Camp West Lite - Rogers Pass

Distance: 9km

Elevation: 1250m

Looking down the whole run from ridge to highway

Tupper Traverse - Rogers Pass

Distance: 19km

Elevation: 1700m

Time: 7.5hrs

A view of Mount MacDonald from the Connaught Slide Path on the east side of Tupper

Return to McMurdo

After 3 years of booking the McMurdo Hut for a season opener in December, we decided to give it a try in January, hoping for a deeper snow pack and more skiable terrain. We did our best to recruit some friends, but at the 11th hour ended up being the only ones heading into the hut for the weekend. We drove to Golden on Thursday night to ensure an early start into the hut Friday morning. After a wrong turn down an active haul road that I don't think existed last time we came in (not recommended), we made it to to the staging area at 21km up the Spillimacheen FSR by 8:30 am. From there, it was a quick rip up by sled the road to the McMurdo FSR before turning just after 56km to take the 2km trail to the McMurdo Hut.

Bundled up and ready to sled

Top Hat Ski Traverse - Yoho National Park

 Distance: 16km

Elevation: 1216m

A perfect January day for a ski tour in Yoho

STS Couloir - Rogers Pass

STS Couloir

Cheops North #4

1100m

11.5km

Kyle starting the rappel into STS Couloir

With Forever Young Couloir ticked off the day before, the birthday party decided to keep the stoke high and tackle STS Couloir. This line has been on the list for a long time and the stable snowpack and cold but sunny weather made for perfect couloir skiing conditions. 

Forever Young - Rogers Pass

Forever Young Couloir is a classic Roger's Pass Line accessed off Youngs Traverse, below Youngs Peak. It is a big day out with 900m of steep couloir skiing as a reward for your effort.

Distance 23 km
Elevation 1666m

Forever Young Couloir

Sneaky Pow Day - Bonney Moraines

Bonney Moraines

Loop Brook Parking Lot

16km

1389m

After possible the worst start to the ski season, Kyle and I had low expectation's for our trip to Rogers Pass the weekend after New Years. We had been riding dirt on our bike trails up until the first week of December, and had just spent a week in Fernie over Christmas eating chocolate, watching Star Wars and lazing about. We had tried a few days of skiing, dodging rocks and dirt on the ski hill and cross country trails but after a particularly dismal day of ski touring we gave up on skiing altogether and embraced a Christmas Holiday of board games and naps. With minimal snow in the forecast, nobody wanted to join us in Rogers Pass (shocking). We were feeling sorry for ourselves and had missed the cancelation deadline on the hostel so decided to use the weekend to get some exercise and burn off those Christmas calories with a nice walk in the mountains.

Fresh snow in the parking lot

Sea Kayaking the Bunsby Islands

Perfect weather for paddling in Checleset Bay Reserve 

The Bunsby Islands are a group of islands between Nootka Island and the Brooks Peninsula in Checleset Bay Ecological Reserve off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Jumbo Pass Cabin Pow Fest

Approach to the Jumbo Pass Hut

Booking a winter hut trip is a gamble. You never know if the weather will cooperate or if you will even be able to get into the hut at all. We booked the Jumbo hut months in advance after multiple failed attempts to secure a booking at any of the Columbia Valley Huts. Somehow, the stars aligned and we ended up with 5 days over the Family Day weekend. With a treacherous start to the backcountry season and a low snowpack, people were hesitant to commit, but thanks to Steve's network of cool friends we managed to put together a crew of 6 stoked skiers who were all praying for snow.

Little Sifton Traverse - Rogers Pass

Distance: 12 km

Elevation: 1400m

Time: 6hrs

A rare clear day in Rogers Pass gave us the perfect opportunity to tick off the Little Sifton Traverse

A Roger's Pass classic, the Little Sifton Traverse gets you up high in the alpine above Grizzly Shoulder and offers excellent views of Sir Donald, Illecillewaet, Asulkan and Cheops. There are options to summit Little Sifton, or ski some yo-yo laps on the way down the confusingly named Grizzly Slide Path out the the Hermit Parking Lot.

