The Sproul’es and 11000 feet

Well I have fallen a bit behind on my goal and its now or never. Time to pick it up and get some ten thousand foot days done or miss out on my goal. Not one to give up I am going to put the peddle down and get going.

Today was a fantastic day. Dave Sproule and Doug Sproul joined me for an 11 000 foot day of exploration.It was actually 22 000 feet of discovery, each ascent was new untracked terrain and each descent was new and untravelled by any of us.

Not far from town we began climbing, assuming that the first three thousand was going to be terrible. It turned out to be better than we imagined and soon enough we were on a new peak, with 6300 feet of climbing below us.

Winds have played havoc with the snow, slabbing up most aspects. The low pressure blew in from the SW and then the high pressure came in from the NW. So most aspects have been blown dry or blown in and aren’t good skiing. We realized that the only aspects that might hold decent snow were East and N-east. So we moved constantly towards the east giving ourselves great turns with beautiful ascents.

The day progressed with a total of four descents and a final peak. Our final run was 6800 feet directly to the highway. We opted on the creek and it somehow worked out for us. Creeks are not usually the ideal was out but sometimes you have to gamble and hope it works out.

The sproules and I toured 11 000 feet and had a fantastic tour and we were all excited to get home and put some new lead onto our maps.

Sol mountain

My four days of guiding went well. It felt extremely easy to fall into the role of guide, I guess it is really what I have been doing for years. The clients were all excited and ready to enjoy their stay at Sol. The trip was quite quick and mother nature was a little rough with the conditions. From too much snow, 70 cm in 24 hours, to a fresh light twenty covered in a thin knife like layer. The clients remained optimistic throughout the trip and were rewarded with a great final day.

I never managed any ten thousand foot days while I was there. It seemed more important to focus on guiding and giving my clients the trip they had paid for. My selfish goal came second to providing a well guided trip for them.

A news crew filmed on the final day so check out this little clip.

Off guiding

Well I am off to guide for five days at Sol Mountain, a remote lodge in the Southern Monashees. There is no internet available so I won’t blog while I am there. Pity I am beginning to feel addicted to this little blog.

I am looking forward to my first “real” ski tour guiding. Becoming a great guide has always been the end product that I am aiming towards. For years I have gone out and developed my mountain sense, in the aim of becoming a very experienced guide in whom his clients can trust implicitly.

This week at Sol will be a fantastic start to my guiding career. I look forward to taking my clients out and showing them some fantastic mountain days. I know that the snow will be fantastic so it should be easy to give them a fantastic week of backcountry skiing.

It should be interesting to see how I accomplish my ten thousand foot days while guiding, I am imagining 5 am starts, with 4000 feet in by breakfast and then a great day of up to 5000 feet with my clients and then a small evening run to roll the watch over. Sounds easy in theory but it will be harder in practice.

Back in a few days…