Video-Ursus

Well Sean Easton and I met up for a first backcountry date together. I didn’t want to push things too much on our first outing together but this guy is a hard core alpine climber so I needed to keep it interesting. No… I didn’t really need to do anything because I knew we would have a great day out. The sun was shinning and the snow is staying really cold.

We ventured up towards Video Peak, which had 12 tracks down it, and used their up track to get up on the summit. Then shredded our own untracked  lines of this peak. For the first time I passed my camera off and let Sean film me as I skied down. Great turns were had by both of us. I wished I had two cameras as I watched Sean shred down. Each of his powder turns were illuminated by the light and looked great.

We then headed  up the ridge towards Ursus Minor and had a great tour up to the summit. The minor scrambling was fun and then the descent was  fun, Perhaps a little early for the chute but great turns the rest of the way down. Well almost! The final 1000 feet of dust on crust was not exciting but "no pain no pleasure" .

Castor

Today we wandered up the Asulkan valley and toured up towards Castor peak. It being a very sunny day it was hard to not go for a summit. The present avalanche conditions are variable with hidden dangers lurking. It feels and looks good but many random avalanches have been triggered lately and the alarms are sounding. ‘

None the less we picked on of our staple safe summits and went for it. A cold (-17’c), sunny day, with very little wind greeted us and we enjoyed a beautiful tour up. Being a videographer I sat back and filmed some decent footage of the boys climbing the ridge to the summit and then followed their bootpack.

 We then followed this summit with some fantastic cold powder turns down the glacier.

Dec 7th

Today is a very significant day for myself and a few friends. 8 years ago today a large avalanche swept five of our friends down a mountain side in Roger’s Pass. A few of us were thousands of feet below them digging snow pits when someone yelled "avalanche" and we ran to the safety of the trees.

We were lucky but those who triggered it were not. Shane Block died in the incident, Frank was severely broken and the other three were also injured. It was a day where the harsh realities of mountain travel were made painfully obvious to all of us. That day I realized how amazing the backcountry is but how devastating it can be when  things go wrong.

 I vowed to learn as much as possible and to pay constant attention. Professor Dumbledoor told Harry to "practice constant vigilance" and this is what we must all do. Pay attention and listen.

 Every year we return to the slope and remind ourselves. 

Play Safe