Mt-Dickie

Today was exactly the reason I love ski touring large days. With my track part way to Mt-Dickie I could not resist the temptation to summit it for my second time. It remained elusive to me for years with repeated attempts and finally it allowed us up last year and rewarded my attempts with a great north facing run. This year I was after the south face, not an aggressive line but a beautiful one. Also its a line you can see from parts of Revelstoke,which qualifies it as a town shot. Town shots have a special allure to me, there is nothing quite like standing by the grocery store and gazing up at a line you have shredded.

Ian and I powered our way to the summit in less than five hours and then had a decent south west facing descent. The line was great; but the snow had suffered some mild sun and some wind so wasn’t perfect snow. A great 4000 foot descent, one I have waited for and really enjoyed today. Here is Ian getting into our line.

We then toured up the south of the creek, the north facing slopes retained some cold selkirk snow. Seldom skied yet perfect ski touring terrain, we wandered higher and higher into the alpine bowl. We were getting near a little summit when my watched turned over 10 000 feet and we had to turn around. I will be back though. Ian’s first ten thousand foot day of the year and he was looking strong, I bet we have many more adventures this year.

Coursier Creek

Although its only an 8 minute drive from my house I have rarely, if ever seen any tracks in this drainage. It starts off low, 2400feet but allows access to a some serious ski touring.
I set a skin track in up the north ridge, gaining vertical quickly. I seemed to be following rabbit and marten tracks everywhere I went, and then some wolverine tracks in the higher alpine terrain.

Once on the ridge the touring is a little frustrating because of the undulating nature of this ridge. But perseverance paid off and I was finally on the top of the Super S chute. I wish I had a picture of it to do it justice, but this chute is 3800 feet of non stop skiing that snakes its way down the mountain side. I have never skied it and I was blown away by how consistent and continuous the run was. I always try to ski top to bottoms and I had a some serious leg burn that almost made me stop.

I then toured up the north side to find the Eva lake cabin. Small and hidden this cabin does not see many winter visitors. I hadn’t been here in years and the last time I had carved a little I love you to Tracey. It’s still there!?

I then continued touring and gained a little peak to finish off the day with a great run down to valley bottom.

Yesterday was the celebrations of Greg Todds D day and today was also the celebration of Aidan Olloman’s avalanche day. Aidan was killed in a freakish avalanche that caught her while she was taking weather at a remote ski lodge. A great girl was taken away last year. I wonder how many more friends will be swept away in the mountains. The mountains provide us with so much to enrich our lives but will also take it away really quickly.
It was my first ten thousand foot day where I broke trail the whole way. It was tiring but I persevered and was skiing home by 2:30. day 26

Geetz Day

Two years ago today Greg Todds died while noboarding in trout lake. Greg was an amazing innovator, a gnarly snowboarder who pushed the limits for years, he originated the superpipe and invented the noboard in my basement. This board was his way of going back to the origins of snowboarding, sans bindings. Similiar to surfing here is a photo of greg dreaming of the noboard.

Today I went back to the fingers for a quick 10 000. I have things to do, children to hang out with, so I needed to get some vertical done quickly. You would think that the fingers would be boring to me by now but somehow I keep finding more to explore. Maybe its because I am right handed but whenever I have crested the ridge I have always headed right. A couple of weeks ago I went left and discovered a wild treed chute that I wouldn’t have dragged my worst enemy down, but today I may have found my favorite line at the fingers. It’s a 2500 foot line that is slides its way down from the ridge, tight at times but mostly wide open terrain. Perfect for shredding.

Also ventured further down the ridge but ended up missing the line I was hoping for. I still had great turns but missed the line at the top and ended up traversing into it lower down. All in all I had a fantastic day and finished by 11:00 am

25 % done, lots to go…..