Time to get after it.

Regardless of conditions its go time. Luckily conditions are getting better almost 3 feet in the alpine and storms are coming. But that 3 feet shrinks quickly and skiing is dubious below 6000 ft.

I have been busy, Vancouver and Urban Rush which was fun. Except I used penultimate in the wrong context but now know what it means.  Teach me to throw out a word I do not truly know.

I spent three days touring outside of Vancouver, one towards the Black Tusk, which was whiteout and not great, followed by 2500ft of down walking. Then a day off Blackcomb, skiing Husume and The Glacier, which was fun, and then 1200 feet of down walking. Then up Whistler and some ok turns and 1500 feet of down walking.

And now a day out of Revelstoke, so I am starting to get after it again just slowly and not with huge days.   The inner coach is pissed off and ready to rock but we need a tiny bit more snow.

Today on our way touring, my buddy Joey’s van, slipped its timing belt. Mid road Joey did a complete belt change, which was impressive and we continued to drive up higher. A screw got loose and screwed things up again, but a full timing belt change on a logging road! Seriously who does that and then continues driving upwards. I thought we had it till the screw messed things up.  Regardless,we managed to change vehicles and ended up getting some decent skiing in. Anyhow tired and ready for bed.

Home Turf

I have been a little remiss on getting back after my goal as well as writing in this blog. Home has been great so far, friends, family and comfort.

The snow has been a little slow in coming. I have managed to ski 5 days and summit my 66th mountain of the year, Macrae. At 8200 ft its quite a small mountain but it still challenged me quite well. I had not been up there in 7 years, and I remember the summit ridge but it seemed easyish. This year there was very little snow and it made for rocky, slabby climbing. I would have preferred snow to slippery rocks. the boys were laughing at me as I crawled to the summit. Still great to add another peak onto this mission.

There is a nice 700 ft snowpatch on Macrae that attracts lots of people in the early season, this day there was 30 people coming in. We managed to go earlier and do two runs before anyone else and then we were gone by the time the hordes arrived. What I found amazing was that I knew only 2 of the 30, the times are changing around Revelstoke.

Yesterday we headed out to and skied a nice north line, enough snow to cautiously shred the alpine.

Photo :Joey Vosburgh

So there is some good skiing to be found, it is that its only for 800-1000 feet and be wary. We have about 60 cm of snow but I am hoping for more soon.

Here is a link to an article on freeskier.com. Its a decent article but the first sentence is a little off. I mean, insane?!?  Ok maybe a little crazy but….makes me think of the saying” normal to a crazy person seems insane.”

http://www.freeskier.com/articles/article.php?article_id=5548

Also big thanks to Harvey for his donation, much needed and appreciated, especially since he suggested it go towards coffees and apple fritters.

Last summit in Chile

Well all good things must end, and so this trip down in SA is almost over. It has been exactly what I had hoped it would be, four months of ski touring in ranges I had never seen. There was a tonne of challenges right at the start, with crazy wind and weather, but there were also some amazing volcanoes. Some great runs and some absolutely terrible ones. Bariloche was great, a fantastic house for the family and some small but beautiful mountains for me. Las lenas was huge and amazing with not very much snow. Then a few different volcanoes, a steep descent off Sierra Velluda and  I finished off with some serious vertical in las Trancas.

In the last 3 weeks I have skied 18 days, 16 of them above 10 grand, 2 others not so huge, for a total of 183 010. I had dreamed that I was going to hammer for these three weeks, but these dreams are challenging to realize, but I did I work my butt off and pounded skin track and it has payed off. I started off the month 4 days behind and I am now 7 days ahead, which will get eaten up quickly but the week off will be thoroughly enjoyed. It looks like the snow will start this weekend and Revelstoke should get up to 50 cm by Wednesday, not a huge amount but I will try and get out and ski on next Thursday. There is a spot that I have not skied at for 7 years that is perfect for early season turns.

Anyhow my buddy Frank asked me to pull a big ol daffy for him. Since this was my last run in Chile I set up my camera and got an ok one, not huge air though, the run in was a little short. 

Needless to say I am excited to go home and see my wife and kids. Life will have meaning again.