Elizabeth Parker Extravaganza

The annual Elizabeth Parker Hut trip was a definite success. It was a bit of a quieter trip this year due to the smaller group, but the snow was excellent and it was fun to reconnect with Emily and Trevor's friends. Thanks to some decent stability, we were able to make a trek up to the top of Schaffer Bowl and ski some fantastic turns right down to the lake. So good in fact, that we lapped the lower bowl all Saturday afternoon and returned on Sunday for some more fresh turns.

Touring up towards McArthur Lake on our approach to Schaffer Bowl

Lightning Strike Hut - Kootenay Pass

Two weeks ago, we bailed on a trip to Fernie because it was raining to the top of the headwall. As a result, expectations were low for our trip to the Lightning Strike Hut in Kootenay Pass the following weekend. The hut had been booked for the Alberta Family Day weekend over a year ago so we were going regardless of the conditions but as the weekend drew near, snow started to fall. We arrived in Fernie Thursday night and spent the next day skiing the resort. It snowed 20 cm during the day and we skied stayed just ahead of patrol who was slowly closing down the mountain, skiing refill pow laps until we finally had to hit the road for Kootenay Pass. We arrived in the dark and skinned up the mellow logging road 3 km to the hut. There was significantly more snow than last time we skied the pass in awful conditions the same weekend 3 years ago.

Lightning Strike cabin - Photo Phil Tomlinson - click to see Phil's blog mountainwagon.com

Daddy Cool and Puff Daddy in Rogers Pass

Does it ever stop snowing in Rogers Pass? I doubt it. I have never been up there on a clear day, its always dumping. With over 100 cm of storm snow on the ground and 70 cm in the forecast through the weekend we somehow managed to sneak in two amazing days with surprisingly stability. We took advantage of our good fortune to bang out a couple of laps in the Puff Daddy area with Heath and Alan. Jordan, you missed out big time buddy!

Stoked on the skin track

Escape from Winter - Joshua Tree California

It was -27 degrees when as we drove down Highway 2 heading for the USA border at Sweetgrass Montana. This terrible temperature confirmed that we were making the right choice, bailing out of winter for two weeks of rock climbing in the desert. The highway was empty, it was Christmas Day and nobody was on the road. There was a line up at the border crossing however. We waited for almost an hour without moving before turning around and heading west to the next closest crossing, Del Bonita. The internet and phones were down at Sweetgrass and there was no estimate on how long we could have been waiting. Our detour added another 45 minutes, then we crossed into Montana. Soon, the pavement turned to gravel and we were driving down range roads with deep snow drifts. Needless to say, it was not a very efficient detour. Even when we finally reconnected with the I15, the main interstate that we would follow all the way to California, it was slippery and snowy. We drove through the blizzard for hours and into the darkness.

Butte Montana at 7 pm on Christmas Day - not a soul in sight, or an open restaurant!

Cline River Gallery Ice Climbing - David Thompson Highway

Cline River Gallery: "the approach is as difficult to describe as the climbs are to find," - Cyril Shokoples. Well, it would help if the description started you off in the right direction... We spent about an hour wandering around on a mossy hillside in search of ice before backtracking. Ignoring the directions from the Jo Josephson book that sent us left up a hill, the opposite way from the river and any sort of ice, we found a set of bootprints that we decided to follow. Shortly after we saw a party of climbers far below us who actually knew where they were going, which was lucky because I don't think we would have found the climbs otherwise, even though we were very close. We descended a steep hill and arrived at the climbs, making a mental note to not go back the way we had come. We returned the following day on the trail that we found on our hike out (read on for approach instructions).

Taking a nice mossy detour up the "hill to the left with a faint draw"

Cascade Falls Ice Climb WI 3

After a great time at the Night of Lies in Canmore on Friday night, we were psyched to get on some ice. The plan was to go cragging at Bear Spirit with Tiff and Kevin, but we had also tossed the idea of Cascade (WI 3) around so we pulled over to check it out on the way by. I was so excited and really wanted to climb it. This is such a prominent route that I check out every time I drive through Banff, but there have been so many times when conditions were not quite right with its southern exposure and overhead avalanche hazard. On Saturday however, there wasn't too much snow in the bowls above, it was cool and overcast without too much sun or snow in the forecast, and to top it all off, there was nobody on the route! Needless to say, we decided to go for it. 

Looking up at Cascade Falls from the airstrip

Bow Hut Remembrance Weekend

After our trip into the Bow Hut 3 years ago for Remembrance Day, I was pretty convinced it was never going to happen again. Last time, we had to hike in with our skis on our backs the entire way in and out from the hut along the summer trail. It really wasn't that fun. But, when Kyle saw Alex's post about heading back up there, it just seemed like the right thing to do (funny enough, we actually met Alex on the original Bow Hut trip as the result of a very similar facebook post). To our surprise, we were able to ski right across Bow Lake and ski all the way to the hut along the winter trail that follows the canyon. It made for a much more enjoyable approach.

Touring up the recently frozen canyon. The winter route is in