Late February Roundup

Motherlode on a Saturday.
After much anxiety among the faithless, the snow has finally arrived at Red. There have been a few great days these past couple of weeks, including the past two Saturdays, making for happy weekend skiers and long lines. With the base now hovering around 2 meters, and covering the rocks and assorted schnarb, the amount of ski-able terrain is finally getting close to what we know and love.

First Cooler.
There’s no shortage of challenging terrain at Red. Although the whole cliff zone from Sara’s through the Coolers is still looking pretty boney, there are always plenty of tracks in wild places.

An Island in the Kootenay Sea.

Our ski patrol seem to be having trouble finding the appropriate level of avy control this season, whether forcing late lift starts as though surprised that it actually snowed (too many times to count), or carpet bombing when it’s ankle deep (yesterday). Let’s hope they get it together eventually.

I love the way deep powder snow can make adults play like children.

Just another powder skiing snap shot from Wildhorse.

I’ll be ski-guiding solidly for the next couple of weeks, including a Fairy Meadows trip. Hoping for a some stability and sun.

Candide

Watching the snow pile up outside, eagerly anticipating a powder day at Red tomorrow, I came across this little gem of a movie. Candide Thovex has won all sorts of contests and achieved a certain notoriety for his bold skiing over the years, but he’s been off my radar for a while. This is beautiful and the skiing sensational. You might also like this.

Heads Up

Ski Touring in the Nelson Range today, with up to 60cm soft slabs releasing easily, remotely and on moderate terrain.

Still Finding Powder

Mt Baldy.
It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve had any significant snowfalls, so to keep delivering quality powder skiing at Wildhorse we’ve been punching roads, and setting boot-packs and traverses into areas we don’t usually venture. It makes my days much more interesting, and the steep powder skiing in the sunshine has made for some of the best turns of the year.

To the top of Wildhorse Peak.

So, where are we going ski?

Snow quality isn’t suffering.

Getting adventurous.

Even the traverses are fun.

Another new line.

Heading Up.

I don’t know the name of whatever it was we skied today, but it was another classic 2500″ line in the Norns, shared with friends. Cloud cover and mild air made for some sticky snow at lower elevations, but the skiing remains perfect on North aspects.

The chute off the the top might be possible with a little more snow.

Yee-har.

Edo.

The set-up.

Norns.

Above the valley cloud.

Unsure of the forecast we made a plan for an objective we could pull off no matter the conditions, but were blessed with another clear calm day.

A little thin on the exposed ridges.

Airy.

Just out playing with my friends.

Velvet.

A New Canon

The Old Canon – RIP.
Virtually every photo that I’ve used in the 332 posts I’ve made on this blog since November 2006, has been taken with my trusty Canon Powershot SD400 digital camera. I’ve been carrying it in my thigh pocket, sans case, whenever I’m skiing, through every variation of cold and wet you can imagine, and it’s always worked flawlessly. I’ve considered upgrading, but figured I’d just use it until it died, and that day has finally come. So from this point on I’ll be using my new Canon Elph 300HS, which is close as I could find to the latest incarnation (same battery, same memory card) of my old camera. It’s got a bunch of fancy new features that’ll take me a while to learn, or more likely ignore, but all I really need is for it to be there when I need it on whatever adventures are to come.

Valhallas Touring

So many choices.

I busted out my sled for the first time this year yesterday, finding sweet turns in the Southern Valhallas.

Cam, Perfect in the Trees.

Stoked, another first for Edo.

Local Lines

Mt Roberts.

When the sun comes out the day after the storm, it’s time to hit all your local favorites.

The Knife-edge.

The Hour-glass

Mt Record.

Dumping

5cm overnight, but snowing hard for another 10cm by mid-morning. No line-ups, fresh tracks everywhere, and plenty of happy skiers at Red today.