder?

So the challenge this March is to see what I can do in 31 days. To keep it full of adventure I do not want to repeat a zone, perhaps slide through for further access but never go back to a previously skied area.  Ideally this will force me into some great new zones, as well as revisit some of the classics. Life is so busy these days that I just want to get out and simplify my life. By giving myself a clearly defined goal that will test my will, my mountain skills and my luck.

Siting here typing I am sort of light headed and nervous about it. I know that I have stubbornness, but what about wear and tear on my 38year old body? What about the weather ? or avalanche stability? So much uncertainty…

As an old friend of mine used to say “you’ll never know if you never go”

So here goes…