Trespass Ridge Fernie

Distance: 14km

Elevation: 1300m

Time: 4h 15min

Up the Tunnel Creek Road

Trespass Ridge is a great day trip out near Fernie! Starting at the Tunnel Creek parking area west of Fernie, we followed the road up as if we were approaching the hut. After 4km, the skin track to the hut branches off right up a drainage but if you continue to follow the road, it wraps around under Trespass Ridge. Follow the flat logging road until it starts to climb again. Take the right spur and follow it to the cut block. From here you will have a view of the ridge.

Early Season Pow - McGill Glades (Rogers Pass)

Distance: 12km

Elevation: 1150m

Time: 5hrs

McGill Glades deliver

After a mediocre day on Bruins Ridge and Hospital Bowl the day before, I had low expectations as we started up from the Bostock Parking lot towards the McGill Glades. So low in fact that I was feeling sad we hadn't skipped out on skiing altogether to stay up for the midnight Moontricks show in Golden the night before (we are now to lame to do both apparently). The only thing that kept us on track was the fact that Kyle was in bed at 8:30 and I felt too guilty to wake him up to come to the show with me. Good thing too, because we managed to find awesome powder and explore a whole new zone!

Bruins Ridge and Hospital Gully - Rogers Pass

Distance: 14km

Elevation: 1150m

Time: 5.5h

Lots of alders in Connaught drainage this year

Mid-December in Rogers Pass is usually a safe bet for some good snow, even if the Rockies haven't seen much precipitation yet. This year was different. Driving west from Golden, there was barely any snow on the ground. Even as we arrived at the visitor centre we were shocked at how small the snowbanks were. Equipped with our rock skis, we made our way up toward Balu Pass, with a plan to ski 8812 Bowl.

December Pow at McMurdo Cabin

Starting at sunrise

Our 3rd annual December pilgrimage to the McMurdo Cabin was our first weekend of skiing for the 2022/2023 season. After horrible snow conditions the previous year and a rough start to the season, we had very low expectations for the skiing and we couldn't find anyone with a sled who wanted to come with us. Despite that, Kyle and I managed to find some decent snow and had a surprisingly fun weekend at the hut.

A Few Days of Riding in the Phoenix Area

Fun in the sun!

Between our trip to Sedona and bike packing on the Black Canyon Trail, we didn't have much time to explore the Phoenix riding scene. We were able to check out 3 different zones, each with different character and trails.

Bikepacking the Black Canyon Trail (BCT)

 Black Canyon Trail Bike Packing
Big Bug Trailhead to Carefree Highway (I 74)
125km/80miles
1500m Climb
2300m Descent
3 Days

"Adventure begins when plans end"

A Taste of Sedona

Sedona; land of jeep tours and vortexes

Sedona is a unique town in the high desert of central Arizona. About 2 hours north of Phoenix and 1300m in elevation, it sports significantly cooler temperatures than the lower Sonoran Desert, pine forests and magnificent red rock buttes and canyons. It is also home to natural "energy vortexes" which attracts lots of hippies looking to charge their crystals, but we were there to ride bikes. 

It was a brief 2 day touchdown for Kyle, Steve and I before we set out bike packing on the Black Canyon Trail and we wanted to sample the best the area had to offer and warm up our legs, and try not to wreck ourselves (unsuccessfully) for the big days ahead.

Tofino Thanksgiving

Evening session

Mid-October is usually cold, dark and rainy which isn't very fun for biking or climbing and still to early for skiing. With that in mind, I had booked a trip to Tofino where it doesn't matter if its raining because you are planning to be cold and wet surfing anyways. Much to our surprise, the fall ended up being really warm and dry which meant unseasonably warm sunny beach days in October.

Mount Bourgeau/Harvey Pass

Distance: 21km

Elevation: 1130m

Time: 5hrs

Bourgeau Lake below the summit of Mt. Bourgeau

The hike to Harvey Pass starts in Banff National Park from the Bourgeau Trailhead (just west of the Sunshine Road). It is a grind up through the forest for the first 7.5km with minimal views, but once you reach the treeline at Bourgeau Lake you are rewarded with stunning panoramas and alpine lakes. The hike to Bourgeau on its own isn't be worth the effort, but once you start gaining elevation towards Harvey Pass, the views are spectacular.

Grassi Knob Hike - Canmore

Grassi Knob Loop

 Distance 9km

Elevation 795m

Time 3hrs

Grassi Knob summit shot