Surprise Pass

Surprise Pass is a good 10km loop if you are looking for a shorter day touring in the Rockies, with great views and a 900m descent from the pass down to Lake Louise.

Looking up at the Surprise Pass descent from the bottom

Phantom Couloir

Phantom Couloir - Mt Ogden

~15km car to car

1250 m elevation

Couloir - 300m vertical

Phantom Couloir

We took the opportunity of a stable snowpack and bluebird day to check out a new zone and ski my first Rockies Couloir this past weekend! It hadn't snowed in 2 weeks so we weren't expecting fresh tracks by any means but it was a good excuse to get out with our friend and ski something cool. It was -23 at the Sherbrooke Lake parking area and we managed to grab one of the last parking spots at 7:45 am. We kept moving to stay warm, but still had to do spot checks of each others faces for signs of frostbite.

McMurdo Ski Touring

The McMurdo Cabin is a rustic backcountry hut maintained by the Columbia Huts Society. We managed to get a weekend booking in mid-December and were pretty stoked to check out a totally new zone. The cabin is accessed by sledding up the Spillimacheen and McMurdo FSRs, accessed from Parson 35 km south of Golden on Highway 95. The sled access is fortunately maintained by Sled Golden and was in great shape. We paid our $25 trail fee then drove up the icy FSR to a staging area at the 21km mark. From there we loaded up the sled and toboggan for a cold 30km rip up the groomed roads. At km 57, the road makes a big sweeping right turn and a small single track trail leads up a drainage for about 1km to the hut. It could be easy to miss if you aren't paying attention!

Ripping up the Silent Pass access road maintained by Sled Golden

Black Rock Mountain Biking

14 km return
990m elevation gain
3hr 15mins

Black Rock Mountain in the Ghost Wilderness Area has a 7km hiking trail right to the top, most of which you can pedal up. It climbs from the river valley up a double track road which narrows to a single track up through the forest. About halfway up, you gain a ridge and follow the alpine trail up through a rocky notch to a meadow. The final approach climbs a steep scree slope with lots of switchbacks before finally topping out at an old fire lookout. We came prepared for a big alpine day and were ready for the inevitable hike-a-bike that this route would require.

Heading out of the river valley

Party Lap on Seven Summits

Distance: 39km

Elevation: 1075m

Time: 7h25m

Some of the first views and a good spot to rest

Sol Mountain Magic

After thawing out in Vernon following our chilly pedal on Beowulf, we made our way back to Revelstoke and south down the west shore of Upper Arrow Lake. Just before the Shelter Bay ferry terminal, we took a right onto the Shelter Bay FSR, heading for Sol Mountain Lodge. We have friends who love this place in the winter and Kyle had discovered some cool trails up there while browsing trailforks. In our effort to get off the beaten path and explore some new zones, it seemed like a perfect destination.

Arrow Lakes, looking south

Beowulf - Overrated "Epic"

Beowulf IMBA Epic 

Silver Star, BC

900m elevation

35km

The start of the trail

Since the early days of my relationship with Kyle, we have been opportunistically ticking off IMBA Epic rides, bike trails designated by the IMBA as immersive rides that are "technically and physically challenging, beautiful to behold and worthy of celebration." The list is updated every few years with new trails being added and other trails falling off. To date, we have ridden 5 of the current or past Epics including Comfortably Numb (no longer an epic), Waldo Lake, Seven Summits, Mountain Hero, Warner Lake, and a section of the Black Canyon Trail. A new trail was added to the list of Canadian trails recently, so with a week off and bikes in tow, we started our September BC bike road trip with a hurricane drive to Vernon to tick it off the list.