Terminal Peak

With promises of some sunny skies we ventured up towards terminal peak. The illecilleweat glacier is always a beautiful place to tour. We wound up its moraines till we reached the glacier. from the toe of the glacier we went up high and skied a 1000 foot line beneath Lookout Mt. The powder was great and  the light was decent for the first 500 and whiteout for the second 500. 

From there we toured up the long glacier till we reached Pearly rock, from there we went up the South face of Terminal peak and got to the Ridge line around 3pm. Immediately the sun disappeared and we were stuck in a pea soup fog. Initially we thought it would pass quickly and we waited out the clouds. 10 minutes passed, 20 and then 30. By thirty minutes we were getting dumped on and I got out the guides tarp. I sat in my little haven for a few minutes and then the boys joined me. Soon there were six of us in my tarp. we hung out and waited till 4:20 when we finally went for it.It had snowed close to  4cm. Surreptitiously the sun broke through for a minute and afforded Jeremy a clean shot down from the col.  Luckily since the  upper 35 cm , lazily broke free and slid down the first 300 feet of the run. We all skied the bed surface and then had awesome powder turns the whole way down Pearly Rock. Spring powder rules! 

Got some  good footage, though I missed the best of the skiing. I am sure I got enough to show off the Cold Selkirk snow. Speaking of footage I have a little "Guiding at Whitecap" film coming out and then I will work on the latest footage, which holds some promise.

Bagheera I’ll be back….

Bagheera is one of the most dramatic summits in Roger’s Pass. It is the most "Alaskan" style descent around. A 2500 foot alpine face, south/east facing and no easy way up. It is one of the few summits I have not skied from and I look forward to skiing it.  It is a tricky face to ski in powder conditions, to time it right and climb it safely while also getting great skiing will be difficult. After our day on Ursus and 8812 we thought the conditions were perfect.  10-15 cm of snow overlying a solar crust, it seemed ideal.

 When we arrived at the parking lot at 6 am we could tell things had changed. Wind was blowing lots of new snow around. We hoped that it was less than we thought but it slowly became obvious that it had snowed another 10-15 over night. So instead of the 10-15 we had more like 20-30cm.Much more of a hazard than we had hoped.

But with optimistic hearts we toured up Balu and skied a great run down to the Cougar valley, from there we toured up towards Bagheera. The morning light lit up the upper face and I was scared, I could tell we would not be making it today.We still toured up to an upper basin to look at the  slope. But large "whummffffs" and two easy shears in the upper snow pack  had us skiing down and looking for other options.

 Option C was to tour up and  ski north off a col between Copper and Bagheera. By the time we got there my psych was gone and I was ready to head home. Looking north down the couloir I was filled with apprehension. The new snow  was deep in the start zone and I felt like it wasn’t a smart decision. So we skied south and had a 5000 foot run to the valley; powder turns morphing into spring carving.

I will be back for Bagheera on the perfect day, when I know all is perfect and can boot pack straight up the middle of this incredible face. 

Ursus Minor/8812

 This trip is a classic! There is some fantastic spring skiing in the Selkirks right now. Its dust on crust on the south aspects and great powder on the north.

 Aaron mentioned the idea of skiing of Ursus minor and then touring around to Ursus Major. It seemed like a fantastic idea to me, Doug and Jodi had never summitted Ursus nor had any of them skied the west face. SO we skinned up ursus minor, the weather wasn’t perfect but hinted of better. The clouds would obscure the summits and then moments later they would be lit up in the sun.

We summited the peak by noon and decided on a new line of the summit, skiing down the ridge we rolled in and had a decent chute that opened into a larger bowl and a total descent of 2500 feet.

 Wicked line. Jodi claimed it as his best line ever.

We then skied around into Ursus Major bowl and  had dreams of summitting it. But the approach is aggressive and there are no easy ways up. So I generally only go there when I know things are perfect.

Things are really good right now but there are some lurking fears deeper in the snow pack. So we listened to our instincts and went up 8812 instead.

 The tour up 8812 is a perfect glacial tour, these perfect benchs wind up to the summit.  They are a pleasure to skin up and provide a great vantage of our morning turns. SO we summitted and then had some great north facing turns, Jodi learnt a bit about "slough" management…..

We then finished of with bruins bowl and headed home.