Point of view

I would guess that one of the reasons I like running this blog is to try and get my point of view across. Kinda show off the mountains the way I see them, give readers my point of view. Well today i started filming with a POV (pointofview) camera. Its  camera attached to a harddrive. It seems like the best quality for a head camera.TGR uses it!

I filmed about 30 minutes of head cam footage of which I will use 38 seconds, but it is exciting to have two angles on the action. It might make it seem like you are here with us.

Today we headed up Video peak. It was skied by about 15 people the other day and now has a new 25 cm on top. Absolutely no evidence of their tracks. We stood on the summit and waited for the clouds to break, they finally did and we were given a decent descent.  We would have skied the main face but felt that there was much more loading on the leeward side of the ridge. So we skied the direct line which gets a bit more blown off. It was safer to ski what had less snow than that which had wind deposited slab.

Great turns and then we toured up to 8812 bowl and had a great 3500 foot run to the valley bottom. The sun broke through and gave us some great light.

Fun day to be filming with the head cam and I am starting to get enough footage for the first movie of the year. Probably have it ready for Dec 1.

all for now. I hope you like my point of view.

new lead

        It feels so great to be out in the mountains again. Many long hard days to come but all so beautiful. Today was no exception, Roger’s pass was as beautiful as it gets. Great light all day and then some beautiful alpen Glow.

It may only be the second day of the season but I was interested in checking out a new mountain. Hermit Mt. It sits within 1.5 km of two summits I have skied from but somehow I knew nothing about it. Like most ten thousand foot peaks around here it is no gimme. 

Dave, Aaron and I broke out of the clouds around 10 am and from then on we had a gorgeous day. The summit of Hermit looked attainable and we stared at its ridge. If we stayed directly on the ridge it would be 5.5 but we hoped to bypass the cruxes on class 4 terrain.

We booted up to around 9500 feet and decided to turn around. Its hard to have confidence to bootpack up a 45 degree face on our second day of the season. The slope we were bootpacking up had slid during the last cycle and the first 400 feet was perfect booting. But then the slope steepened and Aaron looked into the snow. His compression tests showed that there was a moderate collapse with a clean shear down about 25cm. Deep enough and fast enough to make us worry. So we turned around and skied home.

It was such a perfect day for filming. Nothing epic but some nice touring footage and a few wicked deep turns.Dave’s first turns of the year looked awesome from my vantage point.  Great day except for the bottom 1500 feet which sucked. Melt freeze, barely covered rocks with sticks sticking out everywhere.

A bit of exploration and some new lead to trace on my maps.

Always great to be out

It’s been a little slow start here in the Selkirks. The snow is here but it is not the usual bottomless powder that we typically start the season with. Today felt more like May.

Regardless of conditions it is time to get out and condition my body.  Today’s 4900 foot day was a challenge. Generally ski touring tires out the fittest people, it is a sport that wupps you into shape. Well today I was wupped. Maybe I didn’t drink enough water, or eat enough, whatever I was tired by the end. It will feel great to pass out tonight exhausted!

It really did feel like May. Warm temperatures ruined what powder there was and we were left wondering what we could do. It seemed like a great day to stand on a summit. So we toured up Balu and then up the west shoulder of Cheops. Once on the shoulder there is a great 1hr ridge climb to the summit. Cornices, rhymed rocks,  it is a great hike to the summit. Easier in the early season while there is less snow. It makes it easier to differentiate between, rock and overhanging cornice. I was able to get some decent footage and had we waited for our descent we could have had some wicked Alpenglow turns.  We still skied a great line, small chute that opens into a large bowl.

Great day to be out and always fun to summit something